On Tuesday, Aug. 5, a large, yellow five-meter (16.4-feet) high bust of Ukraine’s national poet Taras Shevchenko was unveiled in Kyivʼs Taras Shevchenko Park, close to the monument that celebrates the man. The object is an interactive installation dubbed “The World Through Shevchenkoʼs Eyes,” and will be open until Aug. 15.
The project was an initiative of Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the “WOW” NGO which is an advocate for all aspects of the country’s culture and created by the Ukrainian artist Sergiy Zapadnya with input from Yulia Shylenko of the Taras Shevchenko National Museum.
Inside the installation are eyepieces through which visitors can see images of 80 monuments to Shevchenko from 37 countries – a small sample of the more than 1,000 such memorials scattered across four continents as identified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2021. Speakers inside the bust relay renditions of his poetry by the celebrated actor and former minister of culture Bohdan Stupka along with information about Shevchenko’s life and works.
Often known as the “Great Kobzar,” after his collection of poetry that itself refers to the traditional Ukrainian Kobzar, or traveling minstrel, the long-held celebration of Shevchenko’s contribution to the country’s literature and culture has taken on even greater significance since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion.
Born into a peasant family in 1814 his talent for art and writing, which was noticed and encouraged by several patrons early on, he was arrested in 1847 by the Tsarist Russian police, sentenced to 25 years military service, and exiled – with an order handwritten by Nicholas I himself that forbade him from writing or painting. The injunction was only lifted after the Tsar died 10 years later, though he was arrested several times in the coming years for producing works that the Russian authorities considered to be “anti-government and blasphemous.”
His treatment at the hands of Russia’s imperial and military authorities has become increasingly emblematic in the minds of many Ukrainians of Vladimir Putin’s attempts to destroy the nation.
Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andriy Sybiha, says the worldwide celebration of Shevchenko as a supremely important cultural figure is more than “just statistics – it underscores Ukraine’s presence in the global context.” He adds: “We are where our values, our memory, and our word are – the word revived by the great Kobzar.”