Bureaucrats, smugglers, and donuts of prosperity

Children’s Art-Park “Peizazhka: Two Worlds” were designed by the head of NGO “Kyiv. Strategy 2025” Fedir Balandin and sculptor Kostiantyn Skrytutsky, known for his urban sculptures both on Peizazhna Alley and around the city. The authors of the project received the support of the National Bank of Ukraine and Oleksandr Popov, head of the Kyiv City State Administration. According to Balandin and Skrytutsky, they wanted to create not just an ordinary playground for children but make it some kind of socially educational space. “Children are already way ahead of us, they have long surpassed us in many aspects and, therefore, it is not enough to simply install new swings and slides. We wanted to make something that would really have educational effect and would awaken inexhaustible curiosity in children. Playground as some kind of didactic material,” Fedir BALANDIN explained to The Day. This is how the authors came up with the idea of “economic” playground. It is visually divided into two “worlds” – “Land of Shadows” and “Land of Prosperity.” Residents of the first one do not pay taxes and simply act in a way not suitable for good citizens. Dangerous desert dwellers, including a snake, a scorpion, and a spider, live here. “Negative world for us is this desert, that is a place where the economy does not develop because no one wants to invest in it. Therefore, we picked negative characters correspondingly: a spider-racketeer and a scorpion-smuggler. At that point we had a conceptual discussion with Skrytutsky. I insisted that a bureaucrat must be a deserted predatory lizard, while Skrytutsky said it must be a crocodile, even though it is not a desert animal,” said Balandin with a smile.

Residents of the “Land of Prosperity” regularly pay taxes and therefore live joyfully and prosper. The two worlds are connected by a symbolic bridge called “Majesty of the Law,” which, by the way, is the most popular item among children on this play site. “Everybody wants to go to the Law Bridge and it is a good sign that means that we have a future,” Balandin said joyfully.

The implementation of this project showed a simple and effective form: any project is feasible if the work is done by the entire community. “It is nice that we had understanding from all sides involved in this project. The National Bank of Ukraine and Serhii Arbuzov himself really liked the idea of such ‘economic space.’ It is also nice that Oleksandr Popov was willing to join in. But the most unexpected surprise was the fact that local residents actively participated in this project. There were many touching moments: when it was freezing cold outside the residents of the apartment buildings would hand us the power extenders outside so that we could use heaters in our tents. They also collected money to put up a fence around the playground as a protection from vandals,” said Balandin. There was a strict schedule made for the playground: it is open from nine in the morning till nine in the evening. “Local residents have assumed the responsibility to open and close the gate and students from Ecology Department at Kyiv Mohyla Academy will clean it once a week. We are also pleased by the fact that classic of Ukrainian literature Oleksandr Irvanets joined our team. He wrote a poem-guide for the playground which is easily perceived by children. This is an example of how an entire community can turn any project into a real success,” summed up the co-author of the playground.