The project involves replacing the existing handrail with another object that performs its existing function in a finer manner. In winter the new handrail will radiate warmth as a result of its built-in heating system.
The handrail is a kind of intervention in the public space. The idea was born during my workshops with students of the Fine Arts Department in Kiev, in January 2012. This is a project of an object / sculpture that ideally blends with the context of time and place. It's kind of an artistic gesture addressed to Kiev's inhabitants.
-- says Elżbieta Jabłońska.
The Handrail is engraved with texts written specifically for the occasion by six Ukrainian poets: Sofia Andrukhovych, Les Belei, Dzvinka Matiyash, Tania Maliarchuk, Ostap Slyvynskyi, and Oleksangr Ushkalov. The font was designed by Oksana Kapranova, who won the competition addressed to the students of the Bojchuk Institute of Design and organized by the Polish Institute in Kiev.
The technical aspects of the installation were overseen by the young architect and artist from Kiev Ivan Melnychuk.
This is a project that will affect the lives of Kiev's residents in a practical as well as spiritual way, for it is both a functional object and a work of art resulting from collaboration between Polish and Ukrainian artists. (...) The Handrail that serves as a support for the Kiev’s downtown passers-by will be a support in a physical as well as non-material sense.
– stated the artist.
The project is supported by the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, Shevchenkovskiy District Office in Kiev, residents of Ivan Franko Street who were consulted with regards to the project and Culture.pl
The opening of the project is scheduled for April 2015.
Source: press materials, ed. AS, 2.12.2014/ transl. GS, Feb 2015