Ukrainian Rock Voices — From Chervona Ruta 1989 to Maidan 2014

The current exhibition traces the trajectory of Ukrainian rock music over 25 years — from the first all-Ukrainian rock festival Chervona Ruta (Chernivtsi, 17-24 September 1989), which announced the existence of a distinct Ukrainian-language rock scene, to the concerts on Independence Square in 2013-2014 during the Revolution of Dignity. The centre of the exposition is guitars of legendary Ukrainian rock musicians: early instruments of Sviatoslav Vakarchuk (b.1975, Lviv), founder of Okean Elzy (1994); the collection of Kuzma Skriabin (Andriy Kuzmenko, 1968-2015), leader of the band Skriabin, who died in a car accident in the Kharkiv region near Lozova on 2 February 2015; guitars of Oleh Skrypka, leader of VV (Vopli Vidopliassova, founded 1986). A separate section is dedicated to the role of the electric guitar in the Revolution of Dignity — concerts on Maidan Nezalezhnosti during the winter of 2013-2014, when Ukrainian rock musicians played for protesters at minus-twenty degrees. During this period, guitars became instruments of civic resistance alongside the word and the flag. The exhibition places Ukrainian rock music in the national narrative — from hidden underground under Soviet control through the independent scene of the 1990s and 2000s to public resistance on Maidan. The lecture programme is led by musicologists, journalists, and participants of the events.