The phenomenal (in scale and design) Freedom Square in Kharkiv, Ukraine--established in the 1920s--is under threat of serious kitschification. Please consider adding your name to this open letter to Ukrainian President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. To add your signature to the open letter please send your request to: orysia2011@gmail.com
An excerpt of the letter is posted below:
"When the monument to Lenin was taken down on the Freedom Square in September 2014, the question arose: how to rethink and redesign the square, a place highly significant for Kharkiv's visual image, a world-famous monument of the 1920s and 1930s architecture and urban planning?...
"On November 2, 2016, the Kharkiv city council announced a 'blitz open competition' for a new monument to be situated on Freedom Square. This competition violated the law in several ways: it was announced as charitable (the winner would not receive a prize), the type of competition was not specified (even though the character of the place calls for an international competition and an international expert jury), and the competition's call for submissions contained neither the essence of the problem to be resolved, nor the criteria by which submissions would be judged. There were no public hearings regarding the fate of this place. Just three months later, on February 3, 2017, the winning submission was announced: an 86-meter decorative column, topped by an angel with a cross, which crudely destroys the unified historical appearance of the square. This winning project has countless analogues in the world while its originality and artistic value are doubtful, to say the least. Kharkiv city residents have already called the project 'odoroblo,' which in Ukrainian means 'a monster.'" ...