Yevhen Lysyk got inspired by the graphics and paint artworks made by Picasso, what we can notice in the mythological series of his pieces, in particular in the Minotaur themes. Like Greek mythology, wherein one creature was combined a human and an animal, men and animals, women, and birds were mixed in the one whole by Lysyk as well. In that way, he tried to show the human essences, compassion, and love even in the soul of the most terrible and the most darkness creature. High complex and mental images are permeated with the aspiration to beauty, despite the understanding of the own ugliness.
The understanding the Minotaur as an exile or as a creature, which is not perceived by the society, comes after the rethinking the life around and as a result – the Minotaur was identified with the contemporary human. Like the mythological monster, the person of the XX-XXI centuries walks around in the maze both as in the internal, so as the external. It would seem, the Minotaur transformed from the negative hero to the tragic. Despite on the origin, it doesn’t relate to the world of gods or the world of animals – it is doomed to living in the maze, which is for him both the home and the prison. Sometimes it like a philosopher, who thinks about the structure of the world and its place in it, who understands and takes its fate; sometimes it like a fair and robust creature, who helps people; or sometimes it like a lyric poet, who strive for beauty and love. Whatever it was – a smart being of a human, closed in an animal body, or an animal not able to handle with its human essence, – Minotaur stays the monster because people are making him … stays infinitely lonely.
Ostap Lozynsky
curator of the project
Yevhen Lysyk
scenographer, master of monumental painting, graphic artist
The author of scenography decisions of more than 80 performances both on the stages of Ukraine and abroad. The decorations made by Lysyk are like grandiose wall paintings that impress with their craftsmanship and depth of images.
The artist also left the inheritance of drawings and paintings, which thematically cover the various aspects of the human existence on the earth and the drama of the life, where a despair and hope are constantly changing each other.