Ukrainian identity in letters

On September 19 through 21 the Fourth International Festival of Calligraphy and Printing “Rutenia” took place in Kyiv-based Mykhailo Boichuk State Institute of Decorative-Applied Art and Design. The event united masters from Ukraine, France, Poland, Russia, Iran, Norway, African countries, etc. The motto of this year’s festival was “To send good news to those who live on the earth, to every nation, tribe, dialect, and people.” One of the founders of the festival, Oleksandr Mikula emphasized, “Not only do we have an exhibit of pictures. Our motto is to send good news via professionally written word, avant-garde letters.” At the festival there was an exhibit of posters, calligraphic compositions and logotypes – by its results the jury defined most original works; masters from various countries held lectures and master classes.

During the event the font designers and graphic artists discussed the creation of Ukrainian alphabet. The president of the Rutenia Festival, Professor Vasyl Chebanyk has been working on this project for a long time. “An alphabet is a symbol of statehood. You immediately recognize Georgian, Armenian, and Jewish writing. And we are still using the writing of other people, still ordering the alphabet from Moscow. The purpose of our festival was to attract many artists to the idea of creation of a Ukrainian alphabet, so that a visual part of Ukrainian language appeared. Because we only hear the Ukrainian language, but visually it is Russian,” Vasyl Chebanyk emphasized.

According to art historian Ihor Dudnyk, the Rutenia festival is a catalyst of the development of font art in Ukraine and is shaping the professional environment. Graphic designer Hennadii Zarechniuk adds, “Interesting young masters have finally started to appear in our country. In 2000, when I began to gather partisans, I thought that nobody except for me needed this. Now it is much easier, for the reason of development of technologies among other things.