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The Bakhtovs’ House Arts Association is a creative laboratory
of Vladimir and Tetiana Bakhtov, artists with unique life-style
and creativity, open for cooperation with creative
individuals and cultural institutions.
Check out our large-scale experimental projects:
land-art, terra-theatre, heliograffiti (drawing with light),
as well as classical works of graphics, painting,
watercolor, art photo, engraving, etc.
summer 2024
UKRAINIAN ODYSSEY
Etchings by Volodymyr Bakhtov for the poem by Lina Kostenko
The Treasury of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine invites you to make an odyssey moving along artistic, literary and historical trails, which lead from ancient to modern Ukraine.
The exhibition is made around etchings by Volodymyr Bakhtov – the Honored Artist of Ukraine, a member of the National Union of artists of Ukraine and the holder of the silver medal in the nomination «Graphics» for the series of etchings from the cycle «Small Rivers of Ukraine» from the «Grand Palais» Paris Salon. Since the time of Homer, the main feature of an odyssey as a form of a journey has been its ending: despite ordeals, the protagonist finally returns home. Volodymyr Bakhtov has had his own life odysseys: a trip along large and small rivers of Ukraine, a participation in the expedition across the Black and Mediterranean Seas aboard the Ivlia ship, a modern reconstruction of an ancient Greek bireme. He and his wife, the artist Tetiana Bakhtova, repeated the route overland after a full-scale invasion started.
The exhibition is some sort of return home. Since 24.02.2022 theBakhtovs’ House, a house and studio created by Volodymyr and Tetiana not far away from the ruins of the ancient city of Olbia near the village of Parutyne in the Mykolai oblast, have been under constant threat of destruction.
Nevertheless, the author’s etchings keep his creative spirit in Kyiv, the heart of Ukraine, while he, like millions of Ukrainians, has to stay abroad.
Lina Kostenko’s poem-ballade «Scythian Odyssey», published by the «Lybid» publishing house in 2020, was illustrated with the etchings created under the influence of interpreting the ancient codes of Ukraine. The protagonist of «Scythian Odyssey» was making a trip and sank in the Supii-river, a tributary of the Dnipro, with his goods – bronze vessels. Unlike the poem’s character being fictitious, the bronze vessels are real. Some of them are on display.
A long odyssey of Ukraine in search of self-identity and struggling for freedom and independence has always been an ordeal. Few nations on Earth paid so dearly for the right to live freely on their own land. However, the Ukrainians find the strength to revive again and again. One of the sources of this strength is a rich history of the people, who, in particular, hassome ancient elements in their genome. The cultural code includes a desire to work, learn and develop as well as an age-old longing for freedom.
summer 2022
30 Years of Presence.
Contemporary Ukrainian Artists
A three-volume edition of 30 Years of Presence. Contemporary Ukrainian Artists art book is finally published today by ArtHuss Publishing House. The author and inspirer of the project is Ihor Abramovych and @abramovych.art.
The pandemic, and then the war have delayed the publication of this book for a year and a half, but despite the difficulties of wartime, we finally did it.
Conceived in relatively stable times, the project was planned to become a unique story, a visual archive of the times we live in. The structure of the album is built on the “one author – one art project” principle and comprises a total of 100 hundred authors. The BAKHTOVS’ HOUSE is represented in the album by the composition “Marble and Terracotta” from our People. Heroes. Gods. project.
EXPOSITION
IDENTITIES
ASPECTS OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY IN UKRAINE
PEOPLE. HEROES. GODS is our conceptual project, which we promote step by step in Europe. One of such steps is our participation in the photo exhibition “IDENTIFICATION. Aspects of photography of modern Ukraine” in Strassbourg, France.
Men. Heroes. Gods.
exhibition by Volodymyr and Tetiana Bakhtovs
with support of The Hellenic Foundation for Culture
For years, projects and traditional works by the Bakhtovs’ House have been a success at numerous personal and collective exhibitions in leading exhibition halls of Ukraine/USSR and worldwide, published in leading art magazines and catalogs, and are on display at Bakhtovs House Studio and Museum every summer season.
Projects
During the summer season, the Bakhtovs’ House turns into a center of contemporary art, gathering like-minded people to implement together interactive art projects, mostly related to ancient culture and the history of the Northern Black Sea region.
We welcome partners and creative participants in the implementation of new projects and artistic performances in the historical space of Olbia as well as various other locations.
Art
The works of Vladimir and Tetiana feature pronounced individual characters, but quite a lot of works within the framework of their projects are created together.
The Bakhtovs’ House has founded a Graphics Cabinet, which involves the publication of limited-edition engravings in the course of the author’s performance, as well as holding master classes in various printing techniques.
The Bakhtovs’ House art gallery regularly hosts art exhibitions and sales of paintings, graphics, sculpture, photography, etchings, gravures, arts and crafts to decorate your home or office, become a unique gift or take a worthy place in a connoisseur’s collection.
The Bakhtov Couple
Preserving the Spirit of Olbia — an ancient archaeological site in Ukraine
More than twenty-five years ago, a family of artists, Volodymyr and Tetiana Bakhtov, moved from Mykolayiv to the village of Parutyne, near Olbia — a national historic archaeological preserve of the ancient Greek settlement. In their own backyard, they decided to recreate the lifestyle of the Mediterranean people.
Thanks to the Bakhtov family’s efforts their street was officially renamed Herodotus Street.
They continue to draw attention to Olbia with their activities and amazing performances.
Artist’s Lifelong Journey
Artists are capable of creating their own worlds. In travels or in forced migrations, they seek confirmation of the authenticity and truthfulness of their creations.
The smaller model of the Bakhtovs’ world rests on the banks of the Dnieper-Bug estuary in southern Ukraine. In the south, it is the sandy Kinburn Spit cutting through the estuary and the Black Sea, and in the north – the archaeological site of Olbia, the northernmost point of the ancient Oikumene.
