NEW OUTLOOK ON EVERYDAY LIFE

The photo album is the result of five-year efforts of the artist. It includes around 100 photographs and an essay “Gorad SONtsa”. The photo project’s idea was to highlight the unique character and charm of Minsk not by simply displaying well-known architectural monuments and objects, but by searching for the image of the city.

The album unwraps itself in a manner the artist named “visual poem”. The album consists of three parts: red, blue, and white. The first one named “Gorad Sontsa” (sun city) shows the grandness of Soviet epoch monuments and the majesty of the forms. The second part named “Gorad SONtsa” (dream city) shows Minsk backyards, sleepy streets, and soft shadows of the Old Minsk.

The final part of the album named “Gorad SON” (city sleep) shows the translucence and purity of snow-covered Minsk in winter.

The essay “Gorad SONtsa” by Artur Klinov lays down his concept of Minsk’s absolute architectural uniqueness. He believes, Minsk is the only implemented idea of the Ideal City that the present world knows. Like every state has its ideal symbols, i.e. a national emblem, a hymn, and a flag, every social Utopia has its own symbol as well, which is the Ideal City.
According to the author, a social utopia cannot become part of life, however, it can be implemented as an architectural project. Klinov thinks, this very variant of the communist utopia is most fully realized in the post-war Minsk.

“In my opinion, the project is rather interesting”, said culture scientist Vatslav Oreshko, while talking about the album. “It presents a new outlook on Minsk, both on the official Minsk, and the city we sometimes fail to notice. On the one hand, Klinov sees Minsk as an artist, as a painter, on the other hand, we see an exaggerated glamourous Minsk”.

The photo project “Gorad SONtsa” is part of a large project by Klinov aimed at unearthing “Minsk’s self-awareness in a mythologeme of Sun City”.

by Sergei Pulsha