An installation to be sent to Burning Man installed in Kyiv

An installation for the Merman project, which will take part in the Burning Man festival in the USA, Nevada, has been installed near the People's Friendship Arch in Kyiv.

Deputy Chairperson of the Kyiv City State Administration Valentyn Mondryivskyi announced this, the press service of the city administration reports.

He noted that the Merman project was the only project from Ukraine among 59 that received a grant from the organizers of the Burning Man festival.

"The 3x3x12 meter installation itself was being prepared for participation in this year's event in the United States, but due to a pandemic, it was canceled," Valentyn Mondryivskyi said.

The festival organizers decided to install the installation this year anyway and with the assistance of the city authorities chose a place in Kyiv near the People's Friendship Arch. Merman can be seen at this location until July 12.

"We've chosen this location so that as many Kyiv residents and guests as possible can be inspired by an installation that will represent Ukraine at a world festival. Sometimes public art can appear in completely unexpected places, radically changing their perception, which is actually one of the key tasks of art," the director of the Department of Culture of the Kyiv City State Administration Yana Barinova commented.

She also stressed that the exhibition of the Merman installation had a message to the creative field: the Kyiv Department of Culture is ready to cooperate with the creators and implement their projects. This interaction will help the city be filled with a cultural product of a qualitatively new level.

"Every day we make a choice. We move, keep ourselves afloat, sometimes we go to the bottom. Staying there or continuing to move on is our choice. We're set to constantly try to swim, find a shore or a new horizon," the organizers describe the project idea.

According to the organizers, Merman is a project manifesto to overcome any obstacles. Therefore, in 2022, it will definitely get to the Burning Man festival.

The project was created with the funds and efforts of the Burning man project team, the Merman team, and volunteers. The installation near the People's Friendship Arch was installed with the assistance of the city authorities, the Department of Culture of the Kyiv City State Administration, and the Central Park of Culture and Recreation of Kyiv.

Note

Burning man is an annual eight-day festival of independent art that takes place in the United States, Nevada, in the Black Rock Desert.

The territory of the festival is free from money and sales, so the participants take care of food, housing, and other needs themselves. At the end of the festival, participants remove all traces of their stay, and its location in the desert changes year after year.