When recalling 2002, it’s impossible to overlook the “Cultural Heroes” project – a series of contemporary art festivals held in 7 major Ukrainian cities (Kyiv, Odesa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Donetsk, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Lviv). The festival was divided into two stages: the first involved regional festivals, and the second featured the winners of these regional events. The project covered four areas: visual arts, theater, music, and literature. The festival lasted three days in each city. Leading Kyiv experts in these fields visited each city to select the best projects for the final stage.
Kharkiv was the first city to host “Cultural Heroes,” organized by the Municipal Gallery. Over three days, the city witnessed 34 events at 14 venues. The festival program included concerts, performances, performances, video installations, exhibitions of painting, graphics, photography, and sculpture; poetry readings, and jazz sessions. A festival bus ran between locations, allowing everyone to attend the events they wanted.
The festival opened in the sports hall of the Academy of Design and Arts with the presentation of the project “Other Sky” by Volodymyr Shaposhnikov and Yevhen Pavlov. Simultaneously, the Municipal Gallery hosted the opening of two exhibitions: paintings by Oleksiy Yesiunin and a joint exhibition by Olena and Tetyana Polyaschenko “Communications.” The musical component was an all-night jam session at the “XXI Century” club, featuring the city’s best bands: “Paskhalne shestviye”, “Kalectsiya”, “Shaman”, “Lюk”, and “5’nizza”. The first day concluded with the light-painting project “Grani” by the artists of “Bilyy dim”.
The second day opened with the video art direction, namely the projects of Oleksandr Vereshchak “Wings of Love”, Volodymyr and Viktoria Yurashko “Stileres”, Yuriy Kruchak, Iryna Olenina, and Pavlo Ryzhenko “Baby”. After video art, the audience could move on to pop art at the “International house” and immediately watch two projects by famous artists: “Kisilni beregy” by Vasyl Antonyuk and Volodymyr Gulich and “Love, similar to song” – Vasyl Antonyuk, Sergiy Bratkov, Oleksiy Borysov, Volodymyr Gulich, Marharyta Yurchenko. On the same day, the projects “Mytasov’s House” (idea by Pavlo Makov), “Touch, introductory course” by Mykola Lodanyy, and the musical performance “Bardodo Stodola” were opened. In particular, art lovers could visit the sculptural workshops on Kulyury Street called “Club S” to view five art projects at once.
On the third day of “Cultural Heroes”, exhibitions by Vadim Petrov “The Return of the Hero” and Volodymyr Velman “Artifacts” opened. At the same time, the “Palitra” photo gallery hosted the opening of Andriy Avdeenko’s project, and earlier, works by Vitaliy Kulikov were exhibited there. The last day of the festival ended with a jazz concert at the House of Architects, a presentation of the original catalog, and the announcement of the winners.
As a result of the jury’s work, more than 10 projects from Kharkiv went to the final in Kyiv, and the festival itself became the impetus for the creation of “NonStopMedia”.
