#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. On January 26, a large artistic and educational project Researcher and Artist: Art on an Expedition will start. It’s a joint exhibition of Zaryadye Park, the State Darwin Museum, the Russian State Academy of Arts named after S.G. Stroganov with the support of the Nornickel company.
The project is timed to coincide with the end of the second year of the Great Scientific Expedition – a joint work of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch and Nornickel. The study of fragile ecosystems was carried out in the Krasnoyarsk region, on the Kola peninsula and in Transbaikalia, as well as on a section of the Northern Sea Route and port areas on the Yenisey river. There have been no studies of similar scale in the country during the entire post-Soviet period.
The project unfolds a retrospective of four centuries of scientific and resource-search expeditions to explore the Arctic, which gave the world not only scientific discoveries, but also works of art. The participants are the state museum association Artistic Culture of the Russian North and the Northern Maritime Museum from Arhangelsk, the Krasnoyarsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, the Taimyr Museum of Local Lore, the Taimyr House of Folk Art, the Norilsk Museum, the State Darwin Museum from Moscow, the Museum of the Arctic and Antarctic from St. Petersburg, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the RAS’s Institute of Oceanology named after P.P. Shirshov.
The exhibition will be located at several venues in Moscow. The Old English Court museum of Zaryadye Park (chambers of the 16th–17th centuries) will become a space for material and artistic evidence of the 17th century Russian pioneers’ winter quarters, discovered not so long ago in the lower reaches of the Yenisey near Dudinka, and the presentation of works by artists – Arctic explorers.
The conceptual site of the Reserve Embassy pavilion will feature works by contemporary artists – representatives of the science-art movement, who explore modern ecosystems, problems of industrial areas, water conditions, and the fragile biocenosis of Arctic lands.
In the halls of the State Darwin Museum, visitors will see a collection of diaries and field drawings from expeditions of scientists, zoologists and ecologists who recorded unique biodiversity in the process of transformation.
In the exhibition hall of the Russian State University of Art and Industry named after S.G. Stroganov there will be the works of students and graduates of the departments of artistic ceramics, graphic arts, environmental design and interior design, regional branches of the university – Abramtsevo Art and Industrial College named after V.M. Vasnetsov, College of Design and Decorative Arts, as well as graduates of Taimyr College, preserving the North indigenous peoples’ traditions and culture.
“The project is interesting for its complexity. It unites three different institutions with one theme, which is interdisciplinary and cross-cultural in nature. It makes it possible to take a broad look at the centuries-old history of the region, to understand the significance of climate change in the Arctic and to see in a new way the problem of the coexistence of nature, man and technology”, said the project curator, the S.G. Stroganov art university’s history of arts and humanities department’s head professor Kirill Gavrilin.
The project implementation period in Zaryadye is from January 27 to March 10, 2024. The educational program will take place in the lecture hall of the Reserve Embassy pavilion. The schedule will be posted on the Zaryadye Park website. Exhibition and educational program at the Russian State University of Arts named after S.G. Stroganov will be held from February 5 to February 29, 2024. Exhibition and educational program at the State Darwin Museum will take place from February 13 to April 9, 2024.
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Text: Denis Kozhevnikov, photo: Nikolay Shchipko
