It is good to have an alternative, several options to choose from. Last Saturday, on May 26, the Kyivites had a possibility for an alternative celebration of Kyiv’s anniversary in Hostynny Dvir. There was not a gala-concert, or draught beer, or fireworks there. Instead, there were an express excursion in Hostynny Dvir, a picnic, sport games in the open air, live music, and a master class for creating decorations out of plastic bottles.
The place to celebrate the “Alternative Kyiv Day” was chosen deliberately. Hostynny Dvir is gradually turning into another victim of the barbarian building in the city. The Public Library (The National Zabolotny Architectural Library), Theater in Podil, society for protection of monuments and cult pubs and cafes in Hostynny Dvir will shortly turn into another business-center. It all started last summer when on August 15, 2011 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine removed Hostynny Dvir from the list of architectural monuments. On April 26, 2012 the deputies of the Kyiv City Council decided to “reconstruct” the building for another mall that will belong to the offshore company Afidreko Holdings owned by the people from the president’s environment. The history of the building is not just rich but amazingly unique. In the 17th century Hostynny Dvir already looked like a rectangular square, surrounded by stone and wooden buildings connected by covered arcades. Slightly more than a hundred years later it turned into a pearl of classicism. It was redesigned as a closed rectangle with open arcades and colons. The unsurpassed master who left in Kyiv many classical works, Andrii Melensky, had a hand in it.
“The cynicism of this situation is that Hostynny Dvir really needs to be reconstructed. However, the real name for the reconstruction planned today is corruption and illegal privatization, neglecting public opinion and ruining the live matter of the city,” Nadia PARFAN, editor of the Ukrainian version of Politychna Krytyka magazine, activist of the Feminist Offensive, and organizer of the action believes. “We need the reconstruction that will leave space for communication and rest, art events and instructive grounds, cycle lanes, green zones, and free movement for children and people with limited abilities.”
That is why it is no coincidence that the slogan of the alternative Kyiv Day was “We do not need fireworks and celebration squandering once a year, what we need is the comfortable city every day.”
