“Lenkoms should be born here”

This year’s GogolFest – an especially unexpected and pleasant holiday, is taking place from September 21 through 29. Even the director of the festival and its inspirer Vladyslav Troitsky could not believe until the last moment that the festival will take place. At the same time, GogolFest could be easily called a manifest of freedom of choice and implementation of ideas, regardless of external situation, which, to put it mildly, did not play into the hands of the organizers. But, despite the total lack of funding from the state they still found a way to please the fans of art and arrange the appropriate setting at the plant in the industrial zone near the metro station Vydubychi. If you look closely at the fact that industrial areas become theater venues, it is easy to imagine what could be the next step. It could lead to the development of the sites that were semi-abandoned before. After all, people who promote art, literally breathe life into these places with their work. At one time, many cultural capitals in the world developed in such a way. For example, at the place of the most fashionable and luxurious district in New York – TriBeCa, famous also for the work of modern architects, there was a butchers’ market. There are many examples of this kind, but it is important that the Ukrainian owners of the plant are in first place interested in the transformation of the industrial zone into an entertainment and educational center. According to Troitsky, during the preparations they developed mutual liking. Most likely, it would be impossible to open the festival in the “hand-made” format, and this will be the motto of the GogolFest-2012, if it was not for the caring owners of the premises.

The festival began very symbolically. It was opened by a French young lady Lisa, who wanted to be a volunteer and as a result ended up as an aspiring young actress. She read the manifest Time for Outrage! written by Stephane Hessel, human right activist and one of the authors of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

During the press tour, where the journalists could see only a small part of the unique world of the GogolFest, she recited the famous essay with incredible expression and genuine empathy so that nobody could stay indifferent: “Let’s watch closely. Indifference: the worst of attitudes. To those who will make the 21st century, we say with our affection: to create is to resist; to resist is to create.” At the end Lisa adds from herself: “The fact that we will have GogolFest this year is already resistance with great energy of talented people, who create something huge and significant. This will give us faith in ourselves. Then we will be able to say without fanaticism but with pride: Glory to Ukraine!”

The program of the festival includes several venues: theater, music, cinema, visual art, cultural center LabCombinat, and master classes. We will not list all the cultural projects that will be presented at these sites because the program is available on the festival’s website. We would only mention the most interesting events. During master classes Troitsky will talk about scenography and stage directing, photographer from Kyiv Ihor Haidai will present author’s projects in photographs, and Ihor Lysov will tell those who’ll come to his master class about the secret of Chekhov’s pauses. Performance School of Non-theatrical Art will be presented on the theater stage. It was staged especially for the festival and will be performed only twice. One of its ideas is very suitable for the method of realization of the festival – deep in each one of us there is hidden huge creative power, which can be easily lost if we would not use it. This is not only an inspirational phrase from a play not yet staged, but also a secret appeal to everyone.

Cinema venue will be open every day in non-stop format from 2 p.m. People will be able to watch films George Harrison: Living in the Material World by Martin Scorsese, Heart’s Boomerang by Nikolay Khomeriki, Kross (A Country Race) by Maryna Vroda, as well as many others worth attention.

“We have a very special cinema – here art will take place in real time,” said the coordinator of the cinema site Maksym Demsky. “Everyone will be able to create something and leave something behind. We tried to synthesize films with theater and music. After all, modern art is primarily a mix. Since GogolFest is a contemporary art festival we prepared the appropriate program. Every day is planned according to the rules of drama. Therefore, if the visitor came in time for the beginning and stayed till the end s/he, in theory, should experience catharsis.”

The music venue should be especially warm and interesting. There will be important premieres. On September 26 there will be the presentation of the project of one of the most famous composers in our country Viktoria Poliova together with Natalia Polovynka Thought on Death or 18 Songs for a Singing Actor. The program of new music to be presented on music site includes contemporary classical music. It is not necessarily for musicologist, not necessarily hard, it can also be delicate and beautiful. On the night of September 26 there will be the Night of Sleepy Music – a little meditation project at midnight where people will be able to enjoy music sitting on mats. It will be interesting to see the performance of the pianist from Singapore Leng Tan, who will be playing the toy piano. A unique event, the Musical Circus, will also take place there. This way of performing music, where several musicians lay different pieces simultaneously, was invented by American composer and inventor John Cage. During the performance the emphasis will be made on each musician at different time. Despite the fact that the performance will be dedicated to John Cage, musicians will play music of Ukrainian composers.

For those, who want to experience the atmosphere from the inside, the organizers came up with the following: anyone who has a long black coat, can become an actor and participate in a production at the opening. You should only come to a rehearsal before the event. Almost all events of the festival are free. This year’s GogolFest is unique in that almost all the people who work here are volunteers. Perhaps, this adds friendliness and warmth to the festival to a greater extent that it may be at other similar events.