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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

SIC TRANSIT THE ANDRIYIVSKY UZVIZ WE KNEW? Inflation makes its own rules in the art mart

13 November, 2012 - 00:00
Photo by Oleksiy STASENKO,The Day

All this could simply disappear soon. The small pictures and big canvases that we are used to seeing could be lost. And one starts to feel sorry not as much about those pieces of art as about their unshaved, extremely poetic, and thin creators, windblown but still standing. They look with sorrow at the foreign exchange kiosks, at those well-fed studs hanging around them, and mutter once in a while in an absolutely non-artistic way: “what a bastard!”

The first indications of the upcoming crisis of the genre, of Andriyivsky uzviz, became visible in the street two years ago. As a prelude to the current inflation, foreigners disappeared first. Not all, of course. However, our acquired status of one of the most corrupt European countries with constantly rising crime has not augmented Ukraine’s popularity. In this regard the number of tourists coming to Ukraine has substantially decreased. Thus, Andriyivsky uzviz started gradually to transform itself into a commercial zone. It was at that time when the city administration started to pay more attention to Kyiv’s Arbat. Do you remember the tax administration finding fault with the artists over trifles or OMON special police marching past an exhibition that stretching up to Khreshchatyk? Now the situation has somehow changed. One can hardly find specialized salons on the uzviz and artist studios have been replaced by pop-art galleries, numeral boutiques, and bars. This is, as the artists say, because Kyiv is more expensive than New York, and renting a studio would make a 500 buck dent in the artist’s less than capacious pocket.

And to make the things worse inflation has come. It has led trepidant foreigners to give up the idea of buying Ukrainian souvenirs (who knows why, but they unanimously think that Russian matrioshkas are in this category).

However, everybody manages to survive the situation in his own way. Private galleries, for instance, have shut down the section selling the wares of various firms and await the hryvnia’s stabilization. The artists in the galleries have stood so far while the streets Raphaels have lost hope of buyers no matter how low the prices. At the same time matrioshka-vendors have raised their prices to keep up with the dollar. The rest play a waiting game. If the rate jumps other 20-30 points, Andriyivsky uzviz will experience another price rise and, as a result, oblivion.

Uzviz’s inhabitants pessimistically foresee that their street is likely to become just a regular small back-street in five years. With expensive stores and the same tenacious of life matrioshka-vendors. And only the matrioshkas, those ancient symbols of a culture that is not ours, will remain.

 

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