September 2007 · Lviv
The “Red Book of Ukrainian Culture” project
A list of cultural institutions under threat of destruction, modelled on the Red Book of endangered species. First presented at the Publishers’ Forum in Lviv.
The project grew out of the 2007 alarm announcements in defence of Andriivskyi Descent and other cultural institutions: the idea was to keep a record of what had already been lost and what was being lost, as plainly and systematically as endangered species are recorded. It was first presented at the Publishers’ Forum in Lviv together with the “Culture against Vandalism” movement and with the support of Oleksandr Afonin.
About a month later a kindred project appeared, the Kapranov brothers’ “Ukraine — a cultural disaster zone”. When Era FM radio invited the Caravan to talk about the Red Book, it proposed inviting the Kapranovs to the same programme — and there handed the project over to them, rather than duplicating the work.