The joint project of Mystetskyi Arsenal and the Kharkiv Literary Museum
The issue of revamping urban toponymy is the focus of public discussion in both large cities and small rural communities. This is for a reason: by choosing new names for streets and parks, we are marking a particular yet symbolic space that residents will have to navigate every day now and in the future. At the same time, the presence of certain names in it directly defines our cultural identity.
In the summer of 2023, the Kharkiv Literary Museum created a street exhibition project, Proper Names, about the toponymy of Kharkiv, which is associated with the names of writers from different eras. It became an area of dialogue about the presence of Russian authors on the city map and the absence of those who walked its streets and wrote about them. While Kharkiv was still discussing the feasibility of changes, Kyiv was already implementing them. So, the project Proper Names. Vox Populi immerses us in the context of the capital’s revamped toponymy, where the names of Russian and Soviet figures have almost disappeared. Still, questions have arisen about the relevance of new urban names.
So, is the “voice of the people always the voice of God”? How coherent and consistent is the renaming mechanism? How justified is the involvement of a wider range of citizens who should choose the names of streets, squares, and parks? Is a simple majority vote enough to define the framework of the cultural space for the future? Are public preferences relevant to the opinions of professional researchers? Will today’s emotionally driven decisions be interpreted in the future? Let’s try to explore the trends of public and professional choice, which can be traced through a survey conducted on the Kyiv Digital platform.
Both projects are visualized by graphic artist Kostiantyn Zorkin, who, like his colleagues from the Literary Museum, is working in Kharkiv at this tragic time. Therefore, the exhibition Proper Names. Vox Populi is a gesture of solidarity with the residents of the unbreakable city!