As part of the project by First Lady Olena Zelenska to implement Ukrainian-language audio guides at the world's most famous landmarks, an audio guide in Ukrainian has been launched at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (Kingdom of the Netherlands).
The project has now covered 80 locations in 44 countries, including Versailles in France and the Colosseum in Rome.
The Van Gogh Museum is an art museum in Amsterdam dedicated to the life and work of the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. The institution was opened in 1973 on the Museum Square of the Dutch capital. The museum has the world's largest collection of Van Gogh's masterpieces, which includes more than 1300 works. In particular, it includes 200 paintings, 400 drawings and 700 letters. The collection includes such world-famous paintings as Sunflowers, Almond Blossoms, and The Potato Eaters.
"Van Gogh's works are very popular in Ukraine, especially Sunflowers and The Starry Night. Perhaps this is because sunflowers are a very symbolic flower for Ukraine. And yellow and blue, Van Gogh's favorite colors, are also the colors of our symbols. And now the language will bring us closer as well. We want millions of our forced migrants to better understand the cultures in which they have found themselves. Let the sunflowers always bloom for our countries and let every starry night be calm and safe," Olena Zelenska said.
The texts for the Ukrainian audio guide were prepared by the Dutch-Ukrainian translator Iryna Koval, and adapted and edited by the famous Ukrainian poet and literary editor Yuriy Lysenko (Yurko Pozayak). The texts were read and recorded in Ukrainian by dubbing actor Pavlo Skorokhodko, who was chosen to voice Vincent Van Gogh. One of the most famous Ukrainian artists Irma Vitovska became the voice of the audio guide. The project was implemented by the team of the Van Gogh Museum and the Embassy of Ukraine in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
