report from the exhibition at the Museum
“They’re especially pretty in contrast to Dzerzhinsky”: Muscovites are delighted with the new sculptures at the “Muzeon”
A lyrical sculptural composition “Rabbit,” ” Baby Rhino,” and “Baby” was installed in the Museon Arts Park.
Surprise!
– They are like from a fairy tale about Moomins! – students Vika and Oksana, walking in the park, took out their smartphones and took selfies against the funny animals. – Mi-Mi-mi! I want to squeeze, stroke and hug them.
“Rabbit”, “Baby Rhino”, and “Baby” have recently settled on the main avenue of the “Muzeon”, near the entrance to the New Tretyakov Gallery. They are installed right on the grass, but there are no threatening “Do Not Walk on the Lawns!” signs here. Anyone can get acquainted with the park’s new inhabitants. And there is a surprise in store for everyone:
– How light they are!
Indeed, from a distance the figures look like bronze. In fact, they are so called composite materials.
– I usually cast my works in bronze, including landscape ones, but they can only be moved by cranes,” Olga Muravina, the author of the sculptures and graduate of Moscow Art Institute named after Surikov, told Metro. – I sometimes make large works of composite for exhibition projects. It is light and weatherproof, it is a very convenient material for exhibiting and moving. My “trinity” is made of it.
The expression of the faces (and muzzles) of its characters is a separate topic.
– The rhinoceros and the rabbit have a human, deep look,” notes Irina, walking from the Tretyakov Gallery. – The eyelids are covered, the eyes are hazy, dreamy.
– And I was attracted to the ears,” confesses David, resting on a bench with his girlfriend. – They’re funny, like a submarine’s periscope. And the figures themselves are obese, disproportionate. This only adds to their charm. They are especially adorable in contrast to the gloomy monument to Dzerzhinsky, standing nearby, literally a hundred meters away.
Tenderness and Smile
Children are the most excited about the sculptures. Someone is even trying to feed them apples.
– Mira, take the rabbit by the ear, but don’t break it,” smiles a young mother Evgenia, setting her daughter on the head of the rabbit. – We have a mountain of toys at home, but they all look like one another. And here the child saw something completely new and showed interest.
According to Olga Muravina, each of the three figures is self-sufficient, but together they coexist quite organically.
– I don’t do narrative things, I like sculptures that are static, timeless, carrying tenderness and a smile, frozen in eternity. I think these works are for absolutely any audience. The main message is to preserve that warm, childlike and vulnerable beginning that lives in all of us, our “inner child”.
Dmitry Rogovitsky Metro Moscow