A reporter and traveler Anastasia Salashna visited a FluRAnet for a tea in a warm and intimate atmosphere.
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When you are looking for creative people, but you find the beyond … When the depth does not frighten, and bizarre rabbits give comfort and warmth. And if Andreyevsky is the psychedelic cradle of Kiev, then this cradle – “Fluranet” is a family affair of Natalia and Sergey.
Noticed on the descent stairs in the house? And the lights, arches? We step above … Strange doors, near them overgrown with moss trunk. The smell of forest herbs and the name …
The Fluranet logo has a history from the beginnings of psychedelic culture in Ukraine.
They decorated thousands of PSY-Parties, large and small festivals, Kazantip, night clubs and Indian stylistic establishments. They are sold in Canada, Japan, India and around Europe: from hand-drawn, paintings to various exclusive accessories of the route style.
Above… Entered Sergei’s wife, Natalia. Her hair up raised, and her high “Hutsul” socks. We followed to the workshop space and …She began:
– An assistant is a must behind every creative work. There are people who can do both. But I have no business gene. When I live the day of Sergey, in society, in the reality with which Sergey is in contact daily, I don’t want to draw anymore, says Natalia, so the spheres are divided into mine and not mine.
No -to baths, yes – to paints
19 years later, they went to Slavyansk, and arrived to Kiev. She carried with herself paints and brushes, but she didn’t even think that she would be making money in the capital with art. In the first months, staying in Kiev in 2000,
Nita-” I began to look for work, not creative, of course. “But it’s good that they didn’t take me anywhere,” smiles Nita. Then Sergey decided: “My wife will draw, not wash baths.”
Sergey- I saw fire in it, this fire is not for the small town where Natalia lived. To set on fire this flame, it was necessary to provide space and care. My entrepreneurial skills and her artistic skills became the basis for the future brand Fluranet.
How black and white butterflies turned into green frogs
In The first place, It all happened in Andreyevskiy st, Descent. Nita’s paintings of “black and white butterflies” were not sold. They say that only over the years they understood why – complex content and frightening forms. However, due to mental symbolism – post-Soviet Ukraine over the years has felt a response in the pictures.
– We came with our rules to this street of social realism, where there were only dolls, Lenin, calendars and racketeering. In the 2000s, the post-Soviet world was against experimental art.
Nita -” I was sitting at home drawing, and he was selling paintings. Then I went to Andreevskiy st. On the arm was a knitted bracelet, which I put up for sale for four hryvnia. One woman noticed him when she found out that he was mine — she had already bought it for eight, ”laughs Natalia.
“When I came home, upset, that day, I drew a green frog that smiles broadly. Sergey the next day sold it for ten hryvnia, I drew another frog. So “black and white butterflies turned into green frogs.” And this color was radiance,
first of all, for us. People need the sun and light to live on. Therefore, our pictures with frogs and hares are given to each other, as a present from Kiev.
– I went to landfills. When we had no money. I was looking for materials from fiberboard and natural bags so that she could draw. And I made the framework from baseboard. We could not afford to buy it in specialized stores.
Ordinary colors did not convey the world in which the family lived, and did not reflect what I would like to express. Fluorescent dyes, and their spectrum of glow most closely showed in the pictures what we (the people) see in a dream, in the astral and meditations. There were practically no sales of it at that time. Therefore, Sergei had to do himself, with a chemist.
– It is necessary to understand the chemical composition of the paint, disassemble everything according to the formulas, from where the fluorescence is born and how it works, due to which the glow occurs. So we created our colors. Some were acetone based, others were water based. The first were more stable. To create them, we bought pigment in the factories for the self production.
This is not a mushroom … this is freedom, this is the path to yourself.
“Psychedelia is perception, clarity without limits.” Transcendence – the unconscious state of the artist, which is manifested on the canvas due to colors and images. Someone through music, dance, painting, others through yoga and meditation. Psychedelia is the path to yourself. People often ask me, or even say: “what do I use?” So it seems to me – this is an escape from a beautiful reality. I don’t need any tools for drawing. I have no stresses that would close the channels for the input of energy from which my drawing is born. why? If you do not need it!
Spiritual hugs are intimate
– We have not changed anything since the 2000s. We live in the same condition as then. We are in the same element, relatively in the same rhythm of life. Rather, the mentality of people was transformed, the “PSY generation” was born, which perceives this reality flexibly, with understanding. But we are sure that the images that people hold on to should still be shown carefully. This is an intimate thing for everyone, which means you have to be correct, do not immediately shock people. To do this, start with the symbolism, which is known and close to everyone.
But the work that we are positioning now, we put in the gallery, when people became ready. Not only the young people, by whom this is all clear thanks to the picture of the world that was formed without canons, but also the older generation – people from the Soviet Union – began to open up.
Mental symbolism is an internal response at the genetic level. According to Nita, the images of her paintings are close to the Ukrainians. “We are a free, peaceful and responsive nation. We strive to live in harmony with the world. ” Ukrainians relatively recently entered the technological era, and therefore, as Nita says, they still have a strong connection with the nature.
– Now everyone is trying to share, everyone shows his vision. People need to share states. And how much higher are the vibrations of these states, so wider is the filling. These are such spiritual hugs.
– There was a time when we separated from our audience. Earned. It was the period when I created without too much fuss, when Sergey was completely immersed in organizational issues. We did our job, but did not know what people ultimately need, whether they like our work or not. Could only hear that our fairies denounced us. It seemed that we were standing on the other side of the bridge and only shouted: “Well, how do you like our last picture? And how can a dress be more green? ” Having recollected ourselves in time, we turned to face our audience and became even closer than before.
Elf Team
– Always there are like-minded people: ceramists, artists, sculptors, designers …
There are several teams: some masters mold according to our orders, sew or draw in our workshop; another team makes purchases abroad, if we do not have the opportunity to travel around the world and seek out what is not in our country; and the main part of FluRAnet. Some have been with us since the beginning of 2000, and there are freelancers who work at home, in eco-settlements and bring their products for sale.
Before you take someone into your team, the staff goes through an internship and training, and if a new store or a new direction opens … Sergey and Nita themselves, on their own experience, went through all these stages, loads and conditions in which the employee will work. They sit in the shop, sell at the store, make products, meet the guests, make them coffee. So, actually, it was with me.
In the corner, where the altar or icon is usually put, an unfinished picture stands. And we are in the middle of a small, gallery room. Natalia brings Carpathian herbal tea with honey and says:
“But ideally, we want to have our own house in the mountains.” A sip of aromatic tea
After one of the family’s trips to the Carpathians, where Sergei is searching for the lost pagan sanctuaries and the Tripoli camps, they decided: “No matter how it lives there, in western Ukraine.” To do this, plan to get land in Verkhovyna and break up their ecovillage there. Home for like-minded people. Creative space in which, the main idea is to restore the forest, which is cut down by people.
– In 2000, we realized that we did not want to depend on money.
As soon as the business starts to bring big money, but not pleasure – we refuse it. So it was with Kazantip. By that time, we already had a network of retail outlets in Kiev and active work at various festivals. First, we went to Kazantip as a store, and later began to develop and make design. In 2008, when Kazantip became the final “NOT THAT” team of the festival, announced that the next “Kazantips” would be on Mars. One of the organizers of Kazantip offered to work with this project. We developed the design of “Mars”, and the Martian Colony itself, implemented about 30% of our plans – opens photos from the phone, and there are large-scale metal structures, concrete stylistic monuments, sculptures.
– I remember that we had three folders of sketches, ideas. We assembled a team of sculptors and decorators. Probably it was the first project, when we were not restricted in means and in the budget, and we were given to do what we want. This project we lived from 2008 to 2011. Surrendered completely. We worked from May to September without days off, and from September to May we worked on the design. There I made a childhood dream come true – I built a flying saucer that landed, docked to the main satellite: with internal and external illumination, signal lights … in the middle of the cabin is the Nita tea room, with herbs of honey and other usefulness of which was not at Kazantip. The Flying Plate turned out so cool that Nikita Marshunok imposed the creation of another one, according to Kazantip, “And how did you think we are building Kazantip here?”
– We worked there until 2011. In a non-stand schedule of 17-20 hours per day. I had to sleep for a couple of hours, several times a day. Chronic fatigue prevailed, which at times grew into a depression, so after traveling to travel to Nepal and India, Bali, Thailand, there we switched. In 2011, decided to leave. In addition, the policy and style of the festival has changed dramatically over the past few years.
– At the end of 2011, we became opened to other projects, more time appeared, the Jiva and Eco Space project was born.
The main principle and idea of the work of “Eco-Space” is to popularize the moral lifestyle: not violence against animals, care for the environment and one’s health. Jiva – our ethical and eco-friendly products and goods.
– Previously, we had 5 stores in the Fluranet chain in Kiev. In the Crimea there was a tea shop.Later in India, Goa. Now we want to reorganize the business and remove all unnecessary. For Sergey, these are colossal amounts of control, for me, creative exhaustion and loss of interest. Therefore, now we have only two stores: on Andreevsky and Maidan and the gallery itself. We also sell goods abroad and continue to decorate institutions and arrange thematic events, make 3D paintings …
India
– Since 2013, we began to decorate the open-air club Curlis in Anjuna, North Goa in India. Four years completely changed the style of the institution. At the core were sculptures of cement. It was our winter residence with a shop and trips to the market, says Sergey.
– In Goa are gathering unusual people: hippies, astrologers, artists, DJs, musicians, actors…ect. It was here, in the last century, that the first attempts to make a trance occurred, in fact, we can say that we got to the place where the psychedelic trend in music, design, and lifestyle came from, this is where PSY-TRAnce originated as a direction as a style . There is a cradle, – says Nita.
Sergey continues:
– There are projects that we can not do in Ukraine, but easily implement in India. Here in Ukraine there are many obstacles for the artist, you need constantly to catch the right state.
Socium creates boundaries. In India you can be who you want to be. Realize yourself, so there remain creative ,extraordinary people. There is freedom – they do not appreciate you there and do not expect anything from you. A certain open clean channel: the stars are closer, the colors are brighter, everything is created to create. This is another space, there are even other laws of physics.
In Ukraine, enthusiasts on the underground level take this style to be popularized. Psychedelia is a joint rhythm. And this rhythm is set by single locations, the only themes and goals, and therefore – festivals, of which Sergei and Natalia are often participate. They say:
– The most popular PSY festivals where we exhibited, in Portugal “Boom” and “Ozora” in Hungary. Were in Austria (“Flow”) Spain (“Lost Theory”), Germany (“Antaris”, “Wönderland”, “Indian Spirit”), Italy (“Sonica”), France (“Hadra”); …
This year we are serving as an embassy and are participants in a festival in Spain (“Visionarium”), which is organized by our Ukrainians. This is Art Festival.
– Something similar to organize in Ukraine today is not possible. With us, while you organize everything, you will get tired of process of preparing for the event. In Ukraine, it is difficult to express yourself, or to do what you want from the heart, on an official level, in Europe is easier. Therefore, we have more informal festivals: in nature: put the sound, the stage, the scenery is made, artists are invited artists, where we exhibit our work.
One of the brightest PSY festivals that we have is “Kaledoskopie”, “Vibronica”
The number of participants ranges from 500 to 1500, in Europe everything is much bigger. But the biggest problem of European exhibitions at festivals is lack of exhibition originals, all, as a rule, sell reproductions. We and other artists from Ukraine sell originals in paintings and canvases, and this is very different.
Behind the gallery scenes, shops remained the workshop of Nita, as Sergey calls her. The most native coordinator and director of the project, on which the colors, the framework, the one who supports and whose dreams she draws when she loses the image.
In that workshop completely whitewashed walls. Parrots and seamstresses. Sits down. Takes a piece with the logo, attaches to a new dress that will appear on the shelves in an hour
– around the world do not understand our prices. For them it is very cheap, but we do not raise prices in Europe, so that everyone realistically assesses the quality and price of Ukrainian art. After all, so we leave completely national taste.
And from each nation, tradition, as you know, remains aftertaste, it forms symbolism. Then the response from the depths is mental symbolism, which is familiar to Ukrainians, because there is a channel, a cradle of creativity … which gives impetus to the birth of talents.
Anastasia Salashna
Ruslan Muzychuk
