Ruslan Baginskiy presents a new project dedicated to the work of Mykhailo Dzyndra

"I have always been interested in sculpture and have viewed headwear as sculptural objects," comments Ruslan Baginskiy. "All the headwear featured in the project represents my dialogue with the palette and volumes of Mykhailo Dzyndra. I’ve been long impressed by his works and his significant contribution to Ukrainian art history; so it’s been a while I’ve wanted to share this story with this kind of dialogue approach."

Mykhailo Dzyndra, born in the small village of Demnia grows up among stoneworking craftspeople. In the mid-1930s, Mykhailo moves to Lviv, which leads to a long period of forced immigration; fleeing the soviet regime. At a local market, he exchanges a jacket for a bicycle and leaves the city. After periods in Slovakia and Germany, Mykhailo ends up in the United States where he spends 40 years of his life. It is there, far from the pressure of the totalitarian system, that he discovers modernism.

The artist reinvented himself, destroyed all his realistic sculptures, and began to build his new world of abstract thinking and forms. Only three months after the declaration of Ukraine’s independence in 1991, Mykhailo Dzyndra decides to return home. Here he begins work on his life-long dream – building the first-ever museum of modern sculpture in Ukraine. At a lack of finding external support, he completes the vast project on his own with only the help of his second wife Sofia, who still works at the museum they built together, conducting tours, and welcoming guests.

The museum, located in a pine forest in the village of Bryukhovychi, along with over 800 of Dzyndra’s sculptures brought from the US, is a gift Dzyndra leaves to Ukraine after his passing.