Remove the snake

How residents of one of the houses of Almetyevsk became hostages of a giant snake and a hero with the face of the most famous Tatar dancer and homosexual

- On my wall is a snake! You see, I have a child in the room there, and a snake is sleeping on the wall! This house has experienced so much.

“You understand, we are not fools, we already understood that this is a fairy tale.” Good fairy tale. But we do not care about a fairy tale, we don't like the snake! We have enough negativity in life!

Baba Valya against

Imagine that on the street is +11, under you nine floors of a free flight, a dug road and a round -the -clock "drunk". You are the Greek artist Fikos, who was the first to combine the Byzantine style with street art and painted half a world. You are standing on the lift on the facade of house No. 2 on Gafitullin Street in Almetyevsk and ending your next creation - an illustration of the Tatar “Fairy Tale of the Golden Bird”, in which the hero defeats human vices in the face of a giant snake. You are watching the entire world community of street artists and Baba Valya from the tenth entrance. And Baba Vale does not like it.

She lives in a house where the water does not leave in the basement and accumulates so that it has long been called a swamp. And there is no light in the entrances, but there are new elevators with music. There is still no bench at the tenth entrance. Women wiped her to at least somehow complicate the life of drinking husbands: a store is working nearby, in which alcohol is sold around the clock. And there are no ramps, so in every fifth apartment they don’t remember at all when they last went out into the street. And over the eighth entrance, a cell tower sticks out, which radiates radiation exceeding all permissible norms. At least so the inhabitants of the entrance. In general, there is enough problems for Baba Vale, and here is still a snake.

Baba Valya went to the meeting of the owners of the house and found that not one like this: “Why all is green? Gloomy like that! And dismemberment. And why the snake? The next house has such a bright drawing, we also want one! Let's complain somewhere! " “Well, my daughter has Instagram, let her write to Hairullin there,” says Aunt Katya. She does not remember whether her daughter wrote to someone or not, but less than a week later about the resistance of the residents were already known to those who brought the artist-greek to Almetyevsk.

The center of the little universe

One of the houses participating in the art project photo: Elena guess

Two years ago, Tatneft, the main enterprise of Almetyevsk-the oil capital of Tatarstan, initiated the creation of the first kind of art project. The idea was beautiful: to capture the history of the city on the walls. For implementation, the initiative group went to St. Petersburg, to the Institute for Research of Street Art. The result is a concept according to which the bicycle route should connect objects of different genres among themselves: monumental paintings, sculptures, Lend Art objects and so on. They will be created in the city for 5 years, and their appearance will be accompanied by meetings with artists, master classes, film locations and lectures.

Each artist received a training manual with recommendations, and each sketch should be agreed with the institute, Tatneft and the city administration. The manuals were developed by a special team from anthropologists, ethnographers and historians. They rummaged in archives, traveled around Tatar villages, gathered official history and city legends.

In Almetyevsk, everyone knows about the art project. Local television is constantly shooting stories about new objects and coming artists. The budget is enough even for issues on the first channel.

Each house on which the illustration appeared for some time becomes the center of the Almetyevsk Universe: they say about it, everyone is discussing a new drawing, including fans of the artist, and the press is spinning near the houses.

Palma, chamomile and jaguar

When it became clear that the snake of Fikos was not appreciated, heavy artillery was promptly sent to the house - the research group - to study the opinion of the residents.

“When we realized that there is an ambiguous attitude to this image, we ordered an independent study to understand the real picture. There are always people who do not like something, there are always activists who scream louder. People who like everything go about their business, ”says Polina Hedgehog, the curator and producer of the project. - The question of what should appear in public space, and what is not, discussion. If you stupidly ask people what they like and make a collage out of this, it will be a palm tree, chamomile and a jaguar. No cultural value. It is important not only and not so much images, but stories that are behind it. Stories that we want to convey is preserved. No one remembers its roots - our project is about this. ”

A research group from Moscow, Peter and Kazan interviewed 200 residents of the house, 50 people from the house opposite and 20 passers -by.

The snake is to blame

- At first we liked it - there were like hieroglyphs. We thought, okay, prayer, maybe Tatar, well, our roots. Then the outlines of the snake appeared, and even then we began to worry and run with questions and indignation. They asked to somehow change the drawing-at least to make it not so gloomy, brighter,-they tell me in the most rebellious tenth entrance.

Batyr wins the snake just on the facade from the tenth of the entrance. The house is so long that there are probably people in the first entrances that have not yet seen the drawing, and there are those who never see.

Gradually, the outrage of the “gloomy” of the picture grew into existential resistance to the snake as a symbol of evil and alcohol.

- This house has experienced so much: in the basement of a swamp, a round -the -clock “drunk” under the window, the girl rushed from the window of a neighboring house right under our balcony. And this is just where the snake is! - The woman holds a curious little girl with her hand, who is interested in who again knocks on their apartment and asks about the snake.

- The last two weeks they have been going to them and tell the plot of fairy tales, and brochures with a brief biography of the artist scattered along the mailboxes. Good fairy tale. But first we see a snake! We don't care about a fairy tale, we don't like the snake! My grandson is afraid to walk near the house because of her! But this is psychology. If you look at the picture every day - this is the installation, this will be your mood. And here - every day to look at the dismemberment and a nine -meter snake! This cannot but affect a person.

There are those who appreciated the drawing philosophically.

- It's good that the drawing was painted. The wall was scattered, the holes were covered, it became warmer at the house, - they say in the tenth entrance.

“I don’t care what drawing, if only it was warm, the light in the entrances made water,” says the teacher from the third.

- The cell tower over us radiates the radiation more than the norm, we have all the documents. But, when we complained about this, everyone did not care, but because of this picture everyone arrived, everyone immediately became interesting! - They say in the eighth.

- There is nothing more to do in the city, except as drawings to draw? The money is extra? It would be better if the roads were closed, - they say in half the entrances and the group "Folk Control Almetyevsk" on VKontakte.

“Sociologists” were first met very well - the complaints of people were carefully recorded for the first time in their lives. But when more and more people began to come, the issues remained old, and no one was in a hurry to solve the issue with the snake, people were scared.

The program that residents distributed to the residents photo: Elena Dogadina

- Oh, we have already answered the question about the figure three hundred times, leave us alone.

“I have a small child, don’t go to me, I’m tired, nothing will happen,” the woman in a peach dressing gown and with frightened eyes quickly slammed the door. The rest of the entrance called it one of the main activists.

- Now we are already all, have come to terms. And really, when did we get from the authorities? Previously, you will complain in the People's Commissar and everything is decided, but now it’s not even clear how to act, ”her neighbor shares. - Well, we arranged meetings, well, they told us, they say, the artist will leave, we will paint. We say why painted, this is how much work a drain! Now we have been put up with fools, but we are not stupid, we understand everything, so we began to speak before the drawing was ready. But the other day there was a meeting again, so what? And nothing. We no longer know what to do, and, frankly, we are tired. Many began to be afraid of such attention - everything is too serious. We, on the sidelines, are still discussing between ourselves, of course, we are indignant, but nowhere else. Everyone is tired.

It’s time to end in this story: several people are left dissatisfied, they have no constructive requirements, they have no strength to fight further too. Despite this, there is a chance that the drawing will still be painted or modified - because the batyr on it turned out to be gay.

The most famous Tatar in the world

Fikos painted the face of a fairy-tale batyr from the portraits of Rudolf Nureyev, and this caused discontent from customers: the dancer-gay, who died from AIDS, does not really fit into the concept of Tatar traditions, which should be left to generations.

People did not say exactly that Batyr was Nureyev, they simply recognized him. And attempts to identify the hero are understandable, because the neighboring house depicts a leviting man in a turban against the backdrop of bright fabulous paintings, and this is officially Nadir Urazet - a Tatar entrepreneur, who, according to legends, found oil in the region in 1752.

Tatneft, to the question of whether the person of Rudolf Nureev will affect the decision of the house, did not answer: “We are the initiator and main customer of the Almetyevskaya public art program, but the final decision is made on the basis of the aggregate opinion of the program of the Street Statement of the Street Art.” The institute replied that this was not Nureev: “How many artist was inspired. These are all guesses, and you can see anyone in this figure. ”

And only the artist calmly and willingly said why Nureev was: “They told me that the Tatars feel their national uniqueness and would like to see themselves in the project, so I chose the most famous Tatar in the world as a hero of history.”

Drawing of the Greek artist Fikos photo: Elena guess

According to unconfirmed information, when they learned about Nureev in Tatneft, they decided to paint over the image. According to the confirmed, “the conversation was about the fact that the style of this image does not correspond to the idea of ​​Tatar cultural codes that it is knocked out of the rest. There was no talk of any homophobia. And you understand, they are all over 60 there and they are from Almetyevsk. ”

We turned to the Street Art Institute with a question with what fate awaits the drawing. “Just painting, probably not the most reasonable action right now,” said the producer and curator of the project Polina Hedgehog. - At the moment, the world art community is also looking at Almetyevsk. And this is a common story that many architectural, artistic sharp steps have not been accepted for a very long time, and then the object became a cultural property. Residents are unhappy primarily by the fact that they were not asked. But I understand that if they decided to ask everyone, there would be chamomiles. But still you need to ask - it is imperative that they be involved. What to do with the house, we will think based on the results of the study. ”

According to the residents, they never asked to paint the drawing. They feel sorry for the budget money. And the artist, for whom they, "actually, worried while he painted there on the top." They definitely do not want to paint anything, and if you modify, then the snake, not the batyr. They don’t give a damn about Batyr.

And then the results of the study ripened. Not even information was confirmed that most of the tenants against the drawing: 43.2% - rather positively, 13.6% - positively, 11.6% - neutral, 14.8% - negatively. 62% of residents believe that it is necessary to "leave everything as it is."

The hieroglyphs that many residents liked more than the drawing itself are the black marking of the wall on the departments for the convenience of drawing. Recently, Ficos posted the image in his communities, telling how interesting it was to work in such a project.

And, it seems, Nureev remains in Almetyevsk.

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The material uses links to publications of social networks Instagram and Facebook, as well as their names are mentioned. These web resources belong to Meta Platforms Inc. - It is recognized in Russia as an extremist organization and is prohibited.