Our newspaper (see “Kyiv Polytechnic” No. 1-2, 2024) has already reported on the mosaic panel “Science,” which adorns the facade of Building 18 and is included in the List of Identified Cultural Heritage Objects of Kyiv. However, its creator, monumentalist artist Fedir Tetyanych (1942–2007), is known mainly to specialists. But the first performer of independent Ukraine, whose ideas were ahead of their time and remain relevant to this day, does not deserve to be forgotten.
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Kyiv residents remember the artist primarily for his outrageous public actions, often in fanciful homemade costumes that always attracted attention. His annual performances on Andriivskyi Uzviz on Kyiv Day were also traditional. But Fedir Tetianych was also a writer, painter, graphic artist, poet, and philosopher. He was an artist who was underappreciated during the Soviet period, and unfortunately, a significant part of his monumental works have been lost, while his paintings have been sold for a pittance to Western collectors. He left behind a body of work consisting of many paintings, drawings, diagrams, objects, installations, texts, and poems.
On photo: Fedir TetianychIt is worth noting that Fedir Tetianych's creative legacy is still waiting for its researchers, and perhaps even followers. Among other things, the master created a mysterious alphabet with 12 signs of the day and 12 signs of the night, his own poetic and philosophical system of the Zodiac (finiteness) and Fripuulia (infinity), which are in dialectical interrelation, a project of earthly and cosmic dwellings, and more.
Moreover, he was a creative innovator. In his paintings, poetic works, and speeches at festivals and symposiums, the artist promoted a new morality—the morality of the coexistence of man and nature. At one time, his ability to see beauty in any object, regardless of its consumer value, his unique ecological thinking, and his protest against the thoughtless attitude towards resources inspired him to use household waste in his works. In particular, in the mosaic panel “Skloduvy” (3x14 m) in the administrative building of the Kyiv Art Glass Factory (1974), the creator uses colored smalt and glazed ceramics, as well as chunks of glass knocked out of a cooled furnace, fragments of blown glass products, and other glass debris. The panel has been preserved, but in the 1990s it was covered with plasterboard (located on Lobanovsky Avenue).
On photo: Fedor Tetyanich - Era. Fripulya, 1988.At the same time, while working on the panel at the art glass factory, the artist, inspired by observing the work of the employees, was struck by the idea of creating a theater-factory: "In one of the workshops, the workers worked so well together that their movements became a dance that was pleasant to watch. They achieve such coordination and harmony that they begin to sing. No one can deny it: this is a real theater-factory, where work has become art." He submitted a project to the factory management and the Union of Artists, justifying the social importance of this idea and even including a diagram of the seating arrangement for the audience right in the production workshop. Of course, there was no response and no implementation...
Older folks remember how, in the 1960s and 70s, embossing was really popular in the USSR and was widely used in decorative and applied arts: handmade embossed paintings decorated apartments, and metal plastics were used to decorate public buildings like clubs, cultural centers, and so on. In 1971, Fedir Tetianych created decorative panels “Spring Flowers” and ‘Music’ (6x26 m) using the technique of aluminum embossing for the “Rovesnyk” concert and dance hall (in the Darnytskyi district). It was a grandiose, bold idea, a whirlwind of ideas, thoughts, and feelings that inspired and uplifted. But in just two decades, in the 1990s, the new owners turned the dance floor into a nightclub, and all the monumental decorative elements were lost. The artist also decorated three high-speed tram stations (1973) with his engravings. In particular, two stylistically unique 3x8 m aluminum panels were created for the Hnat Yuri stop. The works disappeared during the reconstruction of the stations in 2009.
Some witnessed it, while others know from history how in the 1960s the world watched with excitement as space was conquered. At that time, space flights demonstrated not only the possibility of overcoming the unknown, but also the insignificance of humans in the face of the immensity of the universe, the fragility of planet Earth, and the interconnectedness of all living things on it. This gave rise to images of Icarus and cosmonauts, who find themselves not only in weightlessness, but also in the uncertainty of existence. The theme of space became a field for artistic reflections on eternity, infinity, and the place of humans in the universe.
On photo: Biotechnosphere. Cities of the Future, 1980s.Years and events passed, but the artist's involvement in historical events remained unchanged. In the early 1990s, the artist created sketches for the Independence Monument space. He was the only one who organized high-profile exhibition performances in the then Lenin Museum (now the Ukrainian House) and performed ritual acts around the statue of the communist leader. As his colleagues joked, he was driving the leader's spirit out of the building.
A notable phenomenon in his work is the development of a capsule for space travel, which he has been working on for the past few years. He uses it as an independent object for decorating public spaces, depicts it in easel and monumental compositions, and uses it as an element of performances. The so-called Biotechnosphere, a multifunctional module, is a structure with a diameter of 2.4 meters, equipped with the latest scientific and technological advances and everything necessary for human survival in the event of a fatal catastrophe on Earth. It is not for nothing that they say that creative people can sense the future. Perhaps the time is not far off when scientists and engineers will be working closely on such a development.