In memory of the past, but for the sake of the future, the Maidan Museum opened its doors in Kyiv.
The museum’s first installation is hosted by the National Art Museum on Hrushevskoho Street, close to one of the main sites of the revolution, and combines the Museum of Freedom and Museum of Maidan – two separate art initiatives.
The museum opened in mid-October, and has been visited by thousands of people, say organizers. Its first exhibition is by the Ukrainian artist Vlodko Kaufman. One art piece is a mirror that invites visitors to “reflect” on their own ideas about freedom by writing them on the mirror.
The works of art dedicated to Ukraine’s more recent history are just a small part of the project, according to Oleksandra Baklanova of Pro.mova consulting company and one of the project’s founders.
It has a collection of EuroMaidan artifacts, a library of people’s memories and a full calendar of upcoming events organized by the museum employees, civic activists, historians, artists, and analysts who have gathered to work towards a single goal.
“Usually people unite against something. Now, we are united for something. That’s what Maidan taught us,” Baklanova says.
The museum has already hosted half a dozen events, including presentations of books about EuroMaidan, lectures about art and philosophy of freedom, and even a journalism school for children. According to Baklanova, those events are practical ways “to talk about the past in a way that can help the future.”
“It is important to us not to mummify EuroMaidan,” she says.
Visitors of the first museum exhibition seem to share Baklanova’s understanding of it.
“I loved the installation,” says Natalia Pashkovska, housewife and army supplies volunteer from Kyiv. “It is related to Maidan only in the sense of explaining the notion of freedom in society, which Maidan was all about.”
The woman says that most of all she was impressed by a huge nest in the middle of the room. “Not sure what it means, but it is powerful,” she says.
The author of the artwork jokes that indeed he can’t explain what he meant because “the project and ideas change quickly.”
“I love watching how the whole project is changing. Now, we dream of becoming a platform for the sort of creativity that engulfed Maidan,” Kaufman explains. He is in charge of the project’s art component.
The National Art Museum is a temporary location for the museum. The team hopes to find a permanent space.
“We are shooting for Ukrainian House of course, because it is an artifact itself,” Baklanova says. Ukrainian House was a site of heavy fighting in February and became a protester camp at the end of the revolution.
The team has collected some 1,500 pieces for a future exposition, including the famous half-constructed Christmas Tree that stood on Maidan Nezalezhnosti through the three months of revolution, than then until the end of summer.
People started collecting artifacts long before the museum idea emerged.
Vasyl Rozhko, a museum worker and employee of the ministry of culture, says he started collecting things back in January, after a tip from a friend.
“Maidan was changing quickly and we couldn’t keep up,” Rozhko says.
He regrets that many worthy items were lost, while others were promised but never turned in.
As Kaufman’s art installation closes at the National Art Museum at the end of November, the first exhibition of Maidan artifacts will open in Honchar Museum on Nov. 25.
The Maidan Museum team calls on the community to help. Everyone is invited to join the initiative by sharing memories and ideas about Maidan, bringing meaningful items left from the event or joining the team of volunteers.
“If our work at least makes you remember and think about Maidan and freedom, we’ll take it as a valuable act of cooperation,” Baklanova of Pro.mova says.
Art Installation by Vlodko Kaufman
Oct. 15 – Nov. 30
National Art Museum of Ukraine (6 Hrushevskoho St.)
Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday 10 a.m.- 6 p.m.
Friday – 12 p.m. 8 p.m.
Saturday 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Hr 5-20
Art Works of Maidan (exhibition)
Nov. 28 – Jan. 28, 2015
Ivan Honchar Museum (19 Lavrska St.)
10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Monday is a day off
Hr 9-30
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected]
