History

Dzherelo Pavilion is located in the Shevchenkivskiy district near the Golden Gate in the cozy courtyard of the former Kyivproekt. The experimental late modernist project of Dzherelo sends viewers to different styles and even periods. Outside, the 4 brick towers that support the flat roof reminiscent of the tectonics of medieval fortresses. Inside, the square plan is framed at the corners by round rooms of 2.5 meters a diameter, where metal bowls were installed, similar to ancient sanctuaries dedicated to the water element. Such various sensations from one building are close to the concept of architectural folly. In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Usually, these funny or extravagant buildings were designed for purposes other than those indicated by their design or appearance. Dzherelo was a folly of the mid-90s in Kyiv. Currently, there are no analogs of the architecture of such a building in Ukraine. However, in the period after the Chornobyl catastrophe, the «Khreschatyk» newspaper published a selection of new addresses of open pump rooms in each issue, according to the city plan : ’’Pavilions with potable free water in each neighborhood.’’ Thanks to the initiative and persistence of Oleksandr Omelchenko (head of the Kyiv City State Administration 1996-2006), pump rooms have appeared in all districts of the city, as the former head of Kyiv stated: ‘‘we will build as many as we need’’. In the issue of the Khreschatyk newspaper for Thursday, July 2, 1998, in the Clean wells column there is a mentioning of the pump Dzherelo room. Although residents of the Starokyivskyi district (modern Shevchenkivskyi) claim that they collected water here already in 1997, this publication in the newspaper is still the only recorded memory of the Dzherelo history: “Local authorities are doing a good job of building modern wells for the use of drinking water from underground sources. Last Sunday, a public pump room for drinking water was opened in a solemn atmosphere in the Starokyivskyi district of our city at 16 Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Street. The place is attractive, quiet, in the yard of Kyivproekt, and the builders of the trust ‘‘Kyivmiskbud-2’’ made an effort: the building above the pump room is beautiful, comfortable, strong. The Italian equipment allows supplying drinking water from a depth of three hundred meters directly to the tap, without tank sludge. This ensures the state of the water. ”Unfortunately, the Italian equipment could not withstand the peculiarities of local water. As the worker who serviced this pump room admitted in an interview to ’’Zerkalo Nedeli’’ on October, 15th, 1999: ’’The water here is high in iron salts. From the well located under the Kyivproekt building to the taps about a hundred meters, and the pipes are old and rusty. No matter how much you wash them, it doesn’t help.’‘ Therefore, the Dzherelo folly of the city government worked intermittently for only a few years and its function was completely lost over the next 30 years. The water stopped flowing from the taps, finishing materials from the ceiling began to disappear golden slate and the granite from the stairs and only pipes remained from the metal water bowls, the windows of the building were sewn with protective metal shields from homeless people, electricity was cut off, next to lightboxes and to destroy the roof with its roots … but even such a romantic ruin attracted with its extraordinariness appearance. Thus, in 2020, the Dzherelo pavilion was re-opened for the first time by Dana Kosmina, Alina Kleytman, and Mykola Ridnyi with the pop-up exhibition Gradual Loss of Sight as a part of the Tbilisi Architecture Biennale in Kyiv. A year later, the curatorial group Wet hole (Dana Kosmina, Alina Kleytman, Nikita Kadan) carried out repair works at their own expense, returning the authentic appearance of the building, in cooperation with local business Harms reconnected the building to electricity and with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation launched an exhibition series Bodies in the City. Today the pavilion performs an exhibition function and provides citizens with contemporary art, 24 hours a day and free of charge. History Folly “Dzherelo” by Bogdana Ukraina