Museum space “Forgotten. Can(not) be saved”

The idea for the project belongs to Gleb Pivovarov. The city of Krasnoyarsk was one of the country’s industrial centres during Soviet times, with dozens of enterprises that made a huge contribution to the development of our homeland. Krasnoyarsk made a significant contribution to the development of not only Russian but also world science and culture! Surikov, Astafiev, Godenko and Hvorostovsky made art history on this land. Yarygin, Mindiashvili and Ustyugov wrote new pages in the history of sports. But apart from the great power of art and sport, the nuclear shield that gave peaceful skies to half the planet was forged on this land; advanced vaccines and medicines were created; trains and steam locomotives were built; satellites were assembled and radio and telemetry systems were developed. Many of these achievements were reflected in the unique monumental industrial art, and enterprises were truly city-forming and created not only jobs, but also built entire neighbourhoods, houses of culture, parks and squares. Many buildings, steles and transport stops keep the memory of the origin of these buildings, steles and parks. Majestic panels, mosaics and sgraffito highlight the strength and power of the companies and their achievements, glorify human labour and the importance of school, vocational and higher education. Unique stained glass windows, made in the “classic” technique of lead and coloured glass, tell the story of space exploration. Mosaics in coloured smalt tell the story of the city’s founding and the growth of its strength and significance. All of these industrial-era monuments are located in different parts of the city and their images or fragments have never been brought together in a cultural exhibition. To collect them in one place is a unique opportunity to tell not only about the achievements of the past and the present, but also about the people, whose fates are closely intertwined with Krasnoyarsk, the mighty power of the Yenisei, engineering, medicine and space. All this forms a harmonious picture of interaction of natural force and force of art, force of character, mind and spirit of Krasnoyarsk people. The idea for this museum came from the project team led by Gleb Pivovarov.

The museum is the most complete gallery of monumental decorative industrial art of Krasnoyarsk and the Krasnoyarsk region. The museum space ‘Industrial Art of Krasnoyarsk. Forgotten. Can(not) be saved” is a development of the Mini-museum of Inventions located in the House of Science and Technology. It aims to preserve and protect the monumental works of industrial art which tell about the path of labor valor of Krasnoyarsk people, their contribution to the development of the country, to the common cause of Victory, space exploration and taming of the atom. Soviet mosaics, sgraffito, frescoes and stained glass windows are not only illustrations of great achievements, but also unique works of art, in which all aspects are important: technique and method of execution, location and time of creation.

The museum is available at https://area-museum.ru/ and on the social network https://vk.com/area.museum.domnit The Gallery of Soviet Muralists is a virtual exhibition of mosaics, bas-reliefs, high reliefs, sgraffito, stained-glass windows, etc.

At the moment there are over 25 works with established authorship and date of creation. The work on description and cataloguing continues. A full album-catalogue is being prepared. An interactive robot-guide is available on the project website for visitors’ convenience.

The House of Science and Technology has restored stained glass windows.

The biographies of the muralists are described separately.