DERDA VIKTOR

Viktor Derda was born on 16 February 1971 in Dovhe village, Irshava district, Transcarpathian region. He felt the attraction to painting from an early age, as they say, since he could crawl… The memory of the artist each time returns to the three figures from his childhood, who played an important role in Viktor’s awareness of the importance of the art world for him and seeing himself in this coordinate system.

The first such figure is his grandfather. He was not an artist, but he was a creative person. In the last years of his life, even suffering from asthma, he always tried to create something interesting, a kind of “hand-made”. He cut out various sculptures of wood, built houses and churches of matches, could make figures of animals from a medical dropper, which he then gave to doctors and nurses. It inspired a grandson – the future artist. He was amazed how a grandfather for a day could sew him a fashionable suit and create many more different things. The boy liked to help him. Viktor still keeps his grandfather's sewing machine “Singer”, a huge wheel of which seemed to him then to be the steering wheel and he imagined himself a brave captain in the boundless sea. By the way, on this machine, together with his wife (the artist Olena Derda – Auth.) they sewed many of their paintings. Now it serves as interior decoration and is a real talisman.

The other figure is his teacher. After the grandfather's study, there were a school and drawing lessons, which were led by Mariia Hoban. Although she was not a professional artist, she saw the boy’s talent. Having learned from the newspapers that there is a summer and winter camp “Young Artist” in Transcarpathia, the teacher wrote a letter about a capable student to the organizer of the artistic camp.

The famous teacher and head of the fine art studio Zoltan Bakoniia was the one to whom the teacher's letter was addressed and the third figure who had a special influence on the formation of the future artist. Shortly thereafter Mariia Hoban responded to the boy with the added trip ticket. This letter is still kept by Viktor. In the camp, the best efforts were marked with diplomas and trip tickets for the next season. Thus, the young artist studied for four years, and that thorough preparation gave him the opportunity to easily get into the Uzhhorod School.

1985 – 1990 years – the time of study at the Uzhhorod School of Applied Art at the Department of artistic ceramics. L. Averkiieva, V Petretskyi became iconic teachers for V. Derda. In 1991, a talented young man entered the Lviv Printing Institute (now the Ukrainian Academy of Printing) at the Department of graphics. And in 1993 he moved to the Lviv Academy of Arts at the Department of artistic textiles, where the knowledge that Viktor received at the department of graphics came in handy. A combination of graphics with textiles added to the works a kind of materiality. During the studies in higher education, the most memorable teachers were O. Minko, T. Pecheniuk, Z. Semak, and H. Kusko.

During the student period, the artist met his future wife, Olena, who became a co-author of many works.

The technique of textile collage, in which the artist works, is extremely interesting and not too common in the work of contemporary artists. It is author's, experimental, and the collage itself is a combination, synthesis, and not only various textile, graphics and other techniques. Complicated work requires a lot of care and diligence in the creative process of selecting fragments and lasting a relatively long time – from a month to six months.

The beginning for the artists' spouses was the design of the “Elita” rehabilitation centre in Truskavets. By the time, they were in their third year at the Lviv Academy of Arts. It was a time of experiments, there was the use of various techniques of dyeing and textile processing and worked out the technology of combining all fragments of work into one.

According to the artist, “every new work is an endless game of themes, fantasies, and interpretations. It is important to note that collage, as an author’s speech is rather a way of world perception, a way that seems to be the only possible, expression of one’s own metaphorical world. The concept of work is an exciting story, a strange game whose rules allow you to rethink, to withstand the pressure of the past, creating something new, without actually copying or contradicting. Quoting “Dictionary of the Khazars” by M. Pavic: “If someone asks me now why I play that much, I will answer that I try to be reborn, but the better way…”

In addition to the collage, the artist creates paintings and graphic works. The painter has also shown himself as a talented scenographer and chief designer in the famous Kirovohrad Academic Music and Drama Theatre named after M. Kropyvnytskyi, where he worked from 2008 to 2013. He created interesting productions – “Pinocchio”, “Mirandolina”, made the design of the theatrical festival “September gems”.

Moving to Uzhhorod in 2014, the artist began teaching at the Transcarpathian Academy of Arts, teaching composition and work in the material in the department of graphics, as well as special disciplines: drawing and painting.

The artist's works are exhibited at numerous personal and joint exhibitions and in projects held in Lviv, Kyiv, Bratislava, Chisinau, Krakow, Uzhhorod and other cities of Ukraine, Romania, Slovakia and the United States of America. The most significant, according to the artist, was the spouses' “Silk Rain” project, presented at the “Dzyha” cultural and artistic centre (Lviv). Publications about the artist's creativity printed in many editions.

Viktor Derda's works are in private collections in Ukraine, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, the USA, Poland, and South Korea.

Text: Liudmyla Kozlovska, prepared by materials provided by the author.
© Art & Culture Foundation Brovdi Art