There are over a hundred thousand monuments in Ukraine: 57,000 monuments of archeology, 16,000 monuments of architecture and city planning, 51,000 historical ones, and over 5,000 objects of monumental art. There are over four thousand monuments of national importance among them. However, as clever people say, there are no monuments of some importance, there are simply monuments. But who realizes it today, except for the small group of people connected with art? Every day Ukraine continues to lose its cultural heritage. In Kyiv’s Podil district the Kazansky mansion was furtively demolished during the New Year celebrations, and in Mala Zhytomyrska they are going to liquidate Murashko’s mansion. These are just recent examples of vandalism — so what can one say about the rest of Ukraine, about monuments of local importance? Important strategic enterprises in Ukraine were appropriated long ago, and it seems there is nothing left to privatize. However, it turns out there are still monuments of architecture, including some of local importance, and land plots to be allocated. Is it their turn? Artistic and cultural experts feel the past and borderline between beauty and ugliness, and are now worried. Restorers from the Research Institute Ukrproektrestavratsia know better than anyone about the ongoing loss of Ukraine’s cultural-historical heritage. Recently The Day visited this immensely experienced organization’s workshops to find out what the people who could revive our monuments are up to.
“WE GO HALF A YEAR WITHOUT WORK”
In Hostynny Dvir, in Kontraktova Square, where the research institute is located, there is a favorable atmosphere for inspired and thoughtful work, a feeling of silence and patience. The building was built in 1809, then it was ruined, and in the 1980s it was renewed based on the old design. This is a case when both the place and people working perfectly fit one another — like artists’ studios on Andriivsky uzviz (not that there are no attempts to encroach on the Hostynny Dvir, but it has somehow survived). Restorers from this institute have long participated in the restoration of the Andriivsky uzviz, the Mariinsky Palace, the Verkhovna Rada, the Supreme Court, the National Bank, the Lavra, and St. Sophia’s Cathedral — there is hardly an important object in the capital or elsewhere in Ukraine in the restoration of which the specialists of this institute were not involved. However, in recent years the situation in the studios, as the institute’s director Oleksandr Molozh points out, has been quite contrary to the peace and satisfaction which should characterize their occupation. The matter is that restorers don’t have any work of the kind that they would want and that Ukraine needs.
Molozh, who has dedicated almost 30 years to his institute, says that though this is a state institute, there are no orders from the state. The main specialty is restoration of monuments of architecture. In the Soviet time there were orders, even queues. Yet the previous year was really difficult for them: the institute didn’t work for half a year, for there were no orders and only at the end of the year did some work reappear — then people worked through their weekends. The same thing happened two years ago, too.
“The year 2009 was very difficult: we accomplished work for a total sum of up to six million hryvnias. In the previous year we had orders for 12 million hryvnias — owing to Andriivsky uzviz, Mystetsky arsenal, and the Mariinsky Palace. It is important not simply to provide work for us but for this work to continue, even if there is not much of it. Before the crisis we even had orders for 40 million. At that time we worked the whole year,” says Molozh.
The director remembers that in the past their institute had branches throughout Ukraine (Kharkiv, the Crimea, Sumy, Lviv), and 450 people worked in Kyiv alone. The Lviv branch has been working as a separate institute for many years already, but colleagues now say the situation is the same everywhere.
“OUR TASK IS TO BE INCONSPICUOUS”
There are enough specialists on restoration work. Young people come to work and experienced specialists stay at their places. It sometimes happens that those who previously left ask to be employed again. Molozh speaks about his colleagues’ work quirks, about the restorer’s special philosophy: “Not everyone can work here. For example, in building an architect wants to express himself — for everyone to say this was done by such and such architect. But our task is to be inconspicuous, so that no one can come and say that someone added something new from him. The task is to keep a low profile. But everyone who comes to us, stays with us.”
However, the institute’s activities continue. The restorer Volodymyr Kasianenko is one of those who “keeps a low profile” and does his job. We distracted him from his work. Together with his colleagues he is involved in the restoration of the Church of All Saints in the complex of the Kyiv Cave Monastery (he has worked on the Baturyn Fortress, the Khotyn Fortress, the Kyiv Cave Monastery and many other places). In his opinion, compared to other monuments, the Church of All Saints is very well preserved. But before speaking about his work, he first tells us about the peculiarities of a restorers’ work: “Unfortunately, our financing is too low. And this despite the fact that most monuments belong to the national heritage, and the state must take care of them, starting with a project elaboration, research and finishing with production works. Generally, our work begins when an object appears; we go there, explore and measure it. Simultaneously, our art critics look for it in the archives. Then based on this complex research we work on the object. Adaptation is mandatory because any monument should be as if it were alive. Adaptation depends on who rents or owns it.”
“THE HISTORICAL FOUNDATION IS RUINED”
Unfortunately, like his colleagues, Kasianenko is currently concerned with more than solely professional issues: today restorers are distracted from their work by the general situation of our country’s cultural heritage, and the government’s and people’s attitude to it.
“It’s very difficult for us to watch this. The historical foundation is ruined, the core which attracts not only us but also the cultural elite from around the world, to come and see the ‘mother of Rus’ towns,’” says Kasianenko.
He calls himself and his colleagues dreamers: one project may be over, but lots of work, which they would want to do, remains. All they need is money…
“In the Church of All Saints an iconostasis, made in the stylistics of architectural and icon craft of the 18th and 19th centuries, was preserved. Perhaps, the best examples of iconostasis belong to the 18th century. At that time an architectural carcass was built with a decorative ornament and then the icon was put in the frame. This iconostasis has several layers: it consists of parts which were brought from some other objects from the Kyiv Cave Monastery: the monks never threw anything away. And these gaps (he shows an iconostasis in the picture and ‘windows’ where icons were located in the past. – Author) are the result of vandalism or religious feuds. These icons were not preserved but we found a description of all subjects. And we have a possibility to renew the icon’s historical content. But this requires money,” the restorer ponders over prospects.
Kasianenko also speaks about this year’s official celebration of the anniversary of the Battle at Khotyn (1621) and his participation in renewing and restoring this famous, big fortress. (On the sketch board in his room there is a copy of the Khotyn Fortress: one can always tell what projects a given restorer is working on by what is lying around in their studios.)
“We ‘pulled up’ the fortress more or less, but all works are suspended for lack of financing. And the fortress is very important for tourism. Khotyn is the right bank of Dnister located between Chernivtsi and Kamianets-Podilsky. Many guests come from other countries. And even if the monument itself exists, but there is no infrastructure which would maintain it in a proper state, it won’t make sense,” the restorer sums up.
Earlier Kasianenko with his workshop did supervisory work in Chernihiv region, and worked with monasteries and temples. He is concerned that some of the clergy are not good at architecture and might do whatever they want. He says he once told an abbess: “You don’t rewrite the Holy Scripture in a new style for some reason, with its terms and interpretations. Why do you dare to redesign the architectural heritage based on your taste?” This is another problem for specialists, since in all Ukraine there remain many objects of local importance. And this “local importance” often can be interesting and original.
Molozh once dealt with the Vinnytsia region and says he visited each village on foot.
“We were making a kind of inventory: there was a palace or a temple in almost every village. I guess today, if they didn’t disappear altogether, there state has considerably deteriorate as palaces were usually used as warehouses and the like,” Molozh says.
Kasianenko shows a 20-year-old book, a volume from the four-volume edition Monuments of City Planning and Architecture of the Ukrainian SSR.
“It somehow happened that this edition got to a biennale in Paris. And this simple monochrome book, which couldn’t compete in printing quality with the editions represented there, got the grand prize. The main argument: the world community saw the scope of our past and that it still exists in Ukraine,” says Kasianenko with pride.
Restorer Petro Makarenko, who works in the next studio, joined the conversation. He is involved in work on Andriivsky uzviz. It seems he still has not been paid for last year’s work. The same problem: there is work if there is financing. “Mention Andriivsky uzviz in the article!” Makarenko asks.
PROSPECTS
It is clear what will happen if things go on this way.
“We hold planning meetings, discuss our problems in our circle and come to the conclusion that our prospects are not very comforting,” Molozh says. “With today’s approach nothing will be left soon. Something will disappear by itself, something will be destroyed. Only a few objects will remain, those known to everyone. Some time will pass, and what will we look at? What is built today is a ‘rehash’ of what was built 30 years ago, this happened in Europe as well. They have travelled down this path. Still it would be better if we had a Western attitude toward monuments.”
Director says they have already sent letters with proposals for cooperation to all regions, ministries and sponsors — they are ready for actual work. However, they have no contracts so far. Since March (Molozh already signed the order) the institute will work in the following mode: one workday per week. All workers are on minimal wage for the second year already.
It is sad to see talented and devoted people unemployed. In some way their work resembles the work of actors — dependent on whether or not a part appears, on the work of a director. Who should be their director in Ukraine, and distribute the roles accordingly? Restorers remember how they had to renovate the capital of Baturyn in one year! They say they were indignant because one shouldn’t do it so quickly, that’s the wrong approach. But now they say: if they had not done it so quickly, Baturyn would have no fortress at all. It is not the pace that matters at the end of The Day, but that our state keeps its cultural heritage.
