On May 30, 2021, within the framework of the art project “Portrait of the Museum: Lviv Open-Air Museum”, the third meeting of participants registered on the Center for Cultural & Arts Initiatives website took place.
Apparently, the art project participants have already noticed that each sketch has a lyrical name because the fine arts themselves are the poetry of colors or a monochrome duo of line and spot. “What the grass whispers about” is a unique theme of the Third Etude. It has long been noticed that it is in May that the magic of colors occurs when emerald greens and white ceremonial flowers, together with fragrant aromas and the chirping of birds, enchant us. And as if by the wave of an invisible instrument, young grasses begin to abound, whispering to a man about something mysterious to Nature.
The Project organizers invited the participants to focus on an event that is important in the calendar rituals of our ancestors – grazing cattle, which for a long winter, patiently waited for happy, warm days. Cattle are usually fed on the day of St. George’s Day, May 6. However, the high mountain meadows of Gorgan, Chornohora, and Chyvchyn were still covered with snow at that time, so the Hutsuls celebrated the “Exit to the mountain meadow” by lighting a fire, and other ritual acts a little later, on May 20.
Based on such considerations, today’s meeting was dedicated to the ethnographic region of the Hutsul area, and a mythological genre was proposed to suggest a portrait of the Lviv open-air museum.
During the Third Study, the artistic director of the Project, Andriy Sendetskyy, congratulated everyone on the next meeting within the framework of the Portrait of the Museum, which is being actively implemented, despite quarantine restrictions or weather conditions. Andriy Sendetskyy noted that our common task is to create the museum’s image in any weather, in different situations, with arbitrary authorial interpretations and wished good emotional suggestions to create a future picture.
The Lviv open-air museum Oksana Bratun and Vitaliya Ponomaryova escorted the participants to the seemingly well-known architectural objects – museum exhibits. But when you look at them, they always reveal their hitherto unnoticed features.
The present participants – “portraitists” under the direction of ethnomusicologists and collectors of musical instruments Lubomyr Kushlyk, who works in the museum, had fun playing in an improvised orchestra on ancient and modern musical instruments.
From our guides, we learned about the peculiarities of choosing a place to build a house, the building magic, and beliefs associated with the choice of wood, time, and the process of building a house.
They listened with admiration to the stories about fenced apiaries with beehives, which will be challenging to get to the bear-sweet tooth. We visited the hut of the Polonyn herd and listened to the story of “living fire” and other rites and beliefs of shepherds.
At the end of the meeting, Vitalya Ponomareva spoke about the invisible world of beings around us. Participants were intrigued to hear about wizards of different ranks, specializations, and the power of spells. No less interesting was the story of “nyavok”, witches, “chugaystra” and other creatures of the afterlife.
The organizers and partners of the art project remind:
Participation in the Project is free. The program of the meeting: acquaintance with the organizers and participants, sightseeing tour of a separate ethnographic area, a short presentation of the theme of the Etude and a sketch of the future work, which should be a touch to the portrait of the jubilee – the Klymentii Sheptytskyi Museum of Folk Architecture and Rural Life in Lviv (Chernecha Hora Street, 1).
Those wishing to take part in the next meeting and create their own portrait of the Lviv Open-Air Museum should register on the Center for Cultural and Artistic Initiatives in Lviv website.
One-time registration allows free participation in other meetings-studies of the Project “Portrait of the Museum: Lviv Open-Air Museum”, scheduled monthly until August inclusive, and provides free access to the museum to create a “portrait”.
The Project is implemented by the Center for Cultural and Artistic Initiatives in Lviv in partnership with the Klimenty Sheptytsky Museum of Folk Architecture and Life in Lviv. The description of the Project can be found on the page of the organizer – artcenter.org.ua and partner – lvivskansen.org
Let’s create a “Portrait of a Museum” together!
