Styles
11 March 2022
As Ukraine faces dark times, creative people around the world are mobilising to pay tribute. Although it has long been associated with Russia, historically and culturally, Ukraine is now proudly waving its blue-yellow independence flag. It is also asserting its freedom more than ever through a strong creative identity and lifestyle.
Ukraine owes this socio-cultural revival to a young generation of forward-looking creators, who express their avant-gardism and modernity through art, design, architecture… From FAINA’s organic nature to Daria Zinovatnaya’s multi-dimensional decors and Yuriy Zimenko’s Op-art fantasy, let’s shed light on those who make Ukraine’s colors shine and inspire beyond its borders.
The French Red Cross has launched an appeal for donations to help Ukrainian refugees. There is no small amount, each participation can help people in need.
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International design in solidarity with Ukraine
Solidarity actions to help refugees are multiplying on the design side. In Europe, Latvian artist Germans Ermičs, Rotterdam-based New Zealand designer Sabine Marcelis, and Dutch brand RiRa Objects are auctioning off their pieces to benefit charities like @redcrossukraine and rescue.org.
In the United States, it is the German designer based in Portland Alex Proba who brought her monetary help to the associations @savethechildren and @uanimals.official by putting one of her paintings for auctions.
Balenciaga’s poignant tribute
It’s wartime in the East, yet Paris Fashion Week is in full swing in the West. Given the context, the artistic director of Balenciaga, Demna Gvasalia, himself a Georgian war refugee, sent a poignant message to the fashion sphere.
The caltwalk featured an exodus under the snow – or under the ashes of the bombings – to remind us that two million Ukrainians are fleeing their country to survive. The two-colored Ukrainian flag was of course present, placed on the guests’ chairs and brandished on the clothes of the collection. And in the background, the verse of the Ukrainian poet Oleksandr Oles « Long live Ukraine, for beauty, strength, truth, freedom » recited in 1917 resounded gravely between the walls of the Bourget exhibition center.
Ukrainian design in revival
If the tone is serious, the sunny identity of the Ukrainians is always apparent through the creations of contemporary designers who blur the boundaries between art, architecture, design … Among them, we find the NOOM studio and its graphic furniture that reinvents the modernism of the Bauhaus, but also the young Daria Zinovatnaya and her surrealist decorations in which the lines collide and colors mix with gaiety. There is also the designer Yuriy Zimenko and his plywood chest of drawers that re-instill the Op-art fantasy in design.
The renaissance of Ukrainian folklore
Ukrainian folk art, embroidery and folklore are brought up to date by creative people in search of crafts. The artist Olga Ermol, for example, mixes 20th century abstract art with traditional weaving through chromatic cut-outs woven by hand from cotton thread. There is also the designer Basny who makes tapestries by mixing ancient Ukrainian weaving techniques with modern artistic language.
Ukrainian nature honored
Ukrainian designer Victoriya Yakusha launched her design studio FAINA in 2014 as an artistic reflection of Ukraine’s socio-cultural changes, of the new breath the country is experiencing. Today, her convictions take on a special resonance. A few days before the invasion of Ukraine, she opened her showroom in Antwerp to put the nature of her country in the spotlight. Terracotta, linen, willow, wood… The materials impose a reflection on the cultural heritage of Ukraine.
Kiev, new European creative capital
In recent years, Kiev has joined the ranks of Europe’s great creative capitals. From the gender-neutral Say No Mo hair salon and cocktail bar designed by Balbek Bureau to the all-pink BLUSHH flagship by AKZ Architectura, the city has seen a number of new, hyper-trendy addresses with decor that is as neat as it is sophisticated.
Same creative ebullition in Odessa. We remember the bakery-cafe straight out of a Wes Anderson set. Pop, whimsical, retro, Breadway Bakery is a 85 square meter candy that we would like to munch from floor to ceiling. The Ukrainian design duo Lera Brumina and Artem Trigubchak imagined it with a perfect distribution of colors, their signature.
In Kiev, the tandem repeats its colorimetric approach by refurbishing the offices of Kovalska, the country’s largest manufacturer of building materials. An unusual immersion in the heart of the Ukrainian capital since more than 70% of the projects in Kiev were built with Kovalska’s concrete.
These Ukrainian cities are leaving behind their folkloric and slightly outdated images in favor of refined, polished aesthetics. One of the faces that helps to move the lines of Ukrainian design: Rina Lovko. She transforms interiors into minimalist dens where vintage and contemporary echo each other with softness and harmony.
