“Isolation.” Rebirth
Foundation joined the Rebirth Day initiative which will be held on December 21 in many of the world’s cultural institutions
For three days from December 21 until 23 the territory of the old factory shop “Isolation” will turn into a fairy fair “Samovar.” This event will be one of the world’s initiatives dedicated to rebirth.
“If there is an end, there must be a beginning, revival. The idea of the Rebirth Day belongs to Michelangelo Pistoletto. The goal of the project is to review all the values that are emerging in our society today. We are facing a crisis in many spheres and it is time to review this background on which we build our relationship with the environment. Therefore, the starting point of our event will be recycling. Decorations for our fair, music bar, tables for masters, the New Year’s tree, and other things we make out of old unwanted things, out of scrap metal, etc. It’s all is a part of the Rebirth Day concept. Although, in fact, it all happened by an accident. We were working on a fair already and at the time when the idea of our event finally shaped out we found out that there is such an initiative. Therefore, our fair will also be a part of the global event Rebirth Day,” said Olha YEFIMOVA, PR manager of the Foundation “Isolation. Platform for Cultural Initiatives.”
Factory unit, which was the place for exhibiting the photographs of the “Partly Cloudy” project will be divided into two parts: technical and fairy-like. More than 30 artists of different kinds of art from embroidery to pottery will work in the technical section. In this section there will also play percussionists. This will be the place where an unusual New Year’s tree will be installed. It will be made of non-functional tube TV sets. There will also be a real wood-burning stove. Artists and craftsmen will also be working in the other section, however, their work will be more refined and sophisticated. In this section there will be an enchanted forest that will grow upside down. Another object of the enchanted woods will be a “tempest in a tea pot” – it will be a huge cube inside of which there will be snow foam whirling around. Residents of the magical forest will be animals drawn by children of one of the schools in Donetsk.
“We want to revive our enchanted woods with animals. That’s why we went to a school and asked the fourth-graders to draw animals, which could become residents of our waste heap. There were no other limits. We did not ask them to draw bunnies and squirrels. It was a great surprise for us to see their drawings. The residents of our fairy woods will be dinosaurs, unicorns, Pegasus, space bunnies, etc. Images will be animated and the projections will be directed on the New Year’s tree and on the fairy woods. We plan to invite children so that they would be able to see their work and the way it will look in our project,” said Yefimova.
The project will also involve masters of different arts from Donetsk. They will present the hand-made items. All materials are environmentally friendly. “People who organize such exhibitions were a great help in the process of preparation of this fair. They suggested artists to us and spread the information. There were more artists who wanted to participate in this project than we could afford to have. That’s why we decided to invite masters of different genres. We will have glass blowers, potters, blacksmiths, masters of bobbin lace, embroidery, masters of weaving, etc. For me it was very important and joyful that some of them are older people. The thing is that our average visitor is a young person, mostly students. And here you will meet a completely different category of people,” told Yefimova.
To the surprise of the organizers, people outside Donetsk do not know about the fact that there are certain types of crafts present in the region. The problem is that there is not enough communication between artists and consumers, while the crafts could be a good tourist attraction. Only a few people know about the work of the craftsmen…
Fifteen people are working on the technical part of the exhibition. They are responsible for the creation of the scenery: forest, trees, work space for the craftsmen, etc. Yaroslav POVZLO from art-production told us that the culmination of the fair will be the performance of the percussionists on the huge label IZO, which will be made from a pile of scrap metal. About two tons of litter and scrap metal were used for the project.
“For ‘Isolation’ locality, that is, work with local realities, local craftsmen are always important. We wanted to do something that would allow us to celebrate the up-coming New Year and at the same time to show the gifted artists from our region. That is why we decided to conduct a fair and sale of unique art works made by craftsmen and make an installation from ‘Isolation’ to create the atmosphere more familiar to our visitors,” said Yefimova.
Illustrations courtesy of the Foundation “Isolation. Platform for Cultural Initiatives”
The Day’s FACT FILE
The initiator of Rebirth, which will be held for the first time this year, was an Italian painter, one of the leaders of the “arte povera” (poor art) movement Michelangelo Pistoletto (born in 1933). In his concept of the Rebirth Day he suggests: do something for the world, do something for those who are dear to you, do something together with your friends for those dear to others, revive the world together with people you love. Rebirth Day is a global day of volunteering. All good things should be done for free for the people living around you and for the environment. With free gifts the world will be reborn. Trust builds trust and good builds good. If people begin to change the world starting from themselves and by helping others, the world will change.
