The “Kateryna” mural is the world’s largest wall painting featuring a painting by Taras Shevchenko. This mural is a gift to the hero city of Irpin from the community of the “VIDVAZHNYKH” Company, which is also the founder of the Irpin Literary Prize and annually supports the “Painted Irpin” art open-air workshop.
The wall painting measures 7.8 by 12 metres. The mural is located on one of the walls of an administrative building in the city centre at the address Irpin, 2a Shevchenka Street.
The authors of this mural are an art team led by Kateryna Vedmid, an artist who is also the author of the well-known Irpin Literary Mural and the mural dedicated to the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola. Kateryna Vedmid also led the art group that created the mural for the American engineer from Irpin Martin Cooper, who in 1973 made the world’s first mobile phone call.
The art team that created the “Kateryna” mural included Kateryna Vedmid, Yana Hura, Stanislav Vydybornets, Maksym Kaliievskyi and Sevastian Sukhomlyn. For creating the “Kateryna” mural the art team was awarded letters of gratitude by the head of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine, the head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration and the Mayor of Irpin.
The opening of the mural on 24 August 2023 was attended by: the Ukrainian writer Bohdan-Oleh Horobchuk; the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language Taras Kremin; the vice-rector of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv Olena Dobrzhanska; a member of the organising committee of the Shevchenko Prize Dmytro Chystiak; the chair of the Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Book Institute Oksana Brui; the director of the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration Anna Kutsenko; the Ukrainian actress, founder of the project-competition “Taras Shevchenko Unites Nations” Halyna Yablonska; the editor-in-chief of the magazine “Vsesvit” Dmytro Drozdovskyi; and the director of the “Samit-knyha” publishing house Ivan Stepurin.
Assistance in creating the mural was provided by Viktor Dembytskyi, the director of the “Ihor Zhenevskyi Charitable Foundation” Ihor Zhenevskyi, the director of “Farba Service Ukraine” LLC Svitlana Strelkovska, and the store director of “Farba Service Ukraine” LLC Dmytro Symonenko.
During the mural’s opening, the serviceman and kobzar Vasyl Zhovanyk provided musical accompaniment to Taras Shevchenko’s poems performed by Daryna Slava.
Besides the “Kateryna” mural, Irpin also has the Irpin Literary Mural “The Not-So-Secret Supper of Writers”, the mural “The Whole World Will Remember the Heroes of Irpin”, the mural “Irpin Is My Home” and other murals on literary and artistic themes, a significant part of which were created together with accompanying verse.
Date of creation/opening: 24 August 2023
Address: Kyiv Oblast, Irpin, 2a Shevchenka St.
