Yaroslav and Ingigerda. A millennial Ukrainian-Swedish love story at the Bouquet Kyiv Stage festival

(Rubric “Point of view”)

Myroslava Makarevych

“We are one of the architects in Europe. In particular, modern Europe. We are Europe. The love story of Ingigerda and Yaroslav the Wise is a vivid testimony to this.”

Maxim Kolomiets

August 15 in Sophia of Kyiv the seventh annual festival of high art begins Bouquet Kyiv Stage.

And on August 16, the premiere of a musical performance will be shown at the festival “Yaroslav and Ingigerda: Life Story-Love Story”. This project is an artistic reminder of Ukraine's place in Europe and its importance and can become another effective tool of cultural diplomacy.

In particular, the play reveals Ukraine's long-standing ties with Sweden.

Relations between the two peoples date back to the times of Ukraine-Russia and the Viking campaigns. And that is why the lessons of history, which can be conveyed today by talented art projects that are able to overcome any borders and barriers, are particularly valuable.

The impulse to create

More than a year ago, the Dom Meister Klas cultural center offered to hold a festival in Sweden. It was then that the idea arose to create an art project that would reveal the strong historical ties between Ukraine and Sweden, which were established by the union Prince Yaroslav the Wise and Swedish Princess Ingigerda.

“The very story of the princely couple is extraordinary, romantic, shrouded in legends and secrets,” says the initiator of the project, the founder of the Dom Master Klas cultural center, co-founder of the Bouquet Kyiv Stage festival Iryna Budanska. – The young 16-year-old beautiful Swedish princess Ingigerda lived her happy life in her native Sigtuni (a city in central Sweden, one of the most important cities in Sweden, a political and religious center in the era of early Christianization) had a fiancé and dreams for the future, but she was forced to marry Prince Yaroslav of Kyiv, who was much older than her, was not handsome, and also limped. It was a marriage of convenience for royalty and seemed to have no chance of being happy. But it happened differently. Grand Duke Yaroslav and Princess Ingigerda (Iryna) of Kyiv lived together for more than 30 happy years, had seven children and, most importantly, their union contributed to the flourishing of Kyivan Rus – its statehood, economy, culture, diplomacy, and established powerful centuries-old ties between the Kyivan state and Europe”.

So, it was not for nothing that Prince Yaroslav the Wise was called the father-in-law of Europe: all the children of the couple had marriage ties with European ruling dynasties, which contributed to the further enrichment of European history and power.

Materialization of images

The visual component became the backbone of the work on the project, its backbone. They were invited to materialize the idea artists and designers Alina and Karina Gaevi.

Sisters Gaevi, cousins, great-granddaughters Maria Primachenkostarted painstaking work on creating illustrations, images for “Yaroslav and Ingigerda: Life Story-Love Story” a year ago. They carefully studied historical sources and scientific research of the period of the reign of Grand Duke Yaroslav.

It was important for the Gayev sisters to find as complete information as possible about Ingigerda and Yaroslav, about Ukraine-Rus and Kyiv, about that period in general. The frescoes and ornaments of St. Sophia's Cathedral were used in their drawings (historical materials kindly provided by the scientific staff of St. Sophia of Kyiv).

Sofia of Kyiv was one of the centers of Christianity and a powerful educational center of its time and played a key role in the life of Yaroslav the Wise's family.

As the artist Alina Gaeva shared:

“The key work is a portrait of Ingigerda herself. The image was not born immediately. Unfortunately, we didn't have a lot of information to create the portrait itself (only one image is a scan of Ingigerda's skull, which is located in Sofia of Kyiv). Therefore, it was necessary to compare some facts: to find out and study the nature of the city of Sigtuna, where Ingigerda was born, to look at the images of women of that period who lived in the 11th century, their clothes and to study their way of life. That's how Ingigerda got wavy hair, because Sigtuna is located on the shore of the lake, has a maritime climate with fairly high air humidity.”

Mystkini were very fond of the process of illustration, as a result many illustrative masterpieces were born, which in synthesis with music Maksym Kolomiyets created a wonderful animated film.

Alina Gaeva:

“The animated film “Yaroslav and Ingigerda: Life Story-Love Story” is a metaphorical look at the real life of real people, behind whom stood powerful states and complex personal path and development. This project demonstrates durability, historical durability, architectural and artistic durability. Shows what happened more than 1000 years ago. Proves that we are the descendants of a powerful state, we have centuries-old soil under our feet for the formation of a clear future.”.

Musical canvas

“We aimed to tell this story of almost a thousand years ago in a modern artistic language, understandable for different generations, but, first of all, for young people,” shares Iryna Budanska. – So, the music in “Yaroslav and Ingigerda” is electronic, written especially for the project by the talented composer Maksym Kolomiits. We had no doubt that it should be Maxim, because the project required depth, subtlety, nobility, and an understanding of the historical context – all this is in the composer and his music.”.

Maxim Kolomiets – one of the most successful young Ukrainian composers of our time, oboist, author of operas, orchestral and ensemble music for various compositions, works for the choir, solo instruments, electronic music and music for theater performances.

Ukrainian composer who currently lives in Leipzig, commissioned The Metropolitan Opera for the second year he has been working on an opera about Ukrainian children kidnapped and deported by Russia, with a libretto by an American playwright George Brantthe premiere of the opera is expected in the 2027 or 2028 season.

As for the creation of the project “Yaroslav and Ingigerda: Life Story-Love Story”, as Maksym Kolomiets pointed out, working on it became an interesting and very non-linear quest for all team members.

“The ideas for the music itself began to emerge after I received the first visual images, sketches… I set myself the goal of creating a hermetic spatial-acoustic world in which any actions of the characters turn into a thousand-year history, they leave their reflection in eternity, they gaze majestically into it. I was inspired by the imaginary image of Ingigerda, standing on the seashore, looking into the distance, searching with her eyes – over the horizon – a far, far, unknown country, with which her whole future life will be inextricably linked, and the reign of which will become a legend for all future generations for thousands of years. Perhaps, such an experience is the greatest that a person can comprehend. And it was this complex emotion that I tried to reproduce in my music.”

Historical series

It so happened that the festival in Sweden, which gave impetus to the creation of this Ukrainian-Swedish project, did not take place for various reasons. But everything has its own destiny. Therefore, in the opinion of all, without exception, the creators of the artistic story about the love story of Yaroslav and Ingigerda, the premiere of this project was simply destined to take place where this great story began, namely – in Sofia of Kyiv, next to the place where Ingegerda herself was buried almost a thousand years ago.

The love story of Yaroslav and Ingigerda inspires the continuation.

The cultural center Dom Meister Klas has already thought about creating a kind of “series” about the children of the couple Yaroslav and Ingigerda, who continued and strengthened ties with the royal families of European states of that time, which would reveal the historical ties of Ukraine with other European countries – France, Norway, Hungary, Germany, England.

Iryna Budanska:

“Sofia of Kyiv still has many interesting historical secrets that are waiting to be revealed to the world through art. So, when Boris Johnson, while in the position of Prime Minister of Great Britain, visited Kyiv and, in particular, Sofia of Kyiv, he was given evidence of the continuous dynastic connection of the family of the great prince of Kyiv with the British royal family through the line of Queen Anne, and about stay of British soldiers in military service with the Kiev princes. So, it is likely that soon we will create a new project about how the descendants of Yaroslav the Wise became the rulers of Scotland and England.”

A message to the world

Iryna Budanska:

“In my opinion, such projects are very important and relevant today. First, we learn about new facts of our history, often very unexpected. Such projects encourage us to delve deeper into the history of Ukraine, provide an understanding of the European background for the development of our statehood, culture, and mentality. Ukraine was not born just three decades ago, but is the direct heir of a great state with a thousand-year history. Today it is very important, first of all for ourselves, and, of course, for the world. This understanding and knowledge is a unique and natural means of preserving cultural and national identity, and it helps us feel proud and develop the capacity for self-knowledge. Moreover, it emphasizes our close ties with Europe, which were established long before the present day..

Maxim Kolomiets:

“Right now is the answer to the question 'who are we and where are we from?' becomes fateful for Ukrainians and conditions the entire further development of our state. But if we try to understand how and why what happened, we will come to the conclusion that the lack of self-awareness, self-identity of the nation in many ways became the trigger of the modern war (as well as many previous ones). It is the false idea that we have something in common with the barbarians of the north, something that we can build together with the horde, and led to the wanderings of our people for hundreds, hundreds of years.

I think that in addition to creating interesting music and animation, the mission of this project is also to understand a simple idea: our roots are in Europe, in the depth of civilization. And this is not a metaphor at all. This is reality. “Ukraine is Europe” is not just a slogan from the time of the Maidan. Our roots are in Europe, our ancestors are Europeans. We are Europeans. We are a civilization. And the purpose of creating this metaphorical project about love is very specific and not only about love: we have to remember and realize who we are and where we come from. We are one of the architects in Europe. In particular, modern Europe. We are Europe. The love story of Ingigerda and Yaroslav the Wise is a vivid testimony to this.”

• The premiere of the musical performance “Yaroslav and Ingigerda: Life Story-Love Story” will take place in Kyiv, in Sofia Kyivska on the evening of August 16.
• The seventh annual high art festival Bouquet Kyiv Stage will continue from September 15 to 18 and will traditionally combine Ukrainian visual art, music, theater, cinema and conversations under the Ash tree in the yard of Sofia of Kyiv.

• At the Bouquet Kyiv Stage 2024 festival, in addition to the “Kyiv program”, we will present the art of our legendary cities – Kharkiv, Odesa, Kherson, in particular, works of art that were created by artists in their hometowns to the sounds of air raids and during enemy rocket bombardments.

Myroslava Makarevych – has been writing about culture for over 30 years, the author of the book “Who Holds the Cultural Front of Ukraine”, which in 2023 won the competition of the Ukrainian Book Institute.

The opinions expressed in the “Point of view” column convey the views of the authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect the position of Radio Liberty