PROEKT sculptural exhibition successfully presented at the Belarusian Union of Artists’ Gallery
Sculpture has various forms, both large and small, it isn’t just decoration of the urban environment. Sculpture is able to create an important connection between architectural, social and historic spaces.
The current show at Minsk’s Arts Palace isn’t simply an exhibition. The PROEKT brings the audience into the sculptors’ creative studio, enabling us to interact with the ideas which are currently in the form of sculptural ‘sketches’ but which will soon be embodied in real sculptural images, and will probably find their way onto the streets and squares of the city.
The event displays the widest range of new ideas by domestic sculptors for the urban environment. The participants of the project are sculptors Anna Ambrosova, Yuri Anushko, Ivan and Anatoly Artimovichs, Yelena Atrashkevich-Zlatkovich, Alexander Botvinenok, Valentin Borzdy, Andrey Vorobiev, Valery Dudko, Igor Zosimovich, Denis Kondratiev, Victor Kopach, Konstantin Kostyuchenko, Pavel Leonov, Vladimir Lomeiko, Valery Malakhov, Vadim Matskevich, Irina Moigis, Konstantin Muzhev, Olga Nechai, Sergey and Dmitry Oganovs, Andrey Ostashev, Maxim Petrul, Polina Pirogova, Olga Sazykina, Konstantin Selikhanov, Alexander Sokolov, Alexey Sorokin, Vasily Timashov and Alexander Shappo amongst others.
The exhibition is organised in two distinct parts. The first is the Garden of Ideas art project of Polotsk’s Art Gallery (curators Larisa Lysenko and Pavel Voinitsky), bringing together the most unexpected unpublished works by Belarusian authors. The second is the sculptural development of Uzda’s central boulevard (shortly to be implemented), prepared by the Minskgrazhdanproekt Institute (a team of Design-Centre architects under the guidance of Valentina Tsionskaya) but, unfortunately, not yet fulfilled.
The organisers of the exhibition invited architects, developers, administrators and residents to actively participate in the PROEKT. Discussions have been held on the issue of how sculptures can improve the capital city. There is a long-established goal to make Minsk a tourist centre. The organisers and participants of the PROEKT exhibition are convinced that sculptural works, marking the history and the sights of the city, are key to this. They believe that the open-air sculpture park could become a significant tourist destination.
There were many interesting outcomes from the PROEKT sculptural exhibition
The PROEKT has cleverly turned the exhibition hall into an interactive space to share ideas. The artists gave talks and demonstrated how contemporary sculptures are created. They welcomed the feedback and discussion that arose from the exhibition.
By Veniamin Mikheev
