The Little Prince and other fictional characters at Peizazhna Alley, a popular park in central Kyiv, have two new surprising neighbors with their own stories to tell: a racketeer-spider and smuggler-scorpion.
Both belong to the shady economic world depicted on one side of a bridge at the park’s new playground, opened on Jan. 14. The fair economic world is on the other side.
The idea is to juxtapose Ukraine’s two-sided economy in a playground that features the dark side complete with bribes, smuggling and poverty, and the light – honest taxpayers, welfare and supportive officials – came from Kyiv sculptor Kostyantyn Skrytutskyi and Fedir Balandin, who heads the Kyiv Strategy 2025 civic organization.
This duo had previously spawned other attractions at the colorful alleyway park.
“This time it’s not just about fun, but education as well,” Balandin says.
Together with city and central bank officials, the playground’s founders believe this will help parents explain to children the importance of paying taxes, and on time.
To get from the bad world to the good one, children must cross the Bridge of Justice which stands over the Hryvnia River, named after Ukraine’s national currency. “Starting from springtime financial flows will start circulating there,” Balandin promised during the ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by top officials, including Oleksandr Popov, who runs the Kyiv city administration, and Serhiy Arbuzov, the deputy prime minister and former central bank head.
Later the sculptors explained that the central bank promised to fund a fountain that was built there but not yet functioning, the most expensive part of the playground.
As the notable guests struggled to maneuver between the two economic worlds, children scrambled to explore the attractions, twirling in giant cherries on the good side, and riding on a big turtle with a nodding head on the bad.
“This is actually the saddest character here,” says Oleksandr Irvanets, a Ukrainian poet and the author of the poetic guide to both worlds written on a nearby billboard, pointing to the turtle with a kid on its top. “This turtle is the symbol of poverty and all the sorrows that one has to undergo when living on the dark side,” he explains.
He smirks and says that actually all the creatures have a symbolic meaning and some are even based on real people, but he does not want to reveil who they are.
Not everyone is thrilled, though. Lesya Chichak, a 30-year-old mother of two says the playground is not what she expected. “I thought it would be safer,” she says, anxiously looking around in an attempt to find her kids.
“There are so many sharp angles here and all this concrete,” she nods her head in disapproval.
Balandin, however, believes the playground is safe enough. “Now children are not what we used to be, some already know two or more languages at the age of six,” he says. “So we meant this playground for the indigo-kids, the new generation,” he says.
And the new generation her refers to is already here.
Katya Kuramshina, a 12 year-old school girl, has been watching the playground construction almost every day after school and was looking forward to the opening. “I like it, so many interesting things here,” she exclaims and ensures she does understand what it is about. “This is about money of course. I understand the idea of two worlds, but just can’t choose. I think one can live on both sides at once,” she smiles.
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected].
