Ukrainian Dream: Immersive Legacy Of Maria Prymachenko
The fantastic beasts and flowering landscapes of Maria Prymachenko came to life on the facade of Royal Albert Dock, one of Liverpool's most iconic landmarks: a projection mapping show about the enduring beauty of Ukraine and the light that will outlast the darkness of war.
Ukrainian Dreams was conceived and directed by Tais Poda, commissioned by River of Light festival, co-produced by RocknLight and Greenwich+Docklands International Festival. The Taras Shevchenko National Museum in Kyiv and the Maria Prymachenko Family Foundation provided access to Prymachenko's works from their collections. The score was composed by Dmytro Saratskyi. The project was supported by Arts Council England, British Council, and Liverpool City Council.
Maria Prymachenko spent her life in a small village in the Kyiv region, painting a world of her own imagining: fantastic beasts, flowering meadows, white birds longing for peace, and figures living in quiet harmony with nature. Her works, vivid and wildly inventive, became one of the most beloved expressions of Ukrainian folk art and, after Russia's full-scale invasion began, a symbol of something far larger, inseparable from Ukraine's own fate.
Ukrainian Dreams began with a small collection of artworks that were transformed into something new. Tais re-imagined the archetypal imagery of Prymachenko's canvases to construct a narrative — not merely an animation of paintings, but a story as old as Ukraine itself: the eternal struggle between Darkness and Light, between Destruction and Creation. RocknLight's designers brought this story to life through projection mapping and contemporary visual effects, filling Liverpool's Royal Albert Dock with colour, movement, and meaning. Dmytro Saratskyi's original music intertwined Ukrainian folk traditions, live instrumental recordings, and contemporary electronic sound, giving the imagery its emotional depth.
The story Prymachenko's beasts, birds and flowers tell is timeless, but its ending is specific. In the final moments, light triumphs over darkness. It is an affirmation, quiet but absolute: Ukraine will endure. The dream of a peaceful future is not a fantasy — it is encoded in the oldest symbols of Ukrainian art.
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