Art

The Bakhtov Couple. Preserving the Spirit of Olbia — an ancient archaeological site in Ukraine

More than twenty-five years ago, a family of artists, Volodymyr Bakhtov and Tetiana Bakhtova, moved from Luhansk to the village of Parutyne, near Olbia — a national historic archaeological preserve of an ancient Greek settlement. In their own backyard, they...

Who is Ivan Marchuk?

This is a story about one of Ukraine’s most famous contemporary artists — Ivan Marchuk, who has created thousands of works of art and invented his own technique — Pliontanism. Due to constant persecution from the KGB under the Soviet...

The Museum of Ideas: Culture, Glass and Refectory

The Museum of Ideas in Lviv has always been a place of origin for various initiatives: the festival of independent movies ‘KinoLev’, the first glass foundry workshop, a gallery, a refectory and even a fictitious republic began here. The Museum...

The Synagogue in Ostroh: Reconstruction of the ruins

One of the largest synagogues in Eastern Europe is located in Ostroh. It has been reconstructed for 20 years by a local, an ethnic Jew — Hryhorii Arshynov. Hryhorii is a professional builder who decided to save the historic monument....

The Return of the Wooden Toy

The tradition of creating toys has lived in Ukrainian culture from time immemorial. Clay, wood, fabric, straw, vine, dough — this is far from an exhaustive list of traditional Ukrainian toys. Despite such diversity, only two state museums are dedicated...

What is ‘Izolyatsia’ and IZONE?

Ten years ago an abandoned plant for processing insulation materials was turned into a giant art space ‘Izolyatsia’ in industrial Donetsk, but recently became a prison and a torture chamber by Russian militants. The creators of ‘Izolyatsia’ were forced to...

Sosnivka. Creating instead of mining

In Sosnivka, a mining town on the border of Volyn and Halychyna, five guys have taken the risk of opening their own glassware studio, where they mostly make smoking devices — pipes and hand-crafted bubblers. It all started in a...

Burning Man and Nikopol

Viacheslav Hudenok became known thanks to the American Festival, Burning Man, where in 2017 he presented a fire sculpture symbolizing Ukraine’s entry into a new era. Impressed by the event, Viacheslav brought the idea of organizing festivals to Nikopol. Together...