Pace of Change in Kiev

I knew that the pace of change is high here in Kiev but I am always surprised how fast things are changing in Kiev… I have been away for only a month and walking down Khreschatik last night I noticed that a swish new shoe store has opened, a flashy adidas flagship store next to it, and a giant drugstore and perfumery and a Samsung mobile phone shop with the latest gadgets are about to open … In addition, footballer Schevchenko adorns almost every billboard in Kiev, advertising the latest sportswear brand… and the huge office building across my apartment is nearing completion (I was told that it is already fully rented out)…

To my dismay I also had to notice that one of my main hunting grounds has also changed within the space of one month: one of the main underpasses underneath the Independence Square now has these luminescent billboards (at the moment still awaiting advertisers); gone are the greenish marble walls where people stand in front and sell flowers, play the guitar or offer their scales for people to be weighed…





Well, in a sense this validates my project even further since I have recorded a fair amount of life down there and an environment how it used to be, an environment that has changed now or is imminently gone…

Luckily for me, some of the ‘old’ life is still to be found:





And well, luckily some other things also stay the same: people are still roaming the streets with beer bottles in their hands, smoking is allowed almost everywhere, the guys have these funny haircuts where the hair at the back is considerably longer than at the front, it is a must that people wear sunglasses in discos, and straws are put in every drink be it a café latte, a brandy or vodka cranberry… :-)

You notice that I am quite smitten by the city and its people…

And, of course, election campaigning is well underway…