"The Wind of Spring" Festival

A. Bludov, A. Malykh, V. Serdiukov & C°

"The Wind” came into existence as a welcome child, - for no reason, just because of love. Colorful kites and gliders that finished their flights nobody knows where; items of white ribbons where all who wished so wrote their hidden aspirations, entrancing prayers that chimed in the wind.

The first festival started on April 28, 1996 , and was called "The 0,7-th jubilee of DZEN". When Oleg Sidor-Gibelinda approached Vitaly Serdiukov (one of organizers) with a question "And what does "The 0,7-th jubilee of DZEN" mean? Without a word to the inquirer, Vitaly pointed at a 0.7-liter bottle of port and the enlightened Oleg retired. The first festival meant not only meeting of the East and the West at Poskotin but also the Kiev own particular conception of "dzen”.

"The Wind of Spring” pulled at the most hidden but very important heartstrings of the Kiev artists having made the holiday very relevant. Its relevance is proved not only by increasing number and broadened geography of participants but also by formation of a stable mythology and large number of "stories” that are connected with this event. These include sudden appearance of the Japanese at the Wind, distribution of coffee "PAUL'G”, dumplings "Shvydko"; performance of "T-studio” theatre; fashion show straight in the rain; apparition of aerial, misty "labyrinth” for wind; a music taken away to the sky by air balls.

The main idea of the festival consists in its communication which was realized through joint "making” and further long emotional recitation of all "matching” and "non-matching” of the festival, its coverage by papers, on TV, in press-releases, catalogues etc. "The Wind of Spring” is a holiday of exchange of ideas among quite different persons united by deliberate musing upon landscape, upon "live” objects-mobiles introduced to it, - their elements vibrate, rotate, waver in the wind, and in such a way distinctly point out at the long hoped-for wind of spring embracing the Kiev hills

Cooperation of "The Wind” with "Undertaking-01, 02” Project, International Art-Festival, theatrical festival "The May Kiev” has been very helpful.

"The Wind of Spring” holiday has passed the stage of "games for grown-ups” and became an annual occasion. We are the witnesses of how the house of cards is transformed into phenomena that are filled with energy of all who co-participate in it, whose hands create live " feeling of the wind of spring.”

Andrey Bludov, on duty in "The Wind".