Once long time ago I went to a bookshop and noticed a map of cultural sightseeing of Ukraine. It was sad to see that Lugansk Region is practically empty compared to Western Regions that are full of places of interest and cultural monuments. Today we have a war and not many people remember about the culture. Sometime ago there was rich cultural life in Lugansk and around, but the war made its changes. In this article Informator.lg.ua studies past, present and future of cultural life of Lugansk.
Yesterday: rich and colorful cultural life
For somebody Lugansk ans the towns around it always looked gloomy and gray, but in cultural veins of the city life was cheerful and bright. There were a lot of organizations and artistic groups, there were many festivals, concerts, expositions, flashmobs and other events for artistic people who wanted to share their secrets and ideas with the rest of the world. We are not going to talk about “official culture”, everybody know that most of official cultural events are just a formality.
Some time ago artists of Lugansk organized open-air exposition of modern art for several years in a row under the overpass.Fans of rhymes and vivid images joined into literature group “Stan” that organized different events in the city.
Musicians were getting together in chill-out café “Donbass” which is closed now. Fans of good live music and poems were spending evenings there. There were rock festival and festivals of electronic music “GOERLO plan” in Lugansk and in the region. Ukrainianandforeignbandswerevisitingthateventregularly.
Fans of unformatted movies could always increase their cultural level going to Lugansk Cinema Club. They could watch films of Fellini, Linch, Kitano, Lars von Trier and other adepts of intellectual movies. There was also night festival of social movies “May 32”
Till Summer 2014 there was art-space in Lugansk called “10th workshop” that managed to organize different interesting events even in June when it was very dangerous in the city.
Cultural life of Lugansk before the war was constantly bubbling amusing by its variety those who visited our region 1st time. But everything changed after the war started…
Today: cultural hunger satisfied by Cossack choirs and Kobzon
After the war came to uncontrolled territory of Lugansk Region the cultural life didn’t stop, but it dramatically changed.
Most of “cultreggers” and other entertainers had to leave Lugansk when military actions started. And this was not surprising, because artistic people are more vulnerable to infringement of thier rights and free creativity. What free creativity can you talk about when the city got flooded with armed men with machine guns?
In Summer and Autumn of the last year nobody was even thinking about cultural events, Lugansk became a war zone.
When the situation stabilized the authorities of LPR were trying to organize concerts and other events in order to satisfy cultural hunger.
Cossack choirs became regular guests of LPR “capital” and nearest cities for older generation. People in Kuban caps with the imperial flags occupied concert halls where they were singing and dancing together with representatives of orthodox church «For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland.»
Another follower of the “Russian World” Joseph Kobzon also visits unrecognized republics and got a title of “People’s Artist of LPR” for that.
Forgotten Russian rock-stars Vadim Samoilov, Ivan Demian, Masha Makarova and Julia Chicherina visit LPR and DPR since the beginning of 2015 to entertain local young generation. It looks like Chicherina doesn’t leave the borders of “Novorossiya”. She has regular concerts even in very small villages located on uncontrolled territory of Lugansk and Donetsk Regions. There was a big rock festival with artists mentioned above in Lugansk called “The Sun will rise”.
Not so long ago a volunteer who collects money for militia and a rap singer who sings “right” songs Gleb Kornilov and music band “Dangerous” came with a tour in order teach young ones what “patriotism” is.
Expositions in LPR museums look exactly line in USSR era, all of them praise military prowess and feats of working people. Theaters of Lugansk work and repertory hasn’t changed much, but Ukrainian Drama Theatre is now called “Theatre on Oboronna St.” This is more “ideologically correct”.
Tomorrow: tons of ancient dresses and bravura Socialist Realism
It’s not hard to predict the situation on the cultural map of uncontrolled part of Lugansk Region. Because of the lack of “fresh blood” and original ideas, local residents will have to enjoy tons of ancient pseudo-patriotic crap, daring Cossack fumes and different forgotten “stars” who want to get cheap fame and who are not afraid to become outlaw in countries of civilized world.
It will be difficult and impossible to realize and implement brave and bright ideas here, free thinking and brightness gets nipped in the bud, and the «official» culture, apparently, will tend to the tradition of social realism and other bravura art styles.
PS By the way, if you Google for “LPR culture” (“лнркультура” in Russian) you will get legendary photos of street erotic photoset of 1st “minister of culture of LPR” Irina Filatova. Should we say something else about it?
Lilit Rebrova for informator.lg.ua