GUNIA Project x Honchar Museum: an art album about Ukrainian cultural heritage

In this way, museum workers, creative personalities, art managers and scientists want to present Ukrainian cultural heritage and visualized historical memory to the world.

Ivan Honchar is an outstanding Ukrainian public figure, sculptor, artist and founder of a well-known private museum of folk culture, where a unique collection of antiquities from different regions of Ukraine was stored and exhibited. He had a vision to create an illustrative history of the Ukrainian people - to show the historical and cultural identity of various villages and cities of Ukraine, which was rapidly disappearing before his eyes, to show the aesthetic wealth of the Ukrainian nation in clothing, types, crafts, customs, architecture and picturesque landscapes through old photographs.

Through its design and artistic aesthetics, the publication conveys non-verbal knowledge about Ukraine's identity, aspirations, and the stories it tells. It stands as a powerful statement, presenting to Ukraine and the world the authentic fabric of national memory—preserved, restored, and modernized.

Now the project team is rethinking the precious legacy of Ivan Honchar, therefore, the album included materials from all regions of Ukraine, but it pays the greatest attention to those areas that were most affected by the humanitarian and man-made disasters of the last century, as well as the destruction of the current Russian-Ukrainian war.

The current moment in the history of Ukraine is both dramatic and full of great potential. During the full-scale war with Russia, a fundamental transformation of values continues - i.e. Ukraine is formulating its new actual identity, finally returning to the cultural field shared with Europe and the whole world.

The 18th and 20th-century totalitarian regimes systematically destroyed our cultural heritage, repressing those who conveyed values through culture. This left a deceptive facade for citizens, fostering an inferiority complex. Design and aesthetics convey non-verbal knowledge about our identity. This publication boldly presents the genuine tapestry of national memory—preserved, restored, and modernized—for Ukraine and the world.

Project team

Petro Honchar, director of the National Center of Folk Culture "Ivan Honchar Museum"

"It is known that for the last thirty years of his life, Ivan Honchar was in opposition to the Soviet government and wore the brand of a "bourgeois nationalist." It was at a time when, after Khrushchev's "thaw", the smallest manifestations of democracy and national self-awareness were suppressed. Telephone threats, arson, blackmail and provocations followed, and then the KGB's proposal: either publicly renounce your views and have everything an artist needs, including fame, commissions, and wealth, or live in isolation, in fact under house arrest. And probably, if he had chosen the first, few would have condemned him: most of his acquaintances and friends at that time were already intimidated, and the most active were in prison, and the father had almost no moral support. The situation was so oppressive and hopeless that the light could only be seen in the proposals of the KGB. But Ivan Honchar chose the most difficult and purest - serving the truth. And he was inspired and supported in this by his boundless love for his people."

Maryna Hrymych, scientific curator of the publication

"I am a person who works with texts of traditional culture all my conscious life, but... mainly with verbal texts. In this project, I had a lucky opportunity to dive into the world of Ukrainian visual culture and work with another category of texts, where sometimes quite understandable, and sometimes mysterious plots were imprinted in old photos. They were passionately collected by Ivan Honchar, starting in the 1960s, he carefully selected the most important ones, in his opinion, for his multi-volume album, lovingly decorating it with his own drawings and leaving lapidary comments, having specially developed an artistic font for this! These visual plots are very different. They contain both our aesthetics and our cultural heritage - material and immaterial, unfortunately, to a large extent lost, they also contain historical lessons of the 20th century. and even encrypted messages from Ivan Makarovych to us today, of which I would name the main one: let's remember!"

Natalia Kamenska and Maria Gavrilyuk, co-founders of the GUNIA Project

"We are inspired by the heritage of Ukrainian and world decorative and applied art. In our work, we interpret the aesthetics of different historical eras and support the further development of crafts. We consider it important to demonstrate Ukrainian art on the world stage.

We understand the importance of publishing such an album at the present moment, as we strive to completely rediscover the Ukrainian code for our future generations and make the Ukrainian voice heard and recognized in the world.

Therefore, we are happy and inspired to join forces with the Ivan Honchar Museum to implement this project."

Anna Kuts, designer and art director of the publication

"As history shows, in the most difficult times, cultural development accelerates its pace in a geometric progression. It would seem that resources and opportunities are becoming fewer. And this acute artistic opposition is actualized more than ever. It was also a mouthpiece during the sixties, with the terrible regime of destruction of everything that was subject to the separation of the Soviet Union and the claim for independent Ukraine. For which we (if I may say for everyone) are grateful to Ivan Makarovych. Because his work throughout his life was preserved, not destroyed, not burned. And it exists now, today, and it's a miracle! And today, in my opinion, it is important to raise all archives, all possible materials that will once again remind us who Ukrainians are, how we were formed, and answer the question "How will we be formed in the future?". The latter is rhetorical for each of us."

About Ivan Honchar Museum

The Ivan Honchar Museum National Centre of Folk Culture is an open art and culture, educational, scientific and recreational space. It fosters knowledge and experience in the field of traditional folk culture.

In contemporary society, the museum functions as the caretaker of the past and the leader of new visions and ideas. Together, these factors actively shape the future.

The museum was created based on Ivan Honchar’s ethnographic collection and inspired by his social and cultural activities.

Our Mission: To build a society that values, preserves, and maintains Ukrainian cultural heritage and contemporary forms of traditional folk culture into the future.

About GUNIA Project

Gunia Project is a brand of exceptional interior items & accessories produced on the basis of traditional ethnic cultures.

Gunia Project was founded in 2019 by Natasha Kamenska and Maria Gavryliuk, and as of now, it has already become the choice of Kylie Jenner and Vogue US. GUNIA Project was featured in Vogue, Architectural Digest, Forbes, Financial Times, and WWD.

The brand employs folk crafts and gives heed to the slightest details of traditional culture to create designer artisanal pieces perfectly fit for the needs of everyday life. Each collection is a unique combination of design thoughts and deep ethnographic research from different parts of Ukraine.

www,honchar.org.ua/en

www.guniaproject.com/

Photos: Ivan Honchar Museum and GUNIA Project