Civil society organizations have initiated a cultural project called “Sky over Kherson,” which is based on 100 photographs of destroyed Kherson. Participants add their drawings and words to these photographs, creating a joint cultural product.
It is spreading rapidly through the city’s hubs and libraries, and a presentation to European partners is planned. This was reported to a Ukrinform correspondent by the curator of the project’s artistic component, Olena Afanasyeva, head of the public organization “Center for Cultural Development ”Totem.”
“The Sky Above Kherson” is a cultural project that was born out of the experience of living under shelling. It is about art that documents pain and bears witness to hope. In a city where the sky is more often associated with enemy drones, the project helps people see a different sky — their own, peaceful, familiar sky,” Afanasyeva noted.
According to her, the new project was initiated by the public organizations “IRC ”Legal Space“ and the Center for Cultural Development ”Totem.” The project is based on 100 photographs of destroyed Kherson. Participants add their drawings and words to them, creating a joint cultural product. More than 200 people from Kherson, other cities of Ukraine, refugees, and internally displaced persons in other countries have already joined the project. The youngest participant is 3 years old, and the oldest is 79.
According to the project manager, Natalia Bimbiraite, director of the public organization “IRC ”Legal Space,“ the first works were created in the Kherson hub ”Na Rozi,” which the organization opened in cooperation with the OSBB in December last year. Every week, this hub hosts creative events and lectures by local historians and experts on the history of the southern region, Ukrainian crafts, and local identity, helping residents take a fresh look at the history of Kherson, debunk imperial myths, and discover forgotten pages of the city’s Ukrainian past.
As the organizers emphasized, the project “Sky Above Kherson” is about co-creation and cultural diplomacy. From the “Na Rozi” hub, it is spreading to other hubs and libraries — the Lesia Ukrainka Central City Library, the Kherson Central Library for Children, and the “Molodizhka” space have already joined. This helps to overcome a certain isolation, as Kherson residents usually only visit the nearest hub due to the danger of moving around the city. By the end of July, “Sky over Kherson” will be created in various hubs, and then the exhibition will travel around the hubs, where it can be seen in safe spaces in different areas of the city, and later in other cities and countries. It will be presented to European partners as the voice of Kherson, which is holding on and needs to be restored for the sake of the people who live there and love it.
As Afanasyeva emphasizes, this project is not about art for art’s sake. It is art as an act of restoration. It is a story not only about war, but also about human dignity.
“It is an attempt to give a voice to those who remained in the city, to give them the opportunity to live and rethink their own experience through culture. And at the same time — to bring together the isolated communities that have formed in the city’s shelters, to establish links between them, as well as with those who are outside the city but want to support it,” she said.
As reported by Ukrinform, the first printed edition of the “Calendar of Significant and Memorable Dates in the History of Crimea and the Crimean Tatar People” was presented in Kherson.
Photos provided by the project organizers
Source: Ukraine launches cultural project “Sky Above Kherson”
