“And on that embroidered towel...”

An exhibit of antiquities and handicrafts borrowed from private collections has opened in Kharkiv. A large part of the display consists of items from the private collection of President Yushchenko. The exhibit features a total of 237 articles that used to be part and parcel of Ukrainian daily life in various regions, ranging from the Hutsul land to Slobodian Ukraine. Kharkiv oblast is the first region to host this exhibit after Kyiv and from here it will travel to other regions in Ukraine. The organizers refrained from giving a title to the exhibit, having decided that it will be named in every succeeding region in honor of an upcoming holiday: Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Midsummer’s Eve (Ivana Kupala), etc.

President Yushchenko conceived the idea of this festive exhibit before Christmas last year. The president’s initiative was supported by Ukraine’s number—one image-maker Vasyl Vovkun (who directed the inauguration ceremony, image-building actions outside Ukraine, etc. — Ed.). Among the collectors involved in this project, which is aimed at supporting the national traditions and cultural heritage of Ukraine, are Petro Honchar, curator of the Honchar Museum; Lidia Lykhach (Rodovid Gallery) and Vira Osadcha, who heads Kharkiv’s performing group Oberehy. Among the many items on display are three-meter-long Ukrainian embroidered towels, antique shirts and blouses, huge woven carpets, and traveling bags whose design makes them look more like ornamental pieces than articles of daily use; carved boxes and huge grandmother’s hope chests for storing a bride’s trousseau. There is even a large woven cradle that looks like a huge sack suspended from the ceiling, and countless other items that visitors cannot bypass and are tempted to touch all this beauty. The format of the exhibit allows touching, except for several items. Each item is unique and one of a kind, proof of the supreme individualism of Ukrainians, who always tried to look unusual. They say that it is very difficult to find two embroideries that look alike. “When you tell foreigners that every Ukrainian woman wore a unique embroidered blouse, they are very surprised,” says Vovkun, adding, “This comes from ancient roots, with everyone wanting to do things their own way: my vegetable garden is special, I will paint my own icon...”

More often than not antique articles of daily use can be found in the countryside, dumped in attics. People do not realize their unique historical and artistic value. Usually an antique collector visiting a village in the Hutsul region will see a courtyard where chickens are pecking grain and drinking from a 19th-century porcelain vessel. When they saw these vessels from which domestic animals drank in the 19th century, some visitors to an international ceramic exhibit in Toronto asked if they could buy any of the luxurious items on display. A great many of our ancestors’ household wares could have been preserved to this day, but there was a period when collectors of such articles were persecuted. “Sometimes collecting such things was not only an unthankful but even dangerous business. My father, Ivan Honchar, served several prison terms; on several occasions his house was deliberately set on fire to destroy his collection,” says Honchar. Today, with the aid of this project, the exhibit organizers are trying to further the process of learning about the history of Ukrainian traditions, celebrations, and holidays and to create nationwide symbols of Ukrainian holidays. The exhibit in Kharkiv ends on Feb. 13. The next city on the exhibit’s itinerary is Dnipropetrovsk.