Alternative Hryvnias / Альтернативні гривні

>Davyd Chychkan / Давид Чичкан

Alternative Hryvnias / Альтернативні гривні, 2021

Series, variable dimensions.

© Davyd Chychkan

Collection: Collection M HKA / Collection Flemish Community (Inv. no. BK009524).

In 2021, Davyd Chychkan created a series of alternative hryvnias (Ukrainian currency banknotes). The project called Alternative Hryvnias is a continuation of a series of critical works on the phenomenon of “decommunization” in Ukraine. Continuing to research and rethink the achievements of Ukrainian modernist left intellectuals, Chychkan created samples of banknotes that complemented the portraits of Ivan Franko, Mykhailo Drahomanov and Lesya Ukrainka with quotations that reveal their views on social and economical justice. Unlike real hryvnias that depict Ivan Franko and Lesya Ukrainka, Chychkan's “banknotes” depict as well Mykhailo Drahomanov, Ukrainian left intellectual, whose program texts were used to write the Constitution of Ukraine in 1991. With this project, Chychkan once again points to the forgotten affiliation of Ukrainian classics with the traditions of leftist thought and draws attention to their desire for social justice and general economic equality that still remains revolutionary today.

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>Dark and damp a peasant’s hut is, Lord has mansion that’s much brighter; There is reason people say that Even lordsy bones are whiter! Peasant woman’s hands are dirty Lady’s fingers please the viewer; There is reason people say that Even lordsy blood is bluer! One day peasants came to wonder Whether all those bones are whiter. Will one see the blue blood running If one stabs a knife in mighty?

>I do not care is there’s a god above If there is one, or three, or hundred thousand. I do not want to die for any god, Neither for the lord residing in his heaven, Nor for the tyrants of Olympus mount. I won’t be slave to any one of them, For slavery must not exist at all! The communism of early Christianity is merely a figment; it has never existed… The anarchism of Christianity is not of a very fine sort either…

>The workers aware of their condition must stay solid and together, as they all have the same enemy that is the class of the rich, the capitalists living off workers’ labour.

>It is clear that if the International Workers’ Association ever revives and becomes, if not worldwide, then at least Europe-wide, or if a similar new organization establishes itself, this will only happen after solid fellowships will be established throughout each country and the humankind itself. Those natural fellowships will comprise people brought together not just by the shared beliefs but by the shared work and neighbourship, the shared breed and language. And they will only unite in a wider or indeed worldwide association when they want to do so.

>Thus, the Ukrainians need to fight for the federalisation of the existing states, Russia and Austria-Hungary. This would be the first step on the way to the extinction of states as such, to a governless system, the lordless and stateless one.

>So can the future socialist community be considered anything similar to today’s state? It absolutely cannot, as the future community will comprise people equal between themselves, working people who will, however, also be people of politics, similar to today’s governors, but will only be paid what they will have earned through their work.

>Does socialism contradict our patriotic feeling? Not at all. Moreover, any reproach of this sort is ridiculous. For it has already been said that socialism contradicts any arrogation, any oppression, be it between human beings or between peoples. Thus, when the freedom and unity of peoples takes reign, everyone will be able to develop their best life not being oppressed by the other, as is the case now. So we can argue, quite to the contrary, that truly free and decent development of every people can only be achieved under the socialist system, as it is the freest one and it ensures the material existence of people.

>Socialism is an endeavour to eliminate any kind of social inequality, any kind of arrogation and poverty. It strives to create a happier and more just state system than is the present one by making it so that the current physical capital, that is, soils, factories, machinery and other equipment, as well as any commodity, would belong to the general public instead of being private property.