Venice fantasy

Country: Spain

Manufactory: Lladro

Date of establishment: 2013

Sculptor: Francisco Polope

Size (cm): 55*36

Limited Series

Porcelain Story

There have been many amazing coincidences in my life. Exactly 20 years ago, on September 10, 1997, the newspaper "Fakty" began to be published daily. Exactly 25 years ago, on September 9, 1992, the newspaper "Kievskie Vedomosti" began to appear daily... Well, why not take advantage of such a wonderful occasion to remember everyone who is somehow involved in these two amazing miracles in of my life?

You know, recently one of my good comrades, a well-known and public person, answering the questions of the traditional Facts questionnaire, said that miracles had never happened to him. I don't think he was lying. He simply stated what he knew about himself. Miracles have accompanied me throughout my life. And without them, everything would be different. Could a poor boy from a boarding school, albeit not on the first attempt, albeit after serving in the Soviet construction battalion, enter the Kyiv State University named after T.G. Shevchenko and graduate with honors. Later, after half a year with a "red" diploma, working as a loader (!) and ordeal in various editorial offices in search of at least the position of a junior proofreader, he could not end up in his native Kyiv "Vecherka" that later became for him and work there for 10 difficult, but happy years. I would not have been able to create and lead such wonderful newspapers as Kievskie Vedomosti, and then Vseukrainskie Vedomosti, Vedomosti-Daily (Kopeyka), and then Facts, and then Events and People ...

Listen, these were all real miracles! .. And the amazingly wonderful people who followed me to the new newspapers sometimes had absolutely no idea what awaited them on this unknown path. And the incredible circumstances of the birth of the concept, for example, "Facts", when the next morning I had to meet with members of the creative team of "Vseukrainskie Vedomosti", in full (!) staff who had quit there for the sake of switching to a new edition, and I was empty like a vessel waiting for the tart wine of the new harvest. But it still didn’t exist  until closer to midnight, as if someone from above began to dictate to me the name of the newspaper, new headings, features of the concept, sketches of the logo ... I just kept up with writing under the amazed look of my wife, who was experiencing this exciting moment .. .

Of course, there is an explanation for everything. But I'm not even trying to find these explanations. Because I know too well the nature of the miracles that happen to us. I know that real miracles often cannot happen, otherwise they simply cease to be such. And the miracles that happen rarely and at the most critical moments in your life, you remember well, to the smallest details, to the freshest sensations, to every more or less significant foreboding.

I talk, think, and write about miracles so often because I don't see them as accidental. Because I consider them advances given to those who understand these advances. Understand that all this is given to you, but not for you alone! He who understands this is able to achieve much in the future, even what he had never dared to count on before. Those who do not understand will stop at the wasted advance, not even guessing why it all ended so quickly and bitterly ...

To be honest, for me every day begins with thanksgiving - to fate, to the Lord, to people who once at least with a word (a look or even a not very good deed) contributed to what I managed to achieve. I understand very well that without any of these links, everything that has been achieved could not have been achieved. Every day I mentally thank the living and remember the names of the departed (the list of which, alas, is constantly getting longer). I try not to miss a single name - be it a great poet of our time or an ordinary driver of an editorial car ...

If anyone decides that for me this is a dull duty invented by me, then I dare to object: for me this is a happy opportunity. This is how today, when I, taking advantage of the wonderful "anniversary" occasion, want to bow low to all the people thanks to whom the "Facts" were born, then took place, then for many years they did good and useful deeds, participating in the fate of the heroes of our publications, and in the fate of our great country, as it was, for example, with the idea of raising money for a gamma knife to save thousands of Ukrainian children... And we succeeded. Because together with you, because the whole world.

As it happened later, by the way, when we, together with partners, carried out a volunteer project for several years, publishing a weekly special issue of Facts-Donbass, sending millions of copies of free newspapers to the eastern regions of Ukraine. Everything for the front, everything for victory...

We know that everything will work out for us even now, when for the umpteenth time the whole world is fighting not for winning our independence, but for preserving it. When we see that to achieve this, it turns out to be much more difficult than even to conquer ...

I decided to introduce you today to an unprecedented miracle, created by the hands of my good friend and very beloved by our family, the Spanish sculptor Francisco Polope. Since the beginning of my appearance on Facebook, I have already shown you hundreds of beautiful pieces of porcelain art, created by masters of various manufactories known all over the world. Almost every of the presented compositions could be called a miracle to varying degrees, because many of them are truly unique. But only now I am slowly starting to introduce you to the miracles. That is how I would call this most complex in every sense and in every sense the most beautiful work, which is almost impossible for an ordinary person to see. This Venetian fantasy of the genius Francisco Polope, of course, must be viewed from all sides and live. In the museum. Many friends and subscribers constantly ask me: when already ?! I don't know the date. But I am sure that the museum will definitely take place, because the building has been built, and the collection has been assembled, and the smart, intelligent audience, delving into the porcelain theme with interest, is almost ready. This will be another miracle.