Vinzavod (or Winzavod)
For the Night at the Museum, a world-wide event in which museums and art galleries open their doors for free, I was with Lily and Dilara at Vinzavod. The buildings of Vinzavod used to be part of a winery and some of the mechanical structures inside have been left as decoration to add an interesting atmosphere. There are even galleries in old wine cellars! Lily and Dilara covered much of what we saw, and I would like to bring attention to the graffiti. As far as graffiti goes, perhaps what is there is not anything special, but since I rarely see any graffiti at home in Northfield, all graffiti stands out to me. Sometimes graffiti is vandalism, and sometimes it is art. The graffiti at Vinzavod is part of the latter. In fact, the whole area is dedicated to Viktor Tsoi, the now deceased leader of Kino, a soviet rock band.
Some of the graffiti we saw at Vinzavod.
Bulgakov Museum
On Wednesday (May 21) the praktikantki took us on a tour of Bulgakov’s House, now a museum. Bulgakov is the author of The Master and Margarita, a book we read for class. On the way up to the floor of the museum, the walls were covered with renditions of characters from the book.
Behemoth – a cat that acts like a human.
Another rendition of Behemoth. In the beginning of the book, Behemoth boards a trolley while standing on two feet and even holds out his payment to the cashier, but she refuses him, yelling that no cats are allowed. Behemoth decides to hang on the outside of the trolley, getting a free ride. “С котами нельзя!” “Cats are not allowed!”
A depiction of Woland, the devil, with Behemoth’s paw prints nearby.
The Patriarch’s Ponds Area
On Sunday (May 11), Gretchen, Almeda and I set out to visit Patriarch’s Ponds, which is the opening setting of Bulgakov’s book. We found this interesting line drawing on our way there:
“Sorry” has been misspelled as “Sory”. Notice that another passerby made a correction, adding another “r”.
And today with Chet and Natasha, we took a look at a free library box (give a book, take a book) near on the bank of the Patriarch’s Ponds.
 |
 |
It’s the same artist! How neat is that?
The Arbat
On the Arbat, a place visited by many tourists as well as Russians, there is a wall dedicated to graffiti.
Gisell and I striking a pose in front of this awesome wall.
Kolomenskoye
On the boat (see Almeda’s post), we saw some noteworthy graffiti.
Looks pretty intense. It reminds me of the graffiti we saw at Vinzavod.
Petersburg
Here are a few more interesting photos:
Does this count as graffiti? No matter, as long as it’s interesting.
And to end this post, here is our dramatic mathematician:
I wish I could be that cool.