| Kseniya Simonova | |
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Kseniya Simonova in 2010 |
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| Birth name | Kseniya Simonova |
| Born | April 22, 1985 Yevpatoria, Crimea, Ukrainian SSR, USSR |
| Nationality | Ukrainian |
| Field | Painting, Drawing, sand animation |
| Training | Tavrida National V.I. Vernadsky University (2007), "Ukrainian Academy of Printing". http://party.civicua.org/study/institut/0000380.htm. (2003) |
| Awards | Winner of "Ukraine’s got Talent” |
Kseniya Simonova, (Ukrainian: Ксенія Симонова; married name: Kseniya Paskar, Ксенія Паскар) is the 2009 winner[1][2] of the TV contest Ukraine’s got Talent,[3] which is part of the Got Talent series. She is a performance artist in sand animation and a philanthropist.
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She was born on April 22, 1985 in Yevpatoria, a town on the Crimean peninsula, in Ukraine, which was then a part of the Soviet Union. Her mother, Irina Simonova, is an artist, a theatrical designer and teacher of fine arts. Her father, Alexander Simonov, is former military officer who runs a business in furniture design. Since she was a child, Kseniya painted, drew and designed with her mother.
Kseniya’s parents discouraged her from a career as an artist. Kseniya explained, “It is a constant struggle. I knew that, and was ready for it. If you chose this profession, you're struggling all your life. You do not enjoy everyday life - like comfort, and buying furniture... You're always looking for something more, and actually, I was never interested in a life of comfort and buying furniture.”
In 2007, she married Igor Paskar,[4] a theater director and magazine editor. Their son Dmitry was born on November 27, 2007.
She graduated from the Artistic School of Yevpatoria and studied in the School of Fine Arts. At school, Kseniya wrote research papers on English folk poetry and 15th and 16th century English folk songs and ballads. She also translated folk poetry and great poets like William Shakespeare, Robert Burns and George Gordon Byron.[5] For her research work, Kseniya earned entrance to any University in Ukraine with English Philology Departments. In 2002, Kseniya chose a psychology major and graduated in 2007 from the Tavrida National V.I. Vernadsky University with honors. Her scientific specialization was Psychophysiology – a sphere between Psychology and Anatomy.[6] At the same time, in 2003, Kseniya entered the Ukrainian Academy of Printing and studied Graphic Design. She graduated in 2008, six months after giving birth to her son.
Since 2006 Kseniya has been working for a magazine “Crimean Riviera” as an artist. In 2007, Kseniya and her husband Igor Paskar, launched a bilingual magazine “Chocolate” in English and Russian. The magazine stopped production in 2008 due to the financial crisis.
The idea to do a sand performance was her husband's idea, who wanted to do a new theater project. At first Kseniya refused, “I immediately realized that this is very difficult to perform. It was sand – not pencils or paints. How can this be used as a drawing material?” At the same time, their financial situation was strained, with the magazine out of business and a baby to support. Simonova remembers, “I was terribly depressed. I had problems with lactation and somehow had to calm myself. Igor said, 'Either we will go crazy or let’s do something! What about the sand?' I said, 'Why not?'"
First, Kseniya used sand from the beach, but it was too uncomfortable for sand animation. Then they tried river sand, but that did not work. Igor spent days sitting at the computer looking for appropriate sand on the Internet and finally found it. There was a group of geologists selling a special volcanic sand, but it was too expensive. Igor had to sell all his printing equipment to buy 3 kilograms of sand.
Kseniya Simonova started practicing drawing with sand in a small dark room in a house they rented. She said it was so difficult that she wanted to give it up in three days. It was physically hard because she had to stand for long hours. Ksenyia trained at nights for three months. In the day she was a mother, doing what all mothers do – cooking, cleaning, changing diapers, playing with her son. From 10 pm to 4 am she was a sand artist. To realize the essence of sand animation, with its constant transformations of images, she had to retrain her vision and start seeing objects as they would appear in sand.
Her husband, Igor, suggested that she should enter the competition Ukraine's Got Talent, where the prize was one million hryvna, the equivalent of $110,000. Kseniya decided to enter.
She presented a two minute sand story [7] and was selected as a semi-finalist. She wanted to perform a sand story about World War II, but the producers encouraged her to choose a more popular theme. Kseniya refused, saying, "I just want to bring some immortal sense to this show. Not just pictures or video clips. Something close to all hearts."
The sand story Kseniya presented live on TV[8] was an eight minute story of a young couple separated by the war.
In an interview she said, "It was so emotionally hard, and I now still can not think about those minutes without pain... My hands were dying and reviving making the images."
Kseniya was hoping to get some exposure as an artist, but it became much more. The audience was in tears. As soon as she finished her performance, applause erupted and she received a standing ovation.
Kseniya passed the semi-finals and moved on to the finals. In the third round, she performed a sand story about a son who became successful and forgot his parents.[9] Kseniya wanted grown children to remember their parents and to encourage them to call. After that performance, people came to her in streets saying, "After watching your story, I took the phone and called my mom. I haven’t talked to her in a year. Thank you very much!"
Kseniya was declared the winner of the competition[10] and collected 100,000 euro. She was named an on-line sensation, when in one day her video from the show was viewed more that a million times. In one year, it was viewed over 25 million times. Kseniya understood what happened only after she returned to her native town Yevpatoria and could no longer walk freely in the streets. She was surrounded by people, asking for an autograph. With the money they won, Igor and Kseniya bought a house in Yevpatoria. They received invitations from all over the world to perform.
In the next two years, Simonova performed over 200 sand stories[11][12] for audiences in Ukraine, Russia, Norway, Japan, Poland, Austria, China, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Qatar, India, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Kazakhstan and others.
She was honored to perform for Presidents George Abela (Malta, 2009), Bronisław Komorowski (Gdansk, 2010), Dmitry Medvedev (Moscow, Astana, 2010), Viktor Yanukovych (Kiev, 2010), Nursultan Nazarbayev (Astana, 2010), and for Members of the British Royal Family (London, 2010)[13] and Norway (Oslo, 2010).
In 2009, at the invitation of the President of Malta, George Abela, she performed[14] at the live Charity Ball L’Istrina to raise money for people suffering from cancer. In 24 hours, the performers raised 2.5 million euro.
On December 4, 2009, Simonova presented the first Sand Picture Exhibition.[15] In 2010, she founded an International Cultural Center “Sand Club” in Yevpatoria.
On July 5, 2010, Simonova performed on the anniversary of Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan for an audience of 12 Head of States. They were Presidents of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, China, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Emir of Abu-Dabi and the King of Jordan, and each one received a sand picture of his country from Simonova as a present.
On August 15, 2010 Simonova and her team presented a sand film[16] in memory of a great poet and rock-musician Victor Tsoy.
In 2010, Simonova was invited to open[17] the Fifth Annual Anti Human Trafficking Awards Ceremony sponsored by the International Organization for Migration in Kiev.[18]
At 26 April 2011, Kseniya Simonova contributed a specially prepared animation at a memorial for Chernobyl in Rotterdam,[19] marking the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster that still affects a lot of people in Ukraine and Belarus.
In 2011, she also performed on stage at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011, during the performance of Ukrainian entry by Mika Newton.[20]
In June 2008, Simonova and her husband Igor Paskar founded a local open charity organization “Live, my Sun!” («Живи, Солнышко!») to assist ill children and adults, pregnant women, young mothers and orphans. She is a Pro-life advocate. The organization works with the Orthodox Christian church and the Crimean diocese.
She creates sand videos to raise money for medical needs of children in Crimea. In her interviews, Kseniya says that she feels the greatest pleasure from helping others, much more than from buying cars, villas or jewellery. She is sure that God gave her a very special talent – an ability to tell the stories of those who need help – with sand.