On a “poor” designer .. What Uzhgorod “does not notice”

Mykola Puneyko is a designer. That is one of those called to create a new quality of environment and not to distort the already established. This is what the Novyny Zakarpattya spoke with him about.

 – Our union of designers wanted to revive the existing design environment, to become part of the Uzhgorod Arts Council, to send our best representatives there – Mykola says. – Because there are still no designers there. And representatives of this institution seem to want to do everything very efficiently, and the results are always the same. Therefore, we have what we have.

– Traveling in Western Europe, you realize that the state of design in Uzhgorod is just terrible. We lag ten years behind our western neighbors not only because of lack of funds, but also because of the cultural level of our businessmen, sponsors and officials.

– Historical centers of Uzhgorod, Mukachevo, Beregovo served as wonderful sets for feature films. The monuments of architecture are notable not only for exteriors but also for interiors. Because, for example, Uzhgorod "Crown" was completely destroyed like Ilovaysk or Debaltseve. The interiors, where movies were filmed once, are gone. Similarly, in the heart of Uzhgorod, on the so-called cross, where the restaurant "Fanfan" is now located, great paintings were destroyed… 

– In one of the issues of the "Novyny Zakarpattya" late last year, there was a piece "The winners of regional awards for 2014 have been announced". There were nominations in culture, literature and art, but not design. The Expert Committee believes that it is not expidient to expand categories due to lack of funds in the budget. Then why wouldn’t we establish non-paid nominations, if only to promote creativity? This detachment from the daily activity, the work for the community is a little depressing for designers. Except for contracts in the field of sacred art at the expense of religious communities, they have almost no government contracts for city improvement and painting of monument facades. Without that, creative people can not realize their creative ideas and show what they can do.

By the way: For Mykola Puneyko, the drawing studio in Sambir transformed into joining Uzhgorod College of Applied Arts named after Adalbert Erdelyi. He was majoring in art pottery, and graduated with perfect grades in all studios. Then, in 2001, after the Lviv Academy of Arts, he became a professional artist and designer.