Art i Ya Calligraphy School
Curators of the project: Alla Kalinichenko and Vitalina Lopukhina
Participants of the project: Veronika Chebanyk, Vasylii Yakovych Chebanyk, Viktoriia Lopukhina and Vitalina Lopukhina, Nataliia Komiakhova, Oleksii Chekal, Kyrylo Tkachov, Dmytro Rastvortsev, Zakentii Horobiov, Anna Yehorova, and other masters of calligraphy and font design, as well as the students of the School.
Calligraphy and font are an important part of the Ukrainian heritage that is experiencing transformation and new levels of manifestation during the war.
For the project participants, the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine became an impetus for communication. As it turned out, even aptly depicted phrases on Instagram can draw attention to the horrors of the war and to our cultural values which the enemy is trying to appropriate or destroy.
Calligraphic inscriptions and letters were created and published almost daily, as they allowed to capture the moment, convey emotions, and enhance the meaning of the message. The process itself turned out to be therapeutic for the authors, and the result was the effective communication with our fellow citizens, colleagues from abroad, as well as with a wider audience.
Art i Ya’s project at this year’s Book Arsenal consists of expositional and performative parts. Within the exhibition, the calligraphic works created in 2022-2023 have been collected. The exhibition also presents new typographic projects by Ukrainian designers — in order to rethink our font, because the Russian centuries-old occupation reached this area as well.
Within the performative part of the project, a series of live performances will be held, during which calligraphers will write fragments of poems of new Ukrainian poetry that resonate with every one of us.