Oleh Tistol

Oleh Tistol developed his "Ukrainian money project" in the mid-1980s. These banknotes reflect his own approach to history, as well as the political and cultural life in Ukraine. They depict real people in fictional, allegorical, or ironic situations, allowing the artist to reinterpret legends and stereotypes that are typical of the Ukrainian national consciousness.
In Tistol's project, money is seen as a cultural and symbolic category. It not only represents the history of national independence (for example, the design for Ukrainian "karbovantsy" in 1918 was created by well-known artists such as Heorhiy Narbut, Mikhail Boichuk, and Alexander Bogomazov), but also anticipates and reflects the main characteristics of contemporary Ukrainian reality. The artist combines Ukrainian "historical brands" in this project, such as the legendary Roxelana, Cossack horsemen, hetmans, and pseudo-baroque décor, with the Soviet aesthetics of stencil plates and clichés. This introduces the phantoms of national mythology into the explicitly "marked spaces" of today's market.

"My art emerged at the edge of the Soviet and post-Soviet times, combining both a critique of Soviet culture and a re-evaluation of its clichés and a vital, joyful and playful atmosphere that significantly defines the appeal of the original 'Ukrainian new wave'. In combining national and soviet symbols, myths, and utopias, I discovered the notion of 'SIMULACRUM' - but an imitation copy with no original, paradoxically self-sustained propaganda as a substitution for the non-existing items. Here we unexpectedly unite propaganda with pop-art." Oleh Tistol

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