Cultural dimension

Stories of Crimea

«Stories of Crimea» is a multimedia immersive installation that allows visitors to dive into Crimea’s history and culture. The story’s three layers are showcased through different visual images:

  • dynamic development and turning points in the millennial history of Crimea are depicted through sand animation;
  • bright nature, picturesque landscapes;
  • sights that will take your breath away are seen through paintings by Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar artists, while ornek traditional patterns emphasize the unique power of Crimean Tatar culture.

The history of Crimea is amazing, turbulent, and restless, dating back to the times when the earth was inhabited by mammoths and Neanderthals. Over the centuries, dozens of tribes, ethnic groups, and peoples shaped up and lived on the peninsula. Crimean Tatars, Karaites, and Crimean Tatars are today considered indigenous peoples of Ukraine. Historically, they’ve been formed in Crimea and have no other homeland than Ukraine.

The wheel of Crimean history once prompted the setup of the Crimean Khanate (the Crimean Tatar state), as well as the annexation of the peninsula by Russia’s Catherine II, and people’s oppression on the peninsula, and then the beginning of the revival within the young democratic Ukrainian state, preceding the illegal seizure and temporary occupation by Russia. However, we believe that Crimea will again become a free and prosperous peninsula on the map of Ukraine and the World.

Multimedia, sand animation, video art, paintings.

Concept and Creative Directing: Tais Poda.

Sand Animation: Kateryna Dzyuba and Tetiana Horina.

Ornaments: Rustem Skibin.

Music: Usein Bekirov.

Multimedia: RocknLight Multimedia (Oleksii Bereziuk, Olena Semak, Vladyslava Schepynska, and Serhiy Zhuchenko).

Paintings (from collections): Rustem Eminov, Yuri Khimich, and Zubeir Kadri-Zade.

Tesseract CRIMEA

The country’s integrity and unity is the main value of our society. A person and their head lead the development of the whole in a certain direction.

Everyone who interacts with the installation through touchpads casts their virtual «voice» for a united country. The sensor addresses the rhythm pulse and translates it into a virtual «voice» – visual products, points that help construct the general pattern created to access other voices. When combined, the points generate an installation that varies depending on touches. Visualization looks alive – it gets constantly updated and dynamically developed. The number of those who touch the sensor and leave a trace of their warmth is counted and displayed on the meter.

In view mode, the installation unfolds on the screen, with the traditional Crimean Tatar pattern «ornek» applied. Multiple columns are formed using statistics relating to Crimea over the years of Ukraine’s independence.

The interactive multimedia installation has been created precisely for the Crimea Platform Summit. The project offers a new approach to designing and presenting three-dimensional art objects and urban sculpture.

Authored by Serhiy Nizhynsky.

Curated by Kateryna Rai.

Metal construction 4.75 m.

Four 1×1 m LED screens with a touchscreen.

Crimea Symbols

We all have our own idea of Crimea. But what is it, really? What do we know about its inhabitants and culture? And, most importantly, why for each of us Crimea is part of Ukraine?

In the project, the symbols of Crimea are revealed through the recollections of the 10 characters who were born on the peninsula, have Crimean roots, or lived there long enough to call it home. Each of them tells about a symbolic object that for them personally is inextricably linked with their life in Crimea. These 10 objects, along with a series of 10 photographs by Roman Pashkovsky, form the project’s exposition.

It has been designed to create a sense of belonging and presence. The objects showcased seem to have just been used, still warmed by life, with a bitter hint of loss and confident hope. Each of them is primarily about a certain person, their personality. After all, Crimea stays with us every day, and these are stories about all of us.

Cultural Treasures of Crimea

An interactive video wall opens the door to the peninsula’s cultural treasures, which are inaccessible today due to the temporary occupation of Crimea by Russia. Tangible and intangible heritage, which was left unprotected and is now being destroyed by the occupying authorities, requires immediate attention of the international community in order to preserve it for future generations.

You are offered to see photos and learn about objects that are the heart of the peninsula’s cultural heritage:

  • Scythian gold is an artifact collection dating back to ancient Crimean settlers, which is a unique heritage of world culture. Part of the Scythian gold collection, which belongs to Ukraine’s museum fund, has for the past seven years been the subject of an international lawsuit Ukraine lodged against Russia and is yet to be returned to Ukraine.
  • Tauric Chersonesos and the Genoese Fortress are the remnants of ancient civilization and a medieval trading port now being destroyed, vandalized by Russian authorities.
  • The Khan Palace in Bakhchisaray  is the main architectural monument of the Crimean Tatars, which is being subjected, under the guise of restoration works, to destructive actions by Russian authorities.
  • Crimean Tatar traditions are part of intangible heritage of the indigenous people of Ukraine: folk art, language, cuisine, and religious life. Their further development is hindered as they are being oppressed in the temporarily occupied Crimea.

Letters / messages / to Crimea

While Crimea remains under occupation, we cannot get there, talk to the people living there, visit memorial sites, navigate our favorite hiking trails in the mountains, enjoy fragrant aromas of juniper and thyme, sway on the sea waves, and learn more about the culture and history of the peninsula. However, it’s important for us to keep in touch and send letters, writing about our grief, but also support and hope for meeting again as soon as possible.

Through the Letters to Crimea interactive portal, guests of and participants in the Crimea Platform Summit are offered to send their messages or greetings to the peninsula, its inhabitants, family and friends, cities and villages, mountains and sea, heritage or home… and to see how the message has been delivered to Crimea almost immediately.