After several weeks in the provinces, the Cultural Heroes Festival has finally reached Kyiv. The organizers (Inter TV, the Association of Ukrainian Art Galleries, and Association of Modern Artists) entrusted noted art critics and members of its board of experts to announce its opening at the capital. The opening ceremony took part at the Cinematographers’ House.
This cultural heroic expansion spanned out in four directions. The dominant and most representative one is holding modern exhibits with a full assortment of genres: gallery and open-air expositions, installations, video art contrivances, “conventional” photo and art exhibits. Here the Objective Subconscious Project at the Marat Helman Gallery (a collection of Odesa experimenters) and BIBIkov Boulevard (a composite exposition involving reputed Kyiv art provocateurs) deserve special notice.
The musical segment left something to be desired, as the emphasis was unfortunately on lightweight genres akin to mass culture. Those fond of the academic avant-garde had an opportunity to enjoy just one concert by Lviv’s Cluster group at the House of Scholars on March 14. The program included rarely performed modern compositions – and true heroes at that – by Valentyn Sylvestrov, Serhiy Zazhytko, Bohdan Kryvopust, and Ivan Nebesny. Every day of the festival ended in jazz and rock concerts, every time in a new place, like Shelter and 44 Clubs or at the concert hall of the Composers’ Union.
The theatrical part, in turn, was reduced to a single venue, the Dakh (Roof) Modern Art Center. Of the variety of studio renditions one ought to mention Marko the Accursed or an Oriental Legend staged by the renowned Les Kurbas Theater of Lviv; Dmytro Merezhkovsky’s Paul I by the student Theater-19 (Kharkiv), and Dakh’s folk music project, In Search of Time Lost twice nominated for the Kyiv Pectoral Prize.
The literary section was represented on a humbler scale and obviously composed on a geographical basis. The Hardaryka Ukrainian poetry soiree was held at the House of Scientists; Odesa recitals at the Helman gallery; and Ukraine’s Russian-speaking writers once again tried to make their names at the Actor’s Home.
