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Moscow officials unsuccessfully tried to intercept the initiative of “Arkhnadzor”
Officials of the capital's cultural heritage committee (Moskomnasledie) clearly lack the skill of involving members of the public in the work of protecting historical and architectural monuments. At the very least, the committee’s attempt to use the method of its eternal opponents from Arkhnadzor and gather Muscovites for an action directed against thoughtlessly installed advertising in the center was not particularly successful. Yesterday, officials invited citizens to take to the streets with cameras and record all advertising structures that distort the historical and cultural appearance of the capital. However, only representatives of the media showed interest in this event. Therefore, Moskomnaslediye employees had to carry out their own inventory of advertising banners, structures and brackets that filled the historical center.“I have three people in my sector, and just photographing the Boulevard Ring took them five days of non-stop work, and if we also do address-by-address recording of each outdoor advertising object, it will take more than one week,” the boss complained in a conversation with reporters Department of Moscow Heritage Antonin Zolotukhin. According to officials, most of the advertising structures installed along the Boulevard Ring have not been assessed for their safety for the historical appearance of the capital. Yauzsky, Pokrovsky, Chistoprudny, Sretensky, Rozhdestvensky, Petrovsky, Strastnoy, Tverskoy, Gogolevsky and Suvorovsky boulevards are overloaded with advertising media. According to representatives of the Moscow Heritage Committee, the areas of the Boulevard Ring are also in a catastrophic state. As the deputy head of the Moscow Heritage Committee, Alexander Filyaev, previously stated, in the city as a whole, up to 50% of advertising structures on buildings - architectural monuments - were installed illegally.
“We are against roof installations on cultural and historical heritage sites, against banners, and we do not welcome the placement of brackets,” said Ms. Zolotukhina. According to her, construction networks with advertising have completely become the scourge of Moscow. “It is stipulated that in security zones it is possible to place advertising only on 30% of the surface of the construction grid. But, as we see, now the nets are completely closed, and they are hung simply to make a profit, no work is being done behind them,” the representative of the Moscow Heritage Committee was indignant.
In addition, according to officials, huge video screens distort the appearance of the historical center of Moscow. “Advertising is the art of living in harmony with the architecture of the city,” note official defenders of the city’s cultural heritage. This suggests that they are by no means categorically against advertising, but insist on serious restrictions for advertisers in the center of the capital. It seems that representatives of Moscow Heritage Committee only after the change of mayor paid attention to the chaotic use of advertising space.
At the same time, the Committee on Advertising, Information and Design of the City did not have time to reorganize so quickly. According to representatives of the Moscow Heritage Committee, they proposed to their colleagues to conduct a joint inventory of all advertising structures in the center of Moscow. “Our proposals did not find support,” says Ms. Zolotukhina, who explained that only after receiving a refusal did her department turn to Muscovites for support.
However, residents of the capital, who regularly complain about the dominance of street advertising, responded to the officials’ call with great restraint. Only about 50 people registered to participate in the action, and only a few citizens with an active lifestyle appeared directly outside the Moskomnaslediye building on Pyatnitskaya Street yesterday morning. And even those were not ready for inspection. “Nobody told me that I needed to take a camera with me,” said one of the few representatives of the city community, the elderly architect-restorer Vladimir Rybkin, indignantly. The main crowd of the anti-advertising campaign were journalists who accompanied Moscow Heritage Committee employees along marked routes with video cameras and cameras. The raid was planned along nine routes of the Boulevard Ring, four sections of Kutuzovsky Prospekt, in addition, social activists had to count advertising objects on Tverskaya Zastava Square, Maroseyka, Pokrovka and Arbat.
The Moskomnaslediye employees themselves were also not technically prepared for a thorough audit of central streets. After just an hour and a half of photographing advertising media on Tverskaya, Moscow Heritage Advisor Alexey Nikiforov’s camera ran out of battery. “If not today, then tomorrow we will definitely finish the inventory,” he assured the Vremya Novostei correspondent. Moreover, due to the abundance of all kinds of advertising media, the official clearly did not understand what was considered a violation. For example, Mr. Nikiforov ignored advertisements printed on the sidewalk and banners promoting the celebration of National Unity Day.
As Antonina Zolotukhina said, in theory it is necessary to record all advertising media at specific addresses. After which, all information must be collected and transferred to Moskomnaslediye specialists, who will determine whether the advertising structure was installed illegally and whether it damages the historical appearance of the city. According to Ms. Zolotukhina, it will take at least two weeks to summarize the results of the photo campaign. She noted that defenders of cultural heritage will demand the dismantling of advertising structures that have not been approved by the Moscow Heritage Committee.
According to Rustam Rakhmatullin, coordinator of the Arkhnadzor public movement, a detailed study of advertising space in the historical part of the city will require a longer period. “This action cannot be a one-day event,” he said. Mr. Rakhmatullin supported the initiative of Moskomnaslediye officials and even volunteered to help attract his supporters to the action if it was prolonged, especially since it was “Arkhnadzor” that was the first to use this form of work with Muscovites. Social activists themselves react only to the most dangerous facts about the placement of advertising installations for historical objects. “They do not directly threaten the historical heritage with destruction,” Mr. Rakhmatullin referred to the fact that until now townspeople were forced to protect monuments primarily from builders. Although, according to representatives of Arkhnadzor, banners that cross street alignments and overly large signs really seriously spoil the historical appearance of the city.