“25 EVENTFUL WEEKS”

We open our look back at 2008 with the story of the collaboration between the Municipal Gallery and Roman Minin, which led to the creation of the first street art festival – Street Art Fest.

In 2008, a whole series of events by the graffiti group “Art-Kukhnya Ku2” and young mural artists took place, paving the way for the first Street Art Fest. At the time, the most widely discussed projects were those carried out in collaboration with the Municipal Gallery: painting the walls of the “Metalist” stadium, a graffiti event behind the “Mirror Stream”, and an event on Freedom Square for the “Queen” concert.

The next step was the project “Gogol on Gogol Street and Pushkin on Pushkinska Street”, which was implemented in the autumn of the same year. The project was created by Roman Minin and Hamlet Zinkivskyi, with the participation of Taras Kamennoi (Camus), Uliana Bychenkova, Serhii Kharlashyn, Oleg Kalashnik, Yuliana Alimova, Ihor and Liudmyla Ponkratov. The Municipal Gallery curated the project. It was this project that demonstrated that street art was of interest to Kharkiv residents and young artists who were ready to develop this movement.

In August 2009, the first Street Art Fest was presented to mark City Day! The team of participants expanded, and from its very first year the festival gained many fans and friends. The next and, to date, last Street Art Fest took place in 2011.

The aim of the festival was to give young artists an opportunity to express themselves and decorate the city with creative works, as well as to emphasize Kharkiv’s individuality and history.