The Dutch Datcha. Fulco’s Treffers art-residence
The hobbies may be different. Deferent directions of art, travelling, music, or even the whole country and its culture. It was kind of “love at first sight” that happened to the Dutch urbanist Fulco Treffers, when he visited Ukraine several years ago.
Business trip to Ukraine and visit to a typical country cottage have become Fulco’s new experiences. Then appeared a dilemma: either to travel more often to Ukraine, or to bring a small piece of it to the Netherlands. Choosing the second path, Treffers created in his native Eindhoven “The Dutch Datcha” – a residence for artists, musicians, architects, designers, writers, philosophers, dancers and actors. Any of the art activists can visit Fulco’s Ukrainian country house in the Dutch performance. “Especially welcomed artists from Ukraine,” – urbanist says.
This October during the Dutch Design Week festival in the space of The Dutch Datcha was an evening party-presentation of Ukrainian design. The organizers were Fulco Treffers and cultural manager Olena Oranska, who presents the Art-East + Art-West project, and has been one of the curators of the Ukrainian MODERN_ISM project at the Dutch Design Week. The art evening also supported the Ukrainian embassy in the Netherlands.
Special guests were Ukrainian designers who took part in this year’s MODERN_ISM project. All the guests of this evening had an opportunity to taste Ukrainian national cuisine and visit the art performance by designer Masha Reva. The main speakers were Treffers, art manager Mariam van Shayk speeches, Olena Oranska and the ambassador of Ukraine to the Netherlands Vsevolod Chentsov. The curator of the MODERN_ISM project Olga Bogdanova spoke about Ukrainians as a creative nation that wants to develop and work in partnership.
Present guests from Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands, according to Bogdanova, noted that Ukraine is a country with huge business potential and prospects for cooperation. “Masha’s emotional performance, a video about Ukraine showing the versatility and creativity of our country and, in fact, a separate exposition consisting of three of our objects from Inna Pedan, Ira Terekh and Zhenya Puklych – all this was on The Dutch Datcha evening. I think that this is one of the best promoters of Ukraine, which I have seen, – says Olga Bogdanova. – During the evening, Treffers was very impressed by the fact that right now Ukrainians are building their country, because in the Netherlands, such an expression is a nonsense, and in our country, almost every resident involved in this process”.
Literally, 10 days after the Dutch Design Week Fulco Treffers visited Kyiv, where PROSTIR 86 talk to him. His short interview is in our video down below.