The streets of Kyiv, 2019
Kyiv, Summer 2019
Art Zavod Platforma, Kiev / June 2019 I had read that this would be a cool place to go, an art center with resident artists and events and whatnot. When we arrived, the place seemed completely empty except for an evidently bored and overzealous young security guard who yelled at us in Russian and didn’t want to let us go a step further without explaining ourselves. I tried to mime “look at the art”. It was lost in translation. He mimed drinking something, we decided this was our way in, and agreed that yes, we were going to the cafe he was pointing at. We had some lunch there. It rained. When we went back out, our yelling friend was not in sight so we ventured onward and discovered a gallery with a large photography installation and some artists’ spaces, which is more of what I had expected. Clearly there are events on the weekends, including a street food festival, but during the week, not much. We wandered around the empty factory buildings for a while, then walked out and tried to turn to go down the final unexplored alley (which would have been perfectly accessible from further back had it not been for the water).The guard appeared again and smirked at us while waving a scolding finger and indicating that these alleys were strictly off limits for the likes of us. Little did he know we’d already seen quite a lot at that point...
мы те, в кого мы верим! волшебствуй :)
A postcard stuck in the fence in front of this mural. "We are the ones we believe in! Magic :)"
Майдан Незалежності, Киïв
Independence Square, Kyiv