Marx Chernega

Marx Chernega. Fisherman and sailor from the small city of Vylkove, in the utmost southwest of Ukraine. We met him by chance while trying to find a captain who would take us on a tour around the many channels in the Danube Delta separating Ukraine and Romania. Most people in the south and west of Ukraine speak only Ukrainian and Russian, which is a tongue out of our league, so when Maks came over and began translating between English and Ukrainian we soon had a deal with Alex the Captain. An hour later we sailed out in a small four passengers motor boat Maks translating Alex’s stories and anecdotes about the Danube Delta with its swamp settlers living in self-build sheds and houses without electricity and internet, growing their vegetables, brewing their vine, chicken, and gooses wandering around freely in this unique timeless corner of Ukraine.

 

Photo: Sila Yalazan
Text: Steen Andersen

 

 

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Starokinnyy Flea Market

Loaded with a plastic bottle of fruity red wine and our Fuji X-T20 camera we strolled a Sunday afternoon through the legendary Starokinnyy Flea Market in Odesa, Ukraine – capturing its unique atmosphere with families and their playful kids, young couples, bachelors, old babushkas, sleepy kozaks, enterprising guys, fashionable girls, soldiers on leave, students and tourist looking for a good find at the many vendors selling second-hand cloth, kitchen items, books, children toys, guns, hand grenades, workshop tools, electronics, car spare parts, workshop tools, statues, jewelry, paintings, toys, pets, vodka, honey, herbs, potent enhancing medicine, and what else there is to be found in Ukraine homes, attics, storage rooms, garages and so on. The flea market is situated outside the streets of the Moldavanka district. A good starting point is Rozkydailivs’ka Street, Odessa. Open 8 AM to 6 PM on weekends.

Photos: Sila Yalazan
Text: Steen Andersen

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Starokinnyy Flea Market #1

 

Starokinnyy Flea Market is a huge sprawling Odessa flea market on the weekends with local vendors for second hand cloth, old weapons and military equipment, electronics, car spare parts, workshop tools, household items, statues, jewelry, paintings, toys, pets and what else there is to be found in Ukraine homes, attics, storage rooms, garages and so. The flee market is situated outside on the streets of the Moldavanka district. A good starting point is Rozkydailivs’ka Street, Odessa. Open 8 AM to 6 PM in weekends.

 

 

Photos: Sila Yalazan
Text: Steen Andersen

 

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Story of Sun Cats (Солнечные котята). Rock band from Odessa.

 

@suncats_od

The band Sun Cats came to our place in Odessa on a Sunday afternoon. Four young guys in their early twenties. Sharing someone’s litter bottles of cider and smoking cigarettes they told us about how it is to be an independent band in Ukraine. They meet in their teens in 2014 when two of them lived in the same small town. Soon they found out that they shared a passion for music and wanted to start a band. So they looked for a drummer and in the process they ended up being a band of four. After one year they had their first concert in the village’s local culture house playing cover numbers. Then they began making their music.

“We are independent,” the Sun Cats tells proudly. “One hundred percent of what we do are paid for by our own money. In that way, everything is under our control.”

Today independent musicians in Ukraine have a much better possibility of recording their albums because they can do it in their home studios and then use social media and concerts to promote. It gives them as artists much more freedom to experiment. Sun Cats’ second album was made like this.

“Most importantly, what we’re trying to do is to create this special atmosphere that gives the feeling of being friendly and open with the people who listing to us, being down to earth.”

Now that they have begun to get a bigger audience, more recognition, and people giving more feedback they are going deeper into the project.

“All this gives us energy and enthusiasm to go further. Not that we have any big dreams or goals. We just want to hang out together, and can’t stop playing music. We feel there are no limits for us, all possibilities are open.”

Advice from Sun Cats
1. Choose a good name. It has to be original!
2. Record Record Record!
3. Reflect on what you did, how you did it, and how you should do it!

Sun Cats are …
Volvakov Valentine – lead-vocal, rhythm-guitar
George Sorokin – drums, backing-vocal
Yarysh Slava – bass-guitar
Ostapuk Maksym – lead-guitar

 

Photos: Sila Yalazan
Text: Steen Andersen

 

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Ivan Herm

Ivan Herm. Film Director. Lives in Odessa. Has his studio at the former ship repair factory SRZ.
@iv_herm

Studied film in Poland for four years. After he finished film school he returned to Ukraine. Even though there are much more possibilities for him as a film director in Poland he feels that Ukraine speaks to him. When walking on the streets in Ukraine, seeing and listing to people he gets an inner reflection that he did not experience in Poland even though he had learned to speak Polish.

“Maybe because Ukraine compared with Poland is a more chaotic place,” Ivan says. “In Poland, things are formalized and controlled while in Ukraine things are uncontrolled, so people much easier go to an extreme point. People have the last decades learned their lesson and know that they can’t plan a fucking thing. The only thing you can trust in is yourself and your chance to enjoy life. People, therefore, live more day to day and don’t think about what will happen to them in five or ten years.”

While in Poland he stopped dreaming when he slept. However, the dream returned when he went back to Ukraine. Dreams are an important part of his work as an artist. He tries to follow the ideas he finds in his dreams and believes that instead of having just one fixed reality you exist somewhere else simultaneously e.g. in your dreams. The thing he likes about dreams is that in your dreams you have to be involved in whatever happens and whatever your situation is, you can’t just close your eyes or walk away. Instead, you can learn more about yourself if you look closer to your dreams.

“There is some sort of energy going on there. Your dreams show that you are not quite the person you think you are. They tell you that there is something unknown inside you and in the world around you. Dreams can surprise you, and take you on a journey of discovery which you can use to enrich both your art and your life.”

Photo: Sila Yalazan
Text: Steen Andersen

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Calamity Again

Dear God, calamity again! …
It was so peaceful, so serene;
We but began to break the chains
That binds our folk in slavery …
When halt! … Again the people’s blood
Is streaming! Like rapacious dogs
About a bone, the royal thugs
Are at each other’s throats again.

Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861) was a famous Ukraine poet, writer, artist, public and political figure. His literary heritage is regarded to be the foundation of modern Ukrainian literature and, to a large extent, the modern Ukrainian language. Shevchenko is also known for many masterpieces as a painter and an illustrator. Shevchenko was politically convicted for explicitly promoting the independence of Ukraine, writing poems about how society was being suppressed by authorities, and ridiculing members of the Russian Imperial House. Contrary to another prominent member of the society who did not understand that their activity could lead to the idea of an independent Ukraine, according to the secret police, Shevchenko was the champion of independence. Taras Shevchenko spent the last years of his life working in exile. Shevchenko died in Saint Petersburg on 10 March 1861 seven days before the reform that abolished the peasant from serfdom (a condition that in many ways was similar to slavery) thought the Russian Empire.

At the entrance to the Taras Shevchenko Central Park of Culture and Recreation is a statue of the poet.

 

Poem: Taras Shevchenko (1854)
Translation: John Weir
Photo: Sila Yalazan
Text: Steen Andersen

 

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Bernie Sander’s Woollen Mittens

We at Die Dada Welt believe that the world will become a better and more fun place as Bernie Sanders dared to challenge the political fashion and wear woolen mittens to Joe Biden’s inauguration.

After the inauguration, Bernie Sanders explained Die Dada Welt how President Joe Biden’s government could unite people of different viewpoints if only everyone was allowed to wear each their woolen mittens.

“It is the weather and the well-being of the world that is my primary concern – not political fashion,” Bernie Sanders stated before he left Capitol Hill to spread the message of the Woolen Mittens.

Photo: Sila Yalazan
Text: Steen Andersen

 

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