Murals as the newest tourist resources: the case of Kyiv

Abstract

The relevance of studying the murals is that the murals allow to diversify the tourist offer of the capital. The purpose of this publication is to analize the development of the murals and the opportunity of using them as a new type of tourism resource. One of the subjects of the study is to carry out a retrospective analysis of the existing collection of Kyiv’s murals and to substantiate their use in the organization of excursion routes in order to inform tourists. During the study of the murals, the creation of the route allows to track the change in the image of the urban environment under the influence of street art. In the process of researching the murals as a tourist resources of cities, we have introduced the term “conceptual tourist resources”, which in our opinion most accurately reflects their semantic charge. Murals are the alternative resources towards traditional tourism resources (natural, historical, cultural, socio-economical or socio-historical) that are widely used in the classifications of leading researchers in the tourism industry (Kvartal’nov V., Smal’ I., Beidyk O., Mal’s’ka M., Kuzyk S., Liubitseva O., Pankova Ye., Stafiichuk V., etc.). The study identified the 32 biggest murals in Kyiv and found that the murals are the relevant forms of street art that focuses on social, cultural, and historical topics. Mural paintings have been found to be motivating objects to visit and affect the formation of city’s new symbols. In the route we have developed, we have selected 24 representative murals made in different styles, dedicated to several topics: milestones of Ukrainian history, the fight between good and evil, friendship and devotion, freedom and equality. Thus, the involvement of murals in excursion routes allows residents and guests of the capital city to track the change in the image of the urban environment under the influence of street art. In the course of the study, it was found that murals are ambiguously perceived in society. The analysis showed that the appearance of modern murals on the streets of the capital began in the mid-2000s, a sharp increase in their number occurred during 2015 - 2017. It was determined that the main factors that influenced the development of muralism in Ukraine were the demands of society and the organization of art festivals, including Muralissimo, City Art, Dynamic Urban Culture Kyiv, Mural Social Club, Art United Us, Mural Social Club Back to school! Ukraine, French Spring, etc. The largest art festivals include City Art 2015, Dynamic Urban Culture Kyiv 2015, Mural Social Club 2016, 2017, Art United Us 2016, 2017, within which 88 works were created. The results of the study identified the trend in the development of muralism in Ukraine, which consists of the gradual change from spontaneous, anonymous street art to the development of concerted and commissioned by state bodies paintings, which are spread not only on the walls of industrial sites, residential buildings, but also on the walls of educational institutions, government institutions and the police department. Kyiv is the first city in the world where a mural was created on the walls of the police department. The study found that since the mid-2010, the murals began to establish in the central part of the city, and since 2014 they have spread to the so-called “gray” residential areas of Sviatoshyno, Darnytskyi, Desnyanskiy and Solomianskyi districts and Obolon’, etc. Today, the total number of murals in the capital is 160.