Vitaliy Matukhno Seed Awards recipient

Vitaliy Matukhno is an art manager and curator from Ukraine who lives in the small industrial city of Lysychansk. He is the creator of the “Gareleya Neotodryosh” platform, which creates opportunities for young artists from Donbas region to realize themselves. Plunged in an atmosphere of nostalgia for the Soviet Union, exacerbated by the collapse of heavy industry in Ukraine’s cities and the war with Russia making everything more difficult, including the existence of culture, people have been divided by their political or social beliefs. Matukhno builds an invisible bridge that unites everyone on the basis of art, rejecting all political and social boundaries that exist in the region. He organizes mass events, various festivals, exhibitions and parties that take place in the Luhansk region, working with artists and photographers who live in Donbas, regardless of whether the territories are controlled by Ukraine or not.