Oleg Veklenko, on April 25, 2003

Oleg Veklenko Oleg Veklenko is a designer and an artist honored by the State of Ukraine, a professor at the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts, and an organizer of the "4th Block" international festival. In 1986, he was sent to Chernobyl after being drafted into the army, within the first few days of the accident. As he says, he "started drawing there almost automatically, to distract myself". Later, in Kharkiv, on request from Chernobyl residents, several exhibits were organized to display drawings and photographs made in the area. Then, Veklenko had an idea to organize a large-scale international drawing and poster exhibit. It gave start to the International Eco-Poster and Graphics Festival, strongly supported by artists from all over the world from the very beginning. Oleg Veklenko has participated and won awards at many national and international competitions and exhibited in Ukraine, Russia, Great Britain, Denmark, Canada, Poland, Slovakia and Finland. The text is reproduced from the catalogue of The 4. International Triennial of Graphics and Poster "4th Block", 2000

The 4th Block of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, a few days after it exploded on April 26, 1986.

Oleg Veklenko showed us the picture above on our first visit to Kharkov in 1997, in Adolf Strakhov-Braslavskii's old studio. Incredulous, I asked him "Did you take that picture with a telephoto lens ?" He showed us more and said "No, I was there, quite close, it was a normal lens" The photos from Chernobyl are from the personal archive of Oleg Veklenko and are reproduced with his permission. © Oleg Veklenko

Logo by Anna Pustovarova

The 4th Block Logo The logo was designed in 1991 by Anna Pustovarova, a young graphic designer, and is still in use today. Over the years, I have come to realize that is one of the boldest and strongest graphic design statements I know.

Chernobyl posters at the 5th Triennale

Vitalii Shostia, Ukraine, 1988, from his Jury exhibition. See my very first web exhibition for more details.	Anna Agafonova, Ukraine	Ruslan Nayden, Belarus The poster reminds us that most of the initial radioactivity was blown over Belarus.
Olesia Rudenko, Italy "Chernobyl 15 years later"	? "The authorities are trying to conceal and forget Chernobyl catastrophe"	Vladimir Chaika, Russia, from the Laureate exhibition

The view from Kiev Looking north from Vladimir Hill in Kiev over the Dnipro river on the evening of April 24, 2003. Chernobyl is about 90 km upstream, just over the horizon.

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