Exclusive Love Story: Sleeping Beauty Awakened!
Taras Polataiko is a kind and talented man, an artist born in the Ukraine, he now lives in Canada. A work by him, I should say a movement, has struck a cord with journalists around the world, a real life tale of none other than Sleeping Beauty. As a work of not only art but truly interactive social movement, the artists conception promises a new era of social engagement. Running through tomorrow only there in Kyiv, art meets society – meets our internal quest – what could be more compelling?
I caught up with Taras, as fate would have it, on Facebook after having covered his Ukraine fairy tale on our Argo Travel News site this morning. What ensued? Well, you will be touched to know… Wait! Fairy Tales have happy endings, not beginnings, read on.
Once Upon A Time…
You know the story, but did you know Sleeping Beauty is about as timeless a tale as people ever told? Some day the original folk tale was an allegory meant to depict Winter’s bitter embrace (sleep) onto our fair princess (nature) who is then rescued or awakened by Prince Charming (Spring). Of course logic dictates this thematic to be as true as the seasons themselves.
Then we have Walt Disney’s variant on the silver screen, which was derived from none than Charles Perrault’s or Little Briar Rose, and a hint of those Germanic Brothers Grimm perhaps. Whether the story is from Basile’s ”Sole, Luna, e Talia”, or the Norse valkyrie Brynhildr though, the ethereal and eternal core of the tale touches us all sooner or later. What we all truly seek, enchanting love.
Sleeping Beauty and an enchanted kiss.
In case you have not read the stories, Sleeping Beauty is on exibit at the National Art Museum of Ukraine in Kyiv. Taras Polataiko’s artistic interpretation, for lack of a better description, is to set eternal themes in motion for not only the art, but as a real emotional conduit for people on several levels. The most obvious intent being to reveal (if possible) our immutable desire for true love – and in this regard Taras is showing the world Sleeping Beauty in the personages of 5 young ladies who agreed (volunteered) to do nothing less than marry whosoever could awaken them with a kiss. Sleeping Beauty, and of course any Prince Charming so desiring to awaken her (and agree to marry should she awake), in effect becomes the ultimate living social commentary perhaps – it struck you, didn’t it?
Alas, Sleeping Beauty awakens
In A Land Far, Far, Next Door
Fast forward to Friday, and three days left for people in Ukraine to play our their Prince Charming (or Princess, Taras made if possible) dreams. The exhibit closes tomorrow. But let us not forget the multi-dimensional aims of this wonderful exhibition. The artist foresaw awakening more than a city’s quest for real love, Sleeping Beauty represents a nation asleep under the spell of tyranny too. Taras Polataiko told me over Facebook:
“…Somehow it shows so much about the society. In Ukraine it showed the most wonderful, gentle and magical aspects of the human soul, as well as most ugly corrupt ones (the Ministry of Culture trying to shut it down)…”
The government of President Viktor Yanukovych is called to question to the point that officials have gotten nervous. Taras, for his part, sees the art and expression, the old allegory of natural awakenings, as central to his work in human form. However, political such conceptions of the mind may become though, it is the space where the individual desire meets the collective quest for perfection (true love) that embraces us. You wanted a happy ending, didn’t you?
Happily Every Everyone
Taras had to leave for the museum for this the next to the last day of Sleeping Beauty. Just before he went out the door for the long walk there in Kyiv, I begged him to let me know if the princess were to be awakened by Prince Charming. To my great surprise he said; “One Sleeping Beauty already has, I wish you could have been here to see it!” The sequence of photos you see are the closest thing to a reenactment currently available.
The body language is unmistakable
As it turns out, Prince Charming is actually “Princess Charming” – Taras opened the quest to ladies and gentlemen, you see. If you look at these images, it’s clear, that inexplicable spark of shyness, wonder, the body language that shows that thing far, far past infatuation – the spark of love Taras searched to capture. His concept now breaches so many man made barriers it seems, political ones to the implications of our own sexuality, now crossing gay and lesbian divide that still separates many of us. Herein resides what many will find wondrous about this story. Now we know why some themes are eternal.
Happily Ever After? I asked the artist a parting question; “Do you see Sleeping Beauty exhibited at other cities?” “Yes, of course, we would love to share this with other cities,” he told me jubilantly. It is hard to express here, but this is a very deep feeling and creative man, with a bit of kind humor about him. Having to serve as a combination of security guard, photographer, streaming news man, and organizer for his work, Taras is unassuming too. I can see his wonderful motif played out in museums about the world, the purity and kindness of it – stretch out a bit like a living tapestry. But then, I tend to be a romantic.
Princess Charming and Sleeping Beauty with the press
Can you see Sleeping Beauty in Paris? Ahh! You must be a romantic too. Will Sleeping Beauty and Princess Charming betroth themselves to one another? Once Upon A Time….