In a matter of weeks, the GogolFest team turned an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Kyiv into one of the city’s hottest locations for street art, alternative music and offbeat theater.
Several thousand people filled the vast space in the industrial grounds near Vydubychi metro station on Sept. 21 to enjoy Ukrainian modern culture and a kaleidoscope of unconventional art. The festival will continue until Saturday with concerts of modern classical and alternative music, art-house cinema, theater performances, lectures on pressing art issues and master classes on artistic photography and directing films. A closing party will be held late on Sept. 29.
Named after the legendary Nikolai Gogol, considered both a Ukrainian and Russian writer, the festival was held in Mystetskyi Arsenal from 2007 to 2009 until the complex was reconstructed, making it an impractical venue. It moved to the Dovzhenko Film Studio in 2010 before taking a two-year hiatus.
“There will be classical and alternative music, cinema, theater and visual art, everyone can get what they want,” said Vladyslav Troitsky, the festival organizer and head of Dah Theater. While the festival welcomes foreign guests, Troitsky said, the main point is to showcase Ukraine’s growing pool of talented artists.
The whole event seems to fit its creator’s concept perfectly. The ceremony opened with a reading from “Time for Outrage” by Stephane Hessel, a French diplomat and concentration camp survivor. It was read by Liza, a French doctor who had come to volunteer at the festival. It was followed by a dramatic fire show and a screening of “Earth,” a black-and-white silent 1930s movie by outstanding Soviet-Ukrainian film director Oleksandr Dovzhenko to the music of ethno-chaos band Daha-Braha.
Thousands watched the film in the abandoned hall of the old plant. “I watched the original version of ‘Earth’ of course, but it is so different and amazing with Daha-Braha,” Yana Koretska, an economist, whispered to her sister during the screening. “I am sure music can express emotions better than words.”
The sisters say they are diehard fans of GogolFest, but this is the most unusual one. “The place has so much atmosphere and you can even confuse the original factory elements with art objects,” said lawyer Alina Koretska.
Art covers the plant’s territory. Dressed dummies hang from ceilings in big moving industrial cages. Dozens of installations fill the visual art hall, with their sculptures, pictures, posters, and collages. “Contemporary art is quite controversial, most people who claim they love it don’t even understand what it is about,” said GogolFest visitor Maria Kotymako, a design student. “But I believe people who come to GogolFest have some range of imagination. The atmosphere here is wonderful,” she added.
Pavlo Gudimov, who leads a modern rock band and owns a contemporary art gallery, presented his recent project “Neofolk,” as part of a visual art exposition that included works by Ukrainian and foreign artists Oleksandr Babak, Ruslan Tremba, Oleksandr Kadnikov and Iryna Kalenyk.
But it’s not all visual art, as the festival also boasts a fascinating art stage with up to 10 performances from different theaters. Dah Theater even created a special play for the event, which its director Troitsky said discusses the country, theater, and attempts to understand what theater means in our life. “The performance will be staged just two times and never ever more,” he said.
GogolFest also has a large cinema program, and an extensive musical program whose main theme is John Cage, the American composer. Margaret Leng Tan, a Singapore-born American piano master and legendary Cage follower, gave her first concert in Ukraine, playing a toy piano for several hundred Ukrainian music lovers. She said she was not sure she could make it as GogolFest contacted her just two month before the event.
“It is my first time here, but I am glad I came,” she said after her concert on Sept. 22. “The audience was wonderful, they were so quite even though it is such a big space. And they gave me a standing ovation at the end and wanted me to play more,” she said, adding that she didn’t expect such a big turnout in Ukraine.
Gogolfest
Sept. 21-29. Abandoned factory at 11 Inzhenerna St. near Vydubychi metro station (follow the road behind the Furshet shopping center)
For the detailed schedule and prices visit the festival’s website http://www.gogolfest.org.ua
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected]
