OPENING: “Music of Freedom: Ukrainian Grassroots Initiatives from the 1980s to the 2020s”

Exhibition-research of grassroots musical initiatives “Music of Freedom: Ukrainian Grassroots Initiatives from the 1980s to the 2020s” in Lviv Municipal Art Center

During two months, residents of Lviv and guests of the city will be able to get acquainted with Ukrainian musical phenomena from the 1980s to the present day and trace how the music of grassroots communities became a tool for building independence. It will be possible to visit the exhibition at the Lviv Municipal Art Center from December 27, 2023.

Music of Freedom: Ukrainian Grassroots Initiatives from the 1980s to the 2020s” is an exhibition that emerged as a result of a thorough study of independent Ukrainian musical initiatives. The authors propose to consider the history of independent music through the prism of communities, grassroots initiatives and to investigate how music influenced civil society, reflected and accompanied social changes and moods.

Lyana Mytsko, director of the Municipal Art Center, author of the idea of the exhibition: “Non-pop Ukrainian music is usually called the cultural underground – although it is a real vibrating membrane of our country’s independence. We will bring together excellent researchers, music-minded designers and architects in the Municipal Art Center to build a chronology of our musical history and present and start a great project called “Music of Freedom”.

“Music of Freedom” is almost the first attempt to connect the Ukrainian musical phenomena of the last 40 years into a single story. Constancy, heredity, tradition — things that do not exist without our care and constant intervention, we also need to work with them.

From one-of-a-kind self-made tapes to viral tracks on SoundCloud; from naive regional television reports to highly artistic music videos; from self-published underground magazines to multi-circulation music glossies — and back to self-publishing, but already on the pages of social networks — independent Ukrainian musicians, reviewers and selectors have been experimenting with sound for decades, pushing culture forward and upward, creating their own worlds. Some became superstars; others have disappeared, but are now being rediscovered by new generations. All of them are an inseparable part of the independent scene and independent Ukraine.

Lyana Mytsko, director of the Municipal Art Center, author of the idea of the exhibition: “Non-pop Ukrainian music is usually called the cultural underground – although it is a real vibrating membrane of our country’s independence. We will bring together excellent researchers, music-minded designers and architects in the Municipal Art Center to build a chronology of our musical history and present and start a great project called “Music of Freedom”.

“Music of Freedom” is almost the first attempt to connect the Ukrainian musical phenomena of the last 40 years into a single story. Constancy, heredity, tradition — things that do not exist without our care and constant intervention, we also need to work with them.

From one-of-a-kind self-made tapes to viral tracks on SoundCloud; from naive regional television reports to highly artistic music videos; from self-published underground magazines to multi-circulation music glossies — and back to self-publishing, but already on the pages of social networks — independent Ukrainian musicians, reviewers and selectors have been experimenting with sound for decades, pushing culture forward and upward, creating their own worlds. Some became superstars; others have disappeared, but are now being rediscovered by new generations. All of them are an inseparable part of the independent scene and independent Ukraine.

Olena Pogonchenkova, curator and researcher of the “Music of Freedom” project, author of “Bubblegum zine”: “The topics and problems we face today did not arise yesterday, but were also relevant for previous generations, only embodied in artifacts of other times. A selection of artifacts and zeitgeists — from analog to digital, from paper collages to prints on a 3D printer, from self-made posters to technologies with the involvement of AI — search on “Music of Freedom”.

Nazar Sheshuryak, curator and researcher of the “Music of Freedom” project, founder of “Amnesia”: “We want to show that the exceptional surge of culture that we are seeing now did not arise out of nowhere. Today’s young musicians continue the cultural legacy of previous generations – so let’s see where the legs, arms and voices of the new Ukrainian Renaissance grow from.”

Visitors will learn what the first Ukrainian raves looked like, how to turn a children’s toy into a musical noise instrument, and which experimental bands made it to Territory A. In addition, they will be able to “interact” with some exhibits of the exhibition, discover new bright names of Ukrainian music, as well as participate in a number of educational events, discussions and entertainers within the program.

During the entire exhibition, a collection will be held for the organization Musicians Defend Ukraine — a charity fund supporting figures of the Ukrainian music industry who are currently at the front.

From December 27, 2023, you can view and listen to the exhibits of the exhibition, chat with the authors and musicians at the Lviv Municipal Art Center (11 Stefanyka St., gate code 27).