Monuments and their messages

The sculptor Ihor HRECHANYK, whose name is well-known in many countries of the world, is called an ambassador of Ukrainian culture. His works are exhibited at the permanent display of Galerie Alexander Raeber in Zurich, Galerie Michelle Boulet in Paris, Fantastic Art Center in Denmark, and in Kyiv Princess Gallery in Nice. The master’s works were included in international catalogues of the best contemporary world artists in 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Hrechanyk is the author of a great number of monuments to our national heroes that were set up abroad, in particular the Shevchenko monuments in Sofia and Baku, stelae to Ukrainian soldiers who died in the liberation battle of Bulgarian city Plevna, the stela commemorating the UNR’s first diplomatic mission in the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan in 1919–1920. He is also the author of the designs for the Ivan Franko monument in Rome and a monument commemorating victims of the 1932–1933 Holodomor in Ukraine in Washington.

The design for the latter monument was recently presented at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington and in the Ukrainian Museum in New York. The exhibitions took place thanks to the support from the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States and namely of the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States Oleh Shamshur. President Viktor Yushchenko, his wife Kateryna Yushchenko, Senator Richard Lugar, American astronaut Heidemarie Martha Stefanyshyn-Piper, and numerous members of the Ukrainian community in the US attended the opening ceremony.

“The Ukrainian Museum in New York makes a great impression,” Ihor Hrechanyk told The Day. “It now occupies a new modern and impressive building. With 30,000 of its exhibits, the museum used to be squeezed up in the building of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. The Ukrainian diaspora in the US is obviously one of the most active and most powerful diasporas. The Ukrainian Museum, the Ukrainian Cultural Center, the Ukrainian Institute of America, where the works by Oleksandr Arkhypenko, Oleksii Hryshchenko, Hryhorii Kruk, and others are stored, are all located in the center of Manhattan. It should be noted that it is quite difficult and expensive to build such institutions in the center of New York. In a word, Ukrainian Americans are building up their own Ukraine in emigration.”

Recently the band Haydamaky returned from a concert tour in Canada and said that there is more Ukraine in Toronto than in Kyiv.

“One does indeed get such impression. However, there is more Ukraine here. We simply see it from the inside, so we don’t have such an acute perception of things as do those who are far away from their motherland. The contemporary period in Ukraine’s history is a very complicated one, and there are many more hardships ahead, but these are still interesting times.

“In 1994 through 2004, as a Ukrainian, I felt I was on the wayside of life. I would buy CDs with Ukrainian music and books by contemporary Ukrainian writers. I would take them along and go see people. I would give them the books as gifts and play the CDs for them. In other words, I tried to create a milieu for myself as if in emigration. Now the situation is different.

“Until recently we knew very little about the 1932–1933 Holodomor, one of the biggest national tragedies. While working on this topic, I got an idea for a monument which would symbolize a prayer offered by the dead for the living. The monument will be shaped like hands stretching upward from the ground. Between the hands there will be stairs that can be climbed to light a candle. As is known, in the Christian culture the living pray for the dead, while the dead pray for the living. This monument will be located near downtown Washington, and the Capitol Hill will be seen from the site. This wonderful land plot has already been provided.”

Where do you get the inspiration to create sculptures with the Ukrainian spirit?

“It all comes from our history and mythology. Ukrainian mythology is closely connected with Slavic mythology, which is nearly forgotten now. Once a dove sat on my windowsill. It swung its wings and flew away. Its wings hit the window and the down and the dust left a contour. This was something fantastic! A similar kind of imprint is left of Ukrainian mythology: names of gods, their sphere of influence and responsibility, etc. But this is not enough. That is why on the basis of the already known things I am creating something new, or so it seems.

“Carlos Castaneda once wrote that if there is something that happened in the world and is of a great interest to you, you have to concentrate on it and you will see it. I try to do so. I also hope that archeologists will find more things. Unfortunately, the ‘researches’ sent by Catherine II did their job before we had a chance. They found a lot and destroyed a lot.

“I am Ukrainian. However, until some point in the past I considered myself to be a cosmopolitan artist. It was like that before I went to France, Holland, and other countries. Suddenly I realized that no other foreign sculptor can draw a line the way I do. The line is individually mine, but, at the same time, it is precisely a Ukrainian line. I live in this land. Its original culture and unique energy are accumulated in me. In my opinion, it is important that in the work of any artist it would be possible to see the features characteristic of his nation. In our globalized world some unique and inimitable things are highly valued.”

What messages should monuments convey?

“They have to appeal to problems facing a modern person. This way it will not be simply a case of archiving traditions, which is, nonetheless, also important. The modern world is overloaded with information, and so a sculpture should accumulate the most important information. For example, when I was working on the Shevchenko monument, which is now set up in Baku, I was thinking about the fact that when he was 24, he was redeemed from serfdom, and when he was 26, his Kobzar was published. Shevchenko most likely did not write his incredible poems in just two years. He must have worked on them for a long time. What I want to emphasize here that his genius was obvious when he was still young.

“Another example is my design for the Franko monument, which will be erected in Rome. Franko had been there. He visited San Pietro in Vincoli, a basilica with the tomb of Pope Julius II. He was greatly impressed by Michelangelo’s statue of Moses there. Within six months after this he wrote his outstanding work Moses. That is why I showed Franko as if he was Moses, holding the tables with the commandments.

“The search for our own Moses has been for a long time a vital issue for Ukrainians. Our great problem is that we did not have a state of our own for a long time. We were always looking for a strong ally, which, according to Niccolo Machiavelli, becomes worse than an enemy. Many times it has been the case in our history.

“I am also working on the Ivan Mazepa monument. It will be erected in Kyiv Mohyla Academy. [The monument shows him] emerging from a wall of the Brotherhood Building, whose construction Mazepa financed. Today, when the mass media are bringing to the fore mostly dwarfs of politicians and pseudo-heroes, we need to talk about men of truly noble spirit.”