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18 WWW. UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ГРУДЕНЬ 2013 HOLODOMOR MEMORIAL IN WASHINGTON, D.C.: Interview with Architect Larysa Kurylas by Olesia Wallo The groundbreaking ceremony for the Washington, D.C., Holodomor Mem o- rial, planned for December 4th, seems to be a most fitting way to conclude 2013 — the year of the 80th anniversary of Ukraine’s greatest tragedy. With the construction of the Holodomor Memorial scheduled to be gin in just a few months, it is a good time to take a closer look at its design and future site, as well as the extensive creative work that went into this project. It was my great honor and pleasure to discuss these matters with the person who knows them best — architect Larysa Kurylas, whose design, “Field of Wheat,” was chosen for the Holodomor Memorial. Granddaughter of Maria Khrupo - wycz , an active Soyuz Ukrainok member in Hrymaliv, Ukraine, and daug h- ter of Olha Kurylas , a longtime member of the UNWLA Was hington branch, Larysa Kurylas a lso belongs to our organization — as a member - at - large. Laryso, among your many architectural projects the Holodomor Memorial in Washin gton, D.C., is the first commemor a- tive one. Could you explain how you came to this project ? W hy did you decide to pa r- ticipate in that competition for the best d e- sign of the Holodomor Memorial? I like participating in competitions, esp e- cially those in which entries are anonymous b e- cause then ideas are evaluated purely on the ir own merit and not judged by résumé or prior e x- perience. Competitions for me are an opportunity to break out. I used to enter many competitions coming out of school, and at one point I won the Pennsylvania - based Stewardson traveling fello w- ship in archite cture. I happened to find out about the Holodo - mor M emorial competition by chance fr om a Ukrainian sculptor from Kyi v , who wanted to co l- laborate ; we talked about it and then decided to submit entries independently. In a certain way, I felt duty - bound to p articipate since it was both a Ukrainian project and a project in my backyard, so to speak. I attended the blessing of the future memorial site in 2008. I t was then that I really began to think about what would be an appropr i- ate memorial and a good site strategy for what is a pretty challenging triangular site. O bviously , I had some knowledge of the Holodomor. I think my earliest exposure to the Holodomor was through a Ukrainian school teacher , Mrs. Dibert, who was from the Kyiv r e- gion and whose fam ily had lived through the Holodomor. Later on I took a Ukrainian history course at Harvard with J ames Mace. His course on twentieth - century Ukrainian history was a big revelation because , typically , Ukrainian history taught at school ended in 1918 with th e Ukrainian People’s Republic. One didn’t real ly know what happened since 1918. I found the whole period of Ukrainianization in the twenties very interesting, and the extent of repressions by Stalin, which b e- gan in the late 19 20s and the early 1930s, was a revelation to me. The Holodomor Memorial competition was announced in October 20 09, and it was four weeks long. It was memorable because the dea d- line was Thanksgiving Day. I was thinking how I could possibly get my drawings and model to Kyi v and it’s as if the stars aligned : I put the word out to Ukrainian - American friends of mine , asking if they knew anyone who was traveling to Kyiv in the third week of November, and, l uckily, there was a woman who was attending a conference in Washington in the week pr ior to Thanksgiving. I drove her to Dulles Airport with my model and drawings , and the next morning she emailed me to say that the competition materials were safely delivered to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Ukraine , which was the organization sp onso r- ing the design competition. Another interesting portion of this story is that the law to establish the M emorial was ratified in the U . S . Congress in 2006. It gave permission to the gove rnment of Ukraine to create a memor i- al in Washington , D . C ., to the victims of the Holodomor. However, this law had a seven - y ear deadline: the law took effect on October 13, 2006, and a building permit had to be drawn by October 13, 2013 . It so happened that the permit was drawn almost at the last minute — on Octobe r 1, 2013.
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