Kherson modernism: back to the future
Yulia Manukyan, Serhii Dyachenko
Residence Sorry, No Rooms Available
19.00, September 8, 2022,
Double room, Hotel Intourist-Zakarpattia

Unfortunately, the South of Ukraine remained in the shadow of research, discussions and worthy promotion until recently. Artist talk of the project team aims to correct this situation to some extent and prove that Kherson is a part of European culture and our connection with it can be traced primarily through architectural heritage. In particular, through the architecture of modernism, because it was a leap into the future, a leap beyond any “fasteners”.
The forgotten monuments of modernism and postmodernism in Kherson clearly prove this, even our peripheral city has its own small “masterpieces” – steps of this cultural progress into the future, which we should know, understand and imitate. This “book” is increasingly difficult to read, because much has been distorted or destroyed. But thanks to the project, we had the opportunity to reread its first pages, to restore the gaps in the city’s “modernist” past and to look at it through the eyes of contemporary artists.
Together with their mentors, the participants chose 12 objects, researched them and proposed ideas for visual and informational “revitalization” of these objects in order to make them visible on the city map. Currently, this conversation is even more relevant, as Russia is desperately trying to tear Kherson out of the Ukrainian, and therefore from the European context. But this is no longer possible. And this is exactly what we are talking about.

Lecture documentation: photo credit Mykhailo Melnychenko, Petro Ryaska

Lecture recording

The residence of Yulia Manukyan and Serhiy Dyachenko was made possible thanks to the support of:
The beaux-arts Academy in Paris
European Cultural Foundation