Oleksandr Sokolovsky, cofounder of the Ukrainian Fashion Week (UFW), has hit upon an idea to embellish Kyiv’s green expanses. Now, owing to the efforts of the project author and the Ukrainian Fashion Week team, the capital’s parks will be full of works by well-known Ukrainian sculptors, as well as benches designed by this country’s top specialists.
“There are parks of this kind in many countries in Europe and in the US,” Sokolovsky says. “I have been to many European cities and seen very interesting installations and sculptures in the streets and parks. So it became clear to me that we must not wait for somebody to come and do something of the sort in this country. Many must have been asking themselves why we do not have this and why nobody is willing to do or fund this. We must rise up and do it ourselves! Moreover, we have potential because many have hit upon this kind of ideas. But I don’t think any idea is worthwhile unless it is implemented. So our goal is to carry out this project and show a first positive example to other Ukrainian cities. I think such projects will sooner or later be of interest for enthusiasts concerned with the problem of creating more comfortable conditions for the residents and guests of Kyiv.”
The project will be funded by art patrons without any state money involved. A preview of Kiev Fashion Park items is now underway as part of the Grand Sculpture Salon at Mystetsky arsenal. On March 12 the same site will host a charity auction, where the Kiev Fashion Park project items will be offered for sale. Then the art objects will be gifted to the city and installed in prearranged places in Kyiv’s parks. The plaques affixed to the objects will show information about the authors and art patrons. Besides, after covering the project’s costs, the UFW will channel the remaining money to charities.
Sculptor Kostiantyn Skretutsky, well known to Kyivans for many of his street compositions (A Little Hedgehog in the Fog, A Flying Cow, baby-animal-shaped benches), will please the public with another endearing bench — this time shaped like a watermelon. “I like the idea of Kiev Fashion Park because it is perhaps unprecedented in our Ukrainian reality: artists exhibit their works at an auction and the well-to-do buy these works and put them up not at their dachas but in the city that enabled them to earn their wealth. It is gratitude of sorts to the place that allowed one to settle, live, and develop. Incidentally, there are a lot of poorly-furnished places in Kyiv,” Skretutsky says.
One more project participant, sculptor Nazar Bilyk, who exhibited a composition titled Rain, thus explained his idea of the project’s goals: “In my view, the park’s concept does mean to put a concrete idea across: Kiev Fashion Park is an attempt to gather the diverse and interesting ideas of Ukrainian sculptors and designers, and to establish a place where manifold objects may stand next to each other. Every Kiev Fashion Park sculpture is an opportunity to reflect on the author’s fictional plot. It is an honor for every sculptor to adorn the city with their works.”
All the sketches and finished works were discussed and approved by the organizing committee that comprised, in addition to Sokolovsky, Serhii Tselovalnyk, the chief architect of Kyiv; Svitlana Zorina, chief of the Main Directorate of Culture and Arts at the Kyiv City Administration; Natalia Zabolotna, director of the National Museum Complex of Mystetsky arsenal; and the well-known art researcher Oleksandr Soloviov.
“As for the selection criteria, we had no reviews or competitions. There were consultations with prominent art researchers, very interesting contacts, and an immersion into this theme. The authors whose sketches produced the best impressions became participants in the first stage of Kiev Fashion Park, which is to be held in late May 2011 on Landscape Alley,” Sokolovsky stressed.
The Kyiv City Administration supported the project. The venues of Kiev Fashion Park — Landscape Alley, Volodymyr’s Hill, and Taras Shevchenko Park — have already been approved by the local authorities. “We have been negotiating the implementation of this project for about three years. Today, Kyiv officials are out to meet us halfway, for they really wish Kyiv to be better,” Sokolovsky says.
The UFW’s idea is, undoubtedly, good and deserves every praise. But one should not overdo it because there are too many eyesores in the capital already. What do the Kiev Fashion Park project participants think of this?
“Any initiative to change Kyiv’s face, especially in its historical areas, should be thought over 7 or even 20 times: where and what is to be installed, and what is to be changed so that the new ideas fit in naturally with the city’s historical heritage. We can often see profit-seekers encroach on symbolic objects in symbolic places, which arouses indignation in not only specialists but also ordinary Kyivans.
“Incidentally, there is also a danger involving urban sculptures. The works themselves may be very good, flawless, and interesting, but much depends on the layout concept — to what extent do they successfully complement their location. The organizers and architects — all those who decide on where the sculpture will be placed — have to shoulder this serious responsibility. Sometimes the poor quality of an object, monument or sculpture may be offset by its good location. Conversely, even a work of genius will almost certainly lose out if it has been placed thoughtlessly somewhere in the city. And when the former overlaps the latter, it is the worst thing possible,” Bilyk muses.
Skretutsky is sure that even a small effort can improve, at least a little, the situation: “Of course, I don’t like mindless, plate glass high-rise eyesores in Kyiv’s historical areas. I can express my opinion one way or another, but, unfortunately, I cannot stop the disfigurement of our city on my own. So I am trying to do at least what I am capable of. I ardently support the preservation of Kyiv’s history and the creation of new, small sculptures that attract tourists, and I vote wholeheartedly for this kind of development of the capital’s image.”
Designer Lilia Litkovska: “The European way — restoration and all-round preservation of a city’s history — requires investments, but, unfortunately, this is not our method. The chief motive here is to grab as much and as quickly as possible. Examples abound. Historical buildings and architectural monuments are being reduced to an ‘emergency condition’ and relentlessly torn down, parks are being built over, and concrete structures are mushrooming all around. But in this country even high-rise buildings are erected at landslide-prone places, and, by all accounts, everybody is indifferent to the protests of architects and the public.”
Naturally, Kiev Fashion Park will not turn the capital into a fabulous city overnight, but those involved in this project are on the right track. And if the people who think right also carry out the right projects, perhaps not everything is lost.
