Cult of Cultural Heroism

Inter, one of the most popular Ukrainian television channels, the Association of Art Galleries of Ukraine, and the Association of Modern Arts launched a new large-scale project under the loud title of Cultural Heroes. When implemented, the project will be a series of modern art festivals held in seven big Ukrainian cities, meant to “represent the cultural life of Ukraine as a whole.” The cities fortunate enough to partake of cultural heroism are Kharkiv, Odesa, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Kyiv, of course. The project is to be carried out in two stages: regional festivals on March 13-17 and a capital finale. The participants will be determined by the project nominators, noted cultural figures from the participating cities. The jury will be presided over by Oleksandr Zinchenko and each of its directions will have its board of experts and chairman: Oleksandr Soloviov (fine arts), Serhiy Vasyliev (theater), Ihor Lapynsky (literature), Serhiy Zhdanov, and Yulian Zarembovsky (Music). Mr. Zinchenko says the new project was launched because “the well-known domestic festivals have long become shows” and that the “new Ukrainian art, free from clichОs, pseudo-ideological strata, politically unaffiliated, without complexes, free and beautiful” is still in need of proper publicity. Thus “appeared the idea of a festival of modern culture, which could show a section of the existing urban culture in its daily reality: gallery expositions, performances by young drama groups, music club soirees and nights, literary readings, and presentations of new publications – all that with which modern Ukraine lives.” Mr. Zinchenko also said, “People won’t be competing but will communicate, sharing their positions in life.”

Objectivity is the project’s watchword. The organizers claim, “Cultural heroes are people who, despite the absence of regular financial support of culture by the state, continue their daily creative quest, writing music and verse, staging plays, painting pictures, and producing video films.” The project will be summed up in a catalogue and a documentary. The winners are anticipated in Kyiv.