Daryna sells souvenirs at the Andriivsky Uzviz. On her stand she has souvenirs to fit every taste and pocket: magnets and embroidered shirts, matryoshkas and Soviet-time ushankas [fur cap with ear flaps. – Ed.]. The woman told us that today more and more people are getting interested in ethnical, purely Ukrainian souvenirs: embroidered towels and shirts, and ceramics, however, matryoshkas and Soviet-time things are still in fashion. “Foreigners often buy something with the Soviet symbols and still associate us with that time,” the woman explained. One more souvenir seller named Oleksandr has been working at uzviz for 15 years now. He told us that over this period of time customers’ tastes have not changed that much: they have only become more demanding towards the quality of goods. “They equally buy painted eggs, matryoshkas, and Soviet-time things,” Oleksandr explained. Interestingly, the major part of matryoshkas on his stand has been made in Ukraine. “We also have small Russian ones, but we never accept Chinese matryoshkas for sale because of their poor quality,” the seller explained. Today the situation at the Ukrainian souvenirs market is paradoxical: despite the fact that there are a lot of talented artists in Ukraine, customers are offered goods of dubious quality and origin. Essential is that the Ukrainians actively buy them.
One of the arguments, by the way, a fair one, is the low cost of those slipshod souvenirs as compared to the works of authorship. However, numerous examples prove that the money is not the decisive factor when choosing a souvenir; one’s aesthetic taste, artistic intuition, and awareness of one’s country and its history have to work (or not to work) as well. If we do not have it, foreign guests receive dubious products hardly related to Ukraine. By the way, the governing bodies do not always pay due attention when choosing souvenirs for foreign delegations and guests which is regrettable. The Ukrainian art critic, scientist at the department of decorative art at the Maksym Rylsky Institute of Art Criticism, Folklore Studies, and Ethnology at the Academy of Science of Ukraine, president of the Ukrainian Section at the International Association of Art Critics AICA under the aegis of UNESCO Zoia CHEHUSOVA explained that “souvenir is our country’s trademark and our face.”
“We should boycott this kitsch since it has filled the Andriivsky Uzviz and shops. For some reason there is a popular belief that decorative and applied arts are amateur. However, this is the art of professional ceramists, textile workers, and glass artists,” the art critic assured. Chehusova easily explained the popularity of kitsch and law-quality souvenirs: “The reason for this is the lack of proper aesthetic education, fashion for Ukrainian things, and feeling of the national pride. And, probably, we do not have any souvenir culture.”
So, the issue of the kitsch, deeply rooted in the souvenir market, and the need for the new aesthetics, gradually reveal much deeper social problems: lack of understanding of the Ukrainian history and art, lack of pride for the Ukrainian things and fashion for them. People can shape their aesthetic taste and develop the sense of beauty, but they do not want to. “Nobody educates people. The art is not respected. There is no state policy. Museum of decorative arts is not respected either, there are not many visitors in it. However, various exhibits of decorative and applied arts educate people’s taste. When people see beautiful things they realize what kitsch is and what art is. They need to have something to compare with,” Chehusova explained. According to her, “people who have practiced their eye on beauty will never buy ‘that zany kitsch’ we should say goodbye to.”
“It seems to me that people who make souvenirs know about Ukraine the least of all. ‘Ukrainian souvenirs’ are often made in China. It is terrible. Anyone can do anything and call it a Ukrainian souvenir,” Volodymyr BALYBERDIN, head of the Section of Decorative and Applied Arts at the Kyiv Organization of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, famous jeweler told The Day. In his opinion, the reason for this is that people cannot “value anything Ukrainian.” “We have to be proud of our country. It is the best contribution one can make to Ukraine’s development: feeling a Ukrainian and being proud of this,” Balyberdin explained.
In 2009 Kateryna Kachur and Bohdan Hdal launched the Internet-project called “Rukotvory” dedicated to the folk art. It was a journalists’ initiative aiming at filling in the informational vacuum in the sphere of the folk art. There are nearly 200 profiles of folk artists and their contacts as well as photos of various works. “We need the informational propaganda of good works of folk art. Only few people, interested in this sphere know about them. What are we talking about if even in Kyiv there are only few shops selling relatively good works, however, even those who know much about this sphere cannot always find them,” Hdal explained. In his opinion, works of authorship are more expensive and less accessible, than the mass ones, but “the invisible aesthetic and energetic value of those things are much higher than those of the things brought from China or made for commercial purposes.” “Even a simple magnet can be made with understanding of symbols and traditions, with taste,” Hdal opines.
However, working for the souvenir market is unprofitable for artists; it is expensive, time-consuming and difficult to sell. “Lately I have noticed that people are getting more interested in handicraft: winded dolls and painted eggs, but there is no place where to sell them,” Natalia BORYSENKO, director of the art studio “Art Workshop,” applied artist, member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, explained. According to the director of the Kyiv factory “Souvenir” Oksana SHEVCHENKO, “shop owners find it more profitable selling cheap sundries or expensive things but not the Ukrainian souvenirs.” Balyberdin supported this thesis. “Souvenir shops are filled with mass-produced items. It is just impossible to find anything presenting Ukraine among them. There are brighter and cheaper souvenirs blocking the ones that could present Ukraine. It is difficult to choose and orient even if such souvenirs exist,” the jeweler says.
However, no matter what, the production of purely Ukrainian souvenirs is slowly developing, it just needs to be made fashionable and demanded. “We have always had very rich souvenirs: homespun blankets, painted eggs, carved wood, black ceramics, etc. Our applied arts are very strong, I think people would buy the works of art with pleasure,” Borysenko assures. Both Hdal and Balyberdin mentioned painted eggs as possible souvenirs. “Painted eggs are purely Ukrainian souvenirs that have adopted the religious and historical popular context and have existed for many years now. It is possible to make Ukrainian souvenirs based on the Petrykivka painting, weaving or glass blowing. There are a lot of examples we can be proud of,” Balyberdin summed up. Chehusova sees the real possibility how to make works of authorship mass and accessible: the state should order them from art universities.
P.S. During the opening the new premises of the US embassy in Ukraine, head of the Kyiv City State Administration Oleksandr Popov gave the US Ambassador to Ukraine John Tefft an unexpected work of decorative and applied arts – a talisman broom. Meanwhile, the works of many talented artists were left unattended.
By Maria SEMENCHENKO, The Day
