ART INFRASTRUCTURE · LVIV, UKRAINE · 2025
THE BEGINNING OF ISTORIYA
A new cultural space takes its first breath — under construction, already alive.
Istoriya is a new cultural space at Hnatyuka 22 in Lviv — a 1911 building that once housed the Wanderland Cinema, then a Soviet railway ticket office, then nothing at all for five years. In February 2025, before the main floor opened, before the renovation was finished, before most things were ready — Istoriya held its first event. Over 700 people came. It sold out.
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
CONCEPT · VISION · LAUNCH
Jakub joined Istoriya in November 2024 as Creative Director, developing the founding concept and the idea of the storystore — a reinvention of the bookstore for an era when stories arrive in every format: books, audiobooks, podcasts, galleries, games, virtual reality. His work at this stage was the architecture of meaning: what this place is for, what it refuses to be, and what happens before it officially opens.
The main floor is still under construction. The underground is already open. That sequence was deliberate.
26.02 – 01.03.2025 · ПОЧАТОК ІСТОРІЇ
THE BEGINNING OF ISTORIYA
ZHADAN I SOBAKY — acoustic performance
HRYTS SEMENCHUK (SKOVOREMIX) — DJ set
INKER WORLD — exhibition of social mural painting
SOFIA KOZLOVA — performance: Microcontrollers
VIDEO ART & MURAL EXHIBITION
A SPACE HALF BUILT. A CITY AT WAR. AN UNDERGROUND OPENED BEFORE THE MAIN STAGE.
Lviv, February 2025
ALREADY OPEN
ISTORIYA UNDERGROUND
The underground opened in April 2025. It is a small gallery, concert and event space, and a platform for emerging artists — those reaching their first public audience and those willing to take a risk. Experimental music, documentary film, performance art, visual art that doesn't fit anywhere else. A massage for the brain, as it was described internally.
PROMO
See Istoriya
HNATYUKA 22
The building was constructed in 1911 by architects Ferdinand Kassler and Roman Felinsky of the Michał Ulam architectural firm — a listed Chynsha townhouse with sculptural decoration by Zygmunt Kurczynski. It housed the Wanderland Cinema in 1911, renamed Kino Jagiellońskie in 1912. In the Soviet period, the City Railway Ticket Office moved in. Ukrainian railways left in 2020. The building sat empty.
ARCHITECTURAL MONUMENT · NO. 770-M · LVIV, UKRAINE
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
MAIN FLOOR — DECEMBER 2027
The main floor at Hnatyuka 22 is planned to open in December 2027 or January 2028. It will serve as a daily public space — coffee, exhibitions, events, storytelling in every form — with capacity for up to 200 people. It will host audio plays, poetry readings, concerts, lectures, and VR experiences. The underground is already running beneath it.