Let’s talk about art. Someone has spoiled the art exhibition The Shevchenko’s Quantum Leap by an illustrator Oleksandr Hrekhov in the Tarasa Shevchenka metro station in Kyiv. These are the works that occurred occasionally in your feed: Kobzar in the image of Harry Potter, Spiderman, Frida Kahlo and the like. The vandal whose actions were recorded on video has already been identified. He believes the exhibition is… a mockery of Shevchenko.
The Illustrator Oleksandr Hrekhov, Taras Shevchenko National Museum and Kyiv metro claimed in their joint statement that ten days prior to the presentation of the exhibition the organizers received masses of positive feedback from visitors. The main idea of the messages were joy, unexpected parallels and good mood mixed with the desire to re-read Shevchenko’s pieces. The organizers admit that they expected negative comments accompanied by a civilized dialogue. The latter has turned out problematic.
The statement claims that acts of such vandalism and aggression do not only violate the law, but also deny a mere attempt to create multicultural space and push us towards a totalitarian society, in which a separate group of people decides what art has the right to exist. At the same time, the Museum has reported early termination of the exhibition on their website.
However, the identity of the vandal from the CCTV has been revealed: it’s probably Yurii Khort (Pavlenko), an activist from Vinnytsia. It was reported by our colleagues from Livyi Bereh. A week ago, Khort claimed on his page that the exhibition is “an official mockery of Shevchenko“, where ”Ukrainophobia is wrapped in a pseudo-package.” Don’t ask me, I can’t grasp the logic myself.
Together with that, the screenshot posted by Livyi Bereh shows a post by Yurii Khort in which he reports on the liquidation of the exhibition, and calls the vandals “people’s Avengers” and “patriots”. However, this message no longer appears on the page shown on the screenshot.
A similar attitude was shown by a politician Mykola Tomenko in his evaluation of the works. However, he was more infuriated by the fact that the exhibition was organized by the state-funded organization than the alleged “humiliation of the national hero”. What can we do, the person is worried about public funds.
Viktoriia Antonenko, an employee of Taras Shevchenko National Museum, noted that we tolerate intrusive advertising of brands, ads about issuing fake medical certificates and psychics’ services in metro, but we cannot accept the basic rules explained by the Goose (fictional character) or posters of the modern artist just because they are… about Shevchenko. Well, that is what happens to some of us.
But a blogger Alla Komarova told that every evening young people came to the exhibition of Shevchenko’s portraits to take photos, communicate and get acquainted. However, as we have already understood, some people had a slightly different point of view.
But according to the curator of the project Artefact Svitlana Korshunova, the damage of the works illustrates the understanding of the modern culture, and the cut posters look even better and show that we have chosen the right way.
Anastasiia Melnychenko, a public activist and the head of the public organization Studena, assured that there is a new force in Ukraine “which takes over the right of censorship, and no one does anything with it”.
Khrystyna Morozova was also outraged by vandals’ actions. She stressed that the case with Shevchenko’s posters is not the end: according to the author, for example, if you agree that disrupting the LGBT parade is normal, you become just the same vandal as the one that destroyed the exhibition. And there are many similar examples.
A blogger Aleks Noinets, on the contrary, suggested that after the vandal damaged the works, the exhibition “got a fresh coat of paint” and, according to the analogy given in the note, can go down in history.
A designer Ornella Ostapenko noted that the exhibition must have remained, restored and taken to every corner of Ukraine. Because if we do not respond to violence and hooliganism accordingly, we will transfer the power into the hands of poorly educated provocateurs.
A journalist Ivan Synepalov stood against the closure of the exhibition. He stressed that in this case, we had perfect conditions to demonstrate the validity of the broken windows theory. Therefore, the exhibition should be renewed – as many times as it is necessary until no one spoils it.
And if you suddenly think whether anyone will stab you for jokes about Shevchenko – you are not alone, Michael Shchur is with you. And a single word, the last one of the article, is a brief retelling of what happened at one of the Kyiv metro stations.
Reactions collected and didn’t manage to take a selfie with Spider-Shevchenko Stepan the Goat
