Category Archives: Kaliningrad Events Reviewed & Culture

Kaliningrad Art Exhibition

Where Art Meets Interior Design (part II)

Updated 12 November 2021 / first published: 2 March 2020

In November 2019, we attended an art exhibition of a different kind, in which two art forms came together in a symbiotic visual aesthetic and chic utilitarianism. This exhibition, which incorporated paintings, sculptures and studio art pottery, used a neutral canvas, the novel form and proportions of which comprised a number of empty rooms in what was at that time an incomplete apartment block, except that is for one flat, where a unique and innovative makeover had achieved space-saving functionality but at no cost to style and novelty.

As with any art exhibition, the objective here was to bring works of art, and the artists who create them, into the public eye. The works displayed could be enjoyed for their cultural merit purely in the space and time that they occupy for the life of the exhibition or, if the beholder so desired, at their leisure privately and naturally for a price. However, and this is where the concept differs, once interest is stimulated it is hoped that potential art purchasers will experience a carry over into the functional realm of personalised living space where the wider appeal of lifestyle aesthetics prevail. All that is needed is vision, and, of course, the requisite roubles.

Clutter above minimalism

By no stretch of the imagination am I a man bowled over or easily swayed by modernism ~ contemporary that is ~ or by minimalism of any kind: give me a fussy, over-cluttered Victorian drawing room any day. However, I must have enjoyed the first exhibition, because I was looking forward to attending the second.

The previous venue had been a modern apartment block, whereas, in contrast, our invitation and curiosity took us this time to a wonderful Gothic building, somewhat jaded by the vicissitudes of time but to its melancholic benefit rather than its detriment.

Gothic Red Brick building Konigsberg — Original *Königsberg* Gothic

Kaliningrad art exhibition

The exhibition was being held on the first floor of this not insubstantial building. We had encountered trouble in finding the building itself, so without prior instruction as to where we were to go and with no signs in evidence to point us in the right direction, it was more by chance than skill that we tried a door at the side of the building, thereto discovering a small narrow staircase which would lead us to our destination.

The one flight of stairs, screened off by a series of pink vertical rectangular struts, led us into a room which was a living work of modern art. It had what we will call the ‘Wow’ factor.

But first the exhibition itself.

Kaliningrad art exhibition

With the exception of three or four artworks that had been hung in the Wow room, most of the paintings were to be found literally strung out along both walls of a lengthy corridor. Others were exhibited in an adjoining room, and two more ~ old friends of ours from the previous exhibition ~ had been consigned to the far end of the corridor, a good choice as the black walls and black floor tiling flecked with tiny white fracturing ripples heightened the tension inherent in these works.

Whilst the abstract paintings ~ total abstracts ~ suited the environment perfectly, my artistic and emotional prejudice steered me yet again into the arms of the painting after which we had lusted at the previous exhibition but sadly could not afford. This was the painting by Yri Bulechev. It is depicted here (see photograph below), along with its price tag of £2000.

Yri Bulechev painting exhibited at Kaliningrad art exhibition — Together,somewhere in the isthmus ~ love’s refuge between earth and sky. Artist Yri Bulechev

Perhaps if I volunteer to mix the paints for the artist, he might be persuaded to give me a discount.

Enigmatic painting at Kaliningrad art exhibition — I used to be indecisive but now I’m not so sure

The ‘old friends’ to which I referred earlier, hanging on the appropriately dark wall, were works by an artist who, in keeping with the enigma of his/her art, we have not been able to identify. Once again, of all the artwork displayed here, their enigmatic quality took precedence, although, conversely, I was also attracted to the 1950s’ industrial scene, a painting in the realist mode of a Soviet factory or processing plant.

Painting of Soviet Industrial Scene Kaliningrad — Industrialism vs Landscape

Studio Art Vases Kaliningrad Art Exhibition — Studio Art Vases: natural and impressive

At the opposite end of the corridor to that where the enigma paintings hung was an impressive collection of large studio art pottery, floor-standing vases of prodigious proportions, staple must-have items back in the 1960s, statements then of contemporary modern chic, which today were completely in keeping with the décor of the reception room through which we had passed on our arrival. For whilst this room was the very epitome of contemporary modernism, there was no concealing the fact that certain crucial elements of its aesthetic composition owed their manifestation to the iconic preoccupations of 1960s’ designers and artists.

The stone sculpture of a man’s head and face possessed no such subtle nuances. It was a strong face, an indomitable face, and as it sat there on its plinth daring me to stare at it I was put in mind of tricky situations encountered in my youth, mainly in public houses, which went something along the lines of: “’ere mate, are you starin’ at me?!”.

This would seem as good a time as any to retreat from the corridor into the Wow room.

First, I should explain that unlike the earlier exhibition this one was not being held in an empty apartment block but in a partly occupied suite of offices. On this occasion unchaperoned, the exact nature of the tie-in between art and interior design had not been explained to us, but I think we can assume that the logic behind it was that you too could have an office like this styled to your personal taste.

In this particular made-over office block the Wow room was the reception area. It was large, with a fairly long desk to the left of the pink-painted and glass-panelled entrance door and, to the right, a seating area for visitors, a place to unwind, eat snacks and drink coffee.

Feeling very receptive in the reception room

I still think that it would make a nice bar!

The furniture conformed to the modern predilection for non-conformity, ie an anthology of different furnishing styles. In the centre of the room the tables were round-topped, raised on slender pedestals and supported by circular bases. There was no mistaking their 1960s’ credentials. Fronting the reception desk, or counter, stood high square-section stools fitted with back rests, whilst a long light-timbered bench seat sprinkled with cushions and traversing one of the walls provided seating at a series of tables of typical square construction. But it was the chairs in the middle of the room that wrested continuity from divergence.

21st Century Designer Chair — Chairs, but not as we know them

Made of a transparent acetate material, their pierced, convoluted and intertwined design virtually stole the show. However, there’s no business like show business and no show business without getting the lighting right. And here was the real show stealer. The lighting in this room was pure creative brilliance.

In reverse order of merit, the wall lights, ceiling lights and sconces in pierced and modern brass had obviously been purchased from Del and Rodders, but there gauche intrusiveness contributed an eccentric out-of-place rivalry to the blended effect achieved in the suspended hang ’em high and sling ’em low mid-20^th century pendants, each one equipped with white, minimalist, cushion-shaped shades. One interesting divergence on this theme was the inclusion of a slightly different variety. It was a pendant lamp with the same long wire attachment but with a shade entirely composed of looped vinyl tubes.

Staying with the suspension theme, the lights above the bar (sorry, my mind must be wandering, I meant reception desk) were plain enough, with their straight glass shades, but something odd was going on here because each light appeared to contain three overlapping bulbs of different colours, whilst, in point of fact, although each fitting contained a different coloured bulb, each pendant only had room for one bulb. On reflection, I was glad that the reception desk was not a bar!

Russia Today Interior Design — You look pierced!

Nothing much needs to be said about the beam-suspended spot bars focused upon the wall-strung paintings, except that they did their job, but the real feather in the lighting cap, the unproverbial pièce de résistance, was the violet light emanating from a complete wall of corrugated vinyl, similar in its ribbed construction to the translucent two-ply material favoured in this part of the world for screening on garden fences. At a guess, I would say that the light source contained within this material consists of coloured LED strips and that the intensity and suffusing quality is controlled by the filtration and the refractive mechanism exerted by the material’s density and the patterned texture upon its surface. I suppose you would agree?

Kaliningrad Art Exhibition — Revolving in a violet haze

As an interesting and unusual light source, this lightweight wall is fascinating, but further joy is derivable from the central pivoting section, which fulfils the function of a revolving door. So super-sensitive is the mechanism that all it takes is the touch of a finger to set the door in motion, turning the whole partition around smoothly and quietly on its axis.

I know I have spent an inordinate number of words and time waxing lyrical about lighting, but, lest it should be underestimated, the golden rule is that no interior design work, whatever it is or wherever applied, will ever ‘cut the mustard’ without due regard for lighting. Mark my words, if the lighting is not right everything else will be wrong.

Modern Office Door Russia — Reminding me of the traditional British telephone box

Leaving the lightshow behind, reluctantly, I crossed back into the corridor. I noticed that every door in the corridor was uniform, a light mat beige-brown framework infilled with fielded panels of vinyl. I like these doors, I thought, but I was not so sure old stone face did. He was looking at me again, so I shot a glance at the ceiling.

Ahh, yes, there it was, the exposed industrial look found in every restaurant, café, bar and office from here to the land of Nod. Discard the false ceiling, let the silver-tone ventilation tubes be proudly and unashamedly seen in all their heavy-weight glory, together with water pipes, electric cables and everything else that used to be hidden. But then as Henry Ford supposedly famously said, “If it ‘aint broke don’t fix it”, and it seems to work for everyone, for the time being at least.

Interior Design Kaliningrad Russia — Nothing to hide

Office Design Russia — Ladies & Gentlemen (It & Others?)

The last stop ~and it usually is ~ was the toilets. We were not going there to review the interior décor, but we were compelled to do so as an adjunct to the mission in hand. Our appraisal started with the toilet doors themselves. There were three doors, turquoise with lattice-work surfaces, strung out in sequence in the enigmatic-paintings’ section, where the walls and the floor tiling were predominantly black.

On the other side of the toilet door, the marbling effect had turned to grey and white. The variegated tiles left the floor and travelled up the wall behind the toilet pan, where a small shelf above was dressed in small mosaic. The walls on either side were covered in an intriguing silver highlighted paper, the illustrated pattern on which was fish. I am not entirely convinced that I like the idea of fish swimming around in the toilet but at least to the best of my knowledge these fish were not piranhas.

A modern Russian Toilet — The lavatory ~ hardly!

I came away from this event still wanting the paintings whose cost I could not justify but whose value I could not argue with. As for the idea of a 21^st century office complete with touch-responsive revolving acetate screen emitting room-bathing violet light, this scenario most definitely appeals to my love of the unconventional, but to rubber-stamp the investment I feel that I need to become a lot more important than I am at present. You, no doubt, are in a different league. So go on, why not treat yourself? You know that you deserve it!

Essential Details:

Exhibition: ‘Картинный вопрос 2.0’

The exhibition is a joint offline project of the Centre of Communication Rezanium
Tel: +79114679280
Web: www.rezanium.com

Project Organiser
Natalya Stepanyuk, Exhibition Curator & Artist

Interior Design
Anton Besonov

For more information, contact
Natalya Stepanyuk
Tel: +79062371001
Email: mail.artspace.gallery@gmail.com
Email: stepanyuknm@gmail.com

Kaliningrad Artist El Kartoon

Let’s face it and the cost of fast food ~ Limitations and Silence by Kaliningrad artist El Kartoon

Updated: 4 October 2021 | first published: 28 July 2020

In my blog post of 9 November 2019 I wrote about an unusual art exhibition we had attended and how we had been seduced by a particular artist’s work. A couple of months ago, a number of artworks by this artist were up for grabs.

The artist, anonymous artist (nom de guerre El Kartoon) had placed a number of his works for sale on the internet and was about to advertise them via Facebook. However, before the works were posted on Facebook the exhibition organiser, recalling our interest in the artist’s work, emailed my wife, Olga, to ascertain if we were in the market for any of the pieces he was selling, particularly the half-face painted on metal substrate, as we had expressed an interest specifically in this item, together with another composition featuring Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins).

For a while, we ummed and ahhhed, as you do; Olga weighing up the cost of the paintings against the number of plants she could buy for the garden, and me, mentally converting the cost of the paintings into foaming glasses of ale. Eventually, we decided to compromise.

The painting we bought was that of the female face, or rather half a female face, painted not on board or canvas but on a sheet of rusty metal.

The painting in question, Limitations, certainly has an innate power. When I beheld it unwrapped and standing in the lobby at the foot of our attic steps I experienced an overwhelming and incisive sense of awe, which rapidly transmuted, becoming first privilege and then disbelief that we now actually owned this fascinating composition.

The artistic arrangement is simple but effective. The face has been painted on a metal sheet. The sheet is old and rusting. It has a turned edge on one side, suggesting that in a previous life it had an industrial-mechanical purpose.

The face is female and comprises exactly 50% of a full human face, the invisible proportion achieved by positioning the image on the extreme left hand-side of the substrate. Both the location of the image and the facial expression lends itself to the interpretation of peering anxiously out from behind something, in the way, for example, you might steal a glance from behind a half-opened door. The remaining portion of the metal base, approximately one-third, has been left untreated ~ rusting and tarnished.

El Kartoon ‘Be Seeing You!’ in our attic

I have suggested that the expression on the face betrays a sense of anxiety, to that can be added apprehension. The looker is uneasy, vulnerable. The one eye, brilliant blue, reflects something white and rectangular. The blue of the eye is as deep and beautiful as it is insistent; the glazed reflection upon its surface (could it be a window?) stares out at you above the dark well of the pupil, drawing you into its mystery.

Everything in the composition of the face itself, the broad, black serrated outline, the layers that form the contours of the face and the fine details, are jagged, frayed, fragmenting. There is nothing calm, nothing quiescent. Whatever it is that informs the expression, it is as unnerved as it is unnerving.

In this work, as in most of the artist’s works that we have seen, a striking and, I am inclined to believe, essential engine of the thematic enigma resides in the application of a curious overlay of geometrical lines. In this example, those lines are fainter than in his other creations and do not extend so definitely from the painting’s centrality into the outlying images or borders, but they are there ~ on the exposed and rusting metal and among the drizzle and daubed discolouration, the latter looking like natural erosion, perhaps from water exposure, as if, along with the fading black paint to one corner, they belong to the metal’s former existence, to its pre-artistic, functional and then discarded history.

To the beholder, these lines are key. They, above anything else, if there is, indeed, anything else, help to unlock all manner of ambivalence. But one is a constant, and that is that the lines emphasise connectivity ~ the inescapable interconnection between the realm of flesh and emotion and the hard, unyielding, material world to which, no matter how unforgiving it is, we are all hardwired.

Taken together with other paintings by the same artist in which this technique is employed, I am inclined to understand these lines to be not just an overlay on an overwhelmed human face extending outwards and then back again into and from the physical world but the circuit board of modern life, which speaks to us not just of hard engineering but in the technological idiom by which our life is controlled and defined ~ the ultimate interconnectivity from which there is no escape, at least not for us in our flesh and blood lifetime.

Given the nature of this unusual painting and its more than flirtatious relationship with negativity, I was surprised that it somehow fitted into Olga’s reality of butterflies, trees and flowers, but the mystery was made known to me when after voicing my confusion she declared simply that she did not find the composition unnerving. ‘Vulnerable’, yes; ‘unnerving, no’. Had she really failed to discern the connection between our vulnerability in this world ~ the world that others have created for us ~ and how this might be ~ indeed cannot be, anything else but unnerving?

I was pleased, however, that her second choice as to where to hang the painting, which was the kitchen, was discounted fairly quickly, not on the basis of my interpretation but, whilst she would not see the picture as often as she liked, on the wall at the bottom of the attic steps, which seemed to be the place for it. We agreed on this. It fitted perfectly. It was where it would have most impact without impacting mostly.

Anthony Hopkins

Since learning that Mr Anonymous’ paintings were on the market for prices we could afford, we had been arguing the toss as to whether we should buy another of this gentleman’s artworks, the one based on Anthony Hopkins’ fictional character, Hannibal Lecter, in The Silence of the Lambs.

El Kartoon's 'Silence' artwork — El Kartoon’s ‘Silence’ as seen at the 2019 art exhibition, Kaliningrad

We had negotiated a price for this second artwork provided we bought both, ie the half-face, Limitations, and Silence as well, and had just about talked ourselves out of it when our inquiries as to why there was a near identical painting masquerading as graffiti on a small brick utility building opposite Kaliningrad’s lake met with an interesting answer: apparently, the artist had been caught subjecting the aforesaid building to his aesthetic skills, had been summarily arrested and thereafter charged with vandalism. The case had gone to court but in conclusion had been dismissed*.

Kaliningrad artist El Kartoon — El Kartoon’s open-air work, sadly, since defaced*

*Note that this public stencil was painted over sometime in 2021 🤔

The artist’s compulsion to reproduce his painting as ~ ahem ~ an ‘urban art form’ had arisen, we were told, out of twin noble sentiments: a sense of civic duty and moral obligation. He had disposed the image where he did as a warning to young ladies who, reportedly, were apt to congregate there after dark to eat the stuff they had bought from a certain US fast-food chain nearby. The artist wished to say, ‘look out there are predators about’ and was not necessarily commenting on the quality, or perhaps the content, of what it was they were eating or who, in fact, they were buying it from.

The framed artwork has an interesting historical annotation attached to it in that it still bears the official tag it was given as a possible ‘exhibit’ in a court of law!

Bugger! We had to have it!

Olga beamed with delight when I suggested that she get on the blower right away and tell the lady in charge of the art exhibitions that we had decided to take it if the artist was prepared to wait for payment at the end of the month. She, the lady, opined that it was a matter of fate that we would buy both as we had expressed such interest in them when first we saw them at the exhibition. Like Olga she believed that we were meant to own them. And I believe they were meant to own us.

El Kartoon’s ‘Silence’ displayed in our attic

Further information on the artist and artist’s work:

A comment from my wife, Olga, on her Facebook account
Mick and I bought these artworks just because we like the feel and amplitude. They call the artist the Russian Bansky, because of his distinctive stencilling technique. His works have been featured on the streets of Kaliningrad. I wonder if he will sell the copyright? When he is as famous as Bansky (and I believe he will become so one day, as he has talent), his public ‘installations’ might be sold by removing the walls they were painted on!

Notes from the art exhibitor’s website [link no longer active as at 12/04/2022] Art Space Gallery
El Kartoon, artist
The main direction [of his work] is stencil graphics aspiring to painting. The works reflect the desire to reflect fundamental values, feelings and social problems through the prism of our digital age. Contemporary, about contemporaries, for contemporaries.

El Kartoon
And now in Russian …
Основное направление – трафаретная графика стремящаяся к живописи. В работах отражено стремление отразить некие фундаментальные ценности, ощущения, социальные проблемы сквозь призму нашей цифровой эпохи.Эта живопись – отражающая современников, о соврем…

El Kartoon
EL Kartoon начал рисовать граффити в 1998 году. С 2002 по 2009 год был творческий перерыв. С 2009 года работает в трафаретной технике.Единственный Российский художник, который представляет трафаретную графику на международной арене, в частности на крупнейшей международной выставке трафаретного искусства Stencil Art Prize, Sidney, Australia, а так же является участником The Kutz, Bristol, United Kingdom

О работе «Молчание…»

Причиной создания работы послужило случайное наблюдение за ночными “обитателями” парковки, которые в ночное время едят там Макдональдс.В процессе создания картины на стене близлежащего здания автор был арестован и доставлен в отдел милиции. Часы, которые должны были показывать время – 18:00, сделать не получилось, но благодаря этому работа получила “новую окраску” и новый смысл.

O работе” Limitations”

Металл – это ассоциация художника с окружающим миром. В работе “Limitations”- человек в какой то степени заперт, в какой-то степени ограничен. Эта работа является одной из серии уличных работ на тему “цифрового человека” – современного, технологичного, оцифрованного и запущенного в сеть, в тираж, и как автору казалось в процессе над работой – это время наступает стремительно. Недавние законы, принятые в Москве, подтверждают “теорию цифрового человека”.

And now in English …
El Kartoon
The only Russian artist who represents stencil graphics in the international arena, in particular at the largest international exhibition of Stencil Art, Sidney, Australia. He also participated in The Kutz Exhibition, Bristol, United Kingdom.

About the artwork Silence
Silence came from the accidental observation of the night ‘inhabitants’ ~ the young who congregate in the parking area close to McDonald’s to consume the food they purchase from the fast-food chain.

In the process of the creating the stencilled work on the side of a building close to the parking area, the artist was arrested and taken to the police department. The clock, which was supposed to show the time, 18:00, was not finished, but thanks to this unfinished touch, the work received a ‘new colour’ and a new meaning.

About the artwork Limitations
El Kartoon writes: “Metal is my association with the outside world. In this case, the subject is locked to some extent, to some extent limited …”

Limitations was a series of street works on the topic of ‘digital man’ ~ modern, technological, digitised and launched into the network, in circulation and so on. At the time when the work was being created, it seemed to the artist that the time of the ‘digital man’ was rapidly approaching. Recent laws adopted in Moscow suggest to the artist that the time of the ‘digital man’ has come.

Kaliningrad Cinema

Zarya Cinema Kaliningrad+++

Updated 14 September 2021 | first published 6 March 2020 ~ Kaliningrad Cinema

*Please be aware that since this post was first published on 6 March 2020 the Zarya has sadly closed. Perhaps another victim of coronavirus? I have published the edited, updated version as an epitaph to a cultural icon that surely must be missed.

There is only one independent cinema in Kaliningrad*, but it has been showing films since the 1930s. It withstood the conflagration of World War II, making it one of a small but respected fraternity of Königsberg survivors.

There is only one independent cinema in Kaliningrad, but it has been showing films since the 1930s. The Scala cinema, as it was first known, was the last cinema to be constructed in Königsberg. When it opened its doors to the public in 1938, nobody could have imagined that, in less than a decade, the city and the culture of which it was a part would cease to exist.

Unlike its compatriots, the Scala, now Zarya (Dawn), whilst badly damaged in the destruction that engulfed the city in the final months of World War II, escaped the fate of its contemporaries as it did the postwar edict to eradicate as many vestiges of the city’s German heritage as was considered practical, a deliverance that has ensured Zarya a place among the small but time-honoured pantheon of surviving Königsberg buildings.

More recently, the Zarya has undergone an imaginative interior refit: a novel, roots-sensitive makeover that has infused the cinema with new life without sacrificing its historic integrity.

Today, the cinema continues the tradition that it inherited, serving as an invaluable place of social entertainment and as a hub of cultural and artistic promotion.

To accomplish this in the hard-edged cinematographic age of monolithic multiplexes, Zarya has had to progressively reinvent itself by offering thematic events, film festivals and even extending its cultural focus to include interactive gatherings and support for local projects deemed beneficial to the wider community (see Interesting Facts panel).

If I am not mistaken (and I generally am) for a while in its recent history the Zarya cinema shared its glass vestibule with Kaliningrad’s casino, later replaced by a restaurant that in recent months has also closed. But then how accurate am I? Vodka+beer+age = inevitable impaired memory.

Today, it is impossible to stroll past the double-glass frontage of the Zarya without asking yourself what sort of place is it that would have a large, vintage film projector sandwiched between its windows? And after answering wrongly retro shop, you might be inspired to conclude a cinema.

European Film Festival

The day we had chosen to visit the cinema had coincided quite by chance with its hosting of the European Film Festival, a prestigious annual event.

Entrance to Zarya Kaliningrad Cinema — Very kind of them

The red carpet was out; very plush; someone must have telephoned and told them that I was coming, I thought.

My wife thought not.

She explained that the red carpet and the hallway decked out in an imaginative tableau was to celebrate the work of the Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte.

Now stop me if you’ve heard this one before but the composition of which my wife spoke consisted of the following: numerous black bowler hats strung from the ceiling at different levels; a large, black, life-size model of a horse wearing a black lampshade (of course); and on the wall a ceiling-to-floor printed screen bearing repetitive images of numerous men, each one wearing a bowler hat, carrying an umbrella and facing this way and that.

René Magritte tribute — My kind of room: the Zarya cinema, Kaliningrad, Russia

The Son of Man

At the back of this mind-teasing display, in front of the foyer, stood a mannequin rendition of the famous surrealistic painting The Son of Man. He was wearing a black jacket, white shirt and bowler hat and had a green apple suspended where his face should have been and above that pendulous apple a bowler hat on a wire. Makes sense? Perhaps, for you who are old enough, it does, viz ‘an apple a day keeps John Steed away’?

I must say that the assertive presence of monochrome went well with the cinema’s emphasis on red plush textiles. Against the wall, where the red carpet ended, the low-slung tub-chairs had large spongey cushions upholstered in red material. Their further attraction lay in the fact that they had a definite Art Deco slant to them and that the maroon upholstery struck a balanced contrast with the beech-coloured woodwork that comprised the frames and the backs. Keeping them company, and dotted here and there, was the bar fly’s stool of choice: tall, sturdy, their 1940s’ round-back style consistently upholstered in a thematicising rich red fabric. Rumour has it that these seats are faithful copies of those that would have graced the cinema back in its Königsberg days.

Kaliningrad cinema

There was an awful lot going on visually inside the Zarya foyer and going on mainly in bright red and black: black hats, black horse, black piano, black light fittings.

In the hallway the black light shades jostled for air space with the black bowler hats, and their black cables hung in drop-head clusters (more than enough to give an arachnophobiac nightmares) which gathered at a ceiling rose, again in black. The broad red carpet and maroon-rich chairs intensified the blackness, not sordidly or with menace and by no means effetely but in a modern full-bodied way, somewhere between ostentation and class. Red also asserted itself in the heart-shaped cards with which a man-made (sorry about the UK sexism) bush was bedecked. The bush acted as a ‘visitors book’, the cards adorning it pinned there by numerous satisfied patrons, who wished to express appreciation for their cinematic experience by posting notes of goodwill.

European Film Festival Kaliningrad — European Film Festival at Zarya cinema, Kaliningrad, Russia

Architecturally, the interior of the building must have passed through various metamorphic permutations from the time it was salvaged from the ruins of Königsberg to its present-day incarnation. I was intrigued by the three or four doorless openings at the back of the room, all in one wall and separated from each other by a few feet only. The exposed but painted brickwork was a welcome sight in a building of this age, and the arches above the doorless openings echoed its heritage status.

Mick Hart Zarya Cinema Kaliningrad — Underneath the arches …

Through these venerable apertures, through lighting thoughtfully muted, small glimpses could be garnered of the cinema’s licensed bar and of its alcoholic infusions, posh top-shelf bottles strategically arranged to create the illusion of must-have, do-need in the name of style and image. That there was more shelving than bottles was no mistake or oversight; it allowed this coterie of top-brand liquor the space that it demanded to capture centre stage, like the high-priced prima donnas that its members most certainly are.

Between the wall and shelving, in this semi-open space, a long curving bar presided. The counter was ~ surprise, surprise ~ jet black, and this deep hue, together with the inbuilt shelving, bright red bar stools and discreet lighting gave to the whole a rich swanky opulence but of a kind more readily associated with high-rolling nightclubs than cinema interval-drinking space.

Mick Hart in Cinema Kaliningrad — Mick Hart in his natural habitat ~ cinema bar, Zarya cinema, Kaliningrad, Russia

At one end of this prestigious bar, the end where I had stood to have my photograph taken, the walls were covered in monochrome photographs, large pictures of people and lots of faces. I could only imagine that here assembled must be the cinema’s doyens, each one an exclusive personage in his or her respected field of filmography.

Kaliningrad cinema

At the other end of the bar, where there was more space, and in an area where the wall curved beautifully, a drawing room suite, constructed according to the 19^th century penchant for walnut-framed divans and chairs, offered fortunate patrons one of a number of close encounters with different eras in which to sit and relax.

Cinema lounge Kaliningrad — Timeless style at the Zarya cinema, Kaliningrad, Russia

My wife, having discovered a large Art Deco figurine typically modelled in the female form, a gilt-metal delight symbolising movement, life and energy, just had to have her picture taken sitting in front of the upright piano on top of which this prized piece sat.

I, too, am an ardent fan of Deco, but I did not want to lose sight of the fact that the reason we had come to the cinema was inspired in part by curiosity but also for light refreshment.

The Zarya is not in the habit of serving meals, but then again why should it? After all, it is not Bill’s Café (do you know it?), but two teas and some snacks to go with them was not beyond the cinema’s remit, and once I had managed to rescue my wife from her inveterate deco addiction, we were shown to a seat in a distant part of the building, the window of which conveniently fronts the street, thus allowing you to snack in style as you watch the world go by.

A most agreeable room

This was a room in which the past and present met on equal terms. There was nothing disagreeable about 19^th century reproduction antique furniture rubbing cabriole legs with the sleek profiles of modern black-vinyl seats or ebonised baluster rails used as visual divisions. There was a long wall seat, cushioned, comfortable-looking, running the length of the room, its presence literally overshadowed by a print of imposing proportions, gilt-framed, bold in colour and mounted on the wall above it. The scene depicted in this print has classical Biblical overtones, and I am sure that someone will recognise it from the photograph provided. However, you may encounter a little more difficulty when it comes to identifying its fellow print, since this has been suspended, frame and all, high above the flight of stairs that descends to the auditorium, and suspended close to the ceiling so that the image lies at 90 degrees to the floor.

Kaliningrad cinema Pop Art

A second room, running the entire length of one side of the building and at right angles to where we were sitting, accessible by two or three brick steps but cordoned off on the day we visited by a decorative barrier rope attached to two brass posts, offered tantalising glimpses through its doorless entrance and three or four apertures, which presumably once were windows, of its privacy beyond.

Although our view was limited to what could be seen through the gaps in the wall, there was sufficient visibility to see that the room was bedecked with mirrors, together with lighting sconces, retro advertisements and ceiling-suspended designer lanterns, the latter strung at random levels.

As I have said, this room was cordoned off, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get. And on this occasion, we did ask, and we didn’t get told to … you know.

Furniture Independent Cinema Kaliningrad — Hide behind that candelabra whilst I take a photo of this magnificent table

It was a super room to be in, and I liked a particular table. There were three tables of the same kind in total: one at either end of the room we were now in and a third occupying the room in which we had just had tea. The design of the table was simple, striking and slightly anachronistic. It consisted of a fairly narrow light-wood oval top ~ reminding me a bit of a Rich Tea finger biscuit ~ and was raised on end supports of three, tall, inverted baluster-type columns supported on a curved base. These tables must be for standing against, unless you could find a high enough stool.

There was no shortage of things to see on the walls, but the attention seekers and getters were indubitably vintage advertisements, large-format reproduced artworks which completely filled the recessed arches in which they had been placed, most probably former windows, and were accomplished in the style generically known as Pop Art.

Through the large patio doors at the far end of this room an outside seating area beckoned seductively. She, like the rest of Kaliningrad, had had her fill of damp mediocrity where winter used to be.

It would have been nice to have settled down for 90 minutes in the cinema’s auditorium, but nowt was showing today with English-subtitles, so there was nothing for it but to quit this eclectic environment and take our chance with the weather, outside once again on the Streets of Kaliningrad (come on film/TV buffs, wasn’t The Streets of Kaliningrad a Quinn Martin production?)

*Please be aware that since this post was first published the Zarya has sadly closed. Perhaps another victim of coronavirus?

Interesting Facts about Zarya cinema
[Zarya is a member of the Europa Cinemas network, the first network of cinemas to showcase European films]
#In 1997 the World Premiere of Titanic was screened at Zarya. Lead actor James Cameron presented the screening
#The European Film Festival was first held at Zarya in the early 2000s and continues to be held there
#Zarya has connections with the actor Woody Allen
#Zarya has devised and hosted hundreds of festivals, many international
#Zarya invented a jazz and silent film fusion creating a film-concert concept
#Other novel creations from the Zarya management and team include parties, vinyl record sales and a festival library.

The architect of the Scala cinema building was Siegfried Sassnik, whose work encompassed both residential and commercial projects throughout Königsberg. Two of those projects stand today in the near vicinity of the cinema building: the Moscow hotel and the entrance to the Zoo Park.

Essential Details:

Kinoteatr Zarya
43 Prospekt Mira
Kaliningrad 236000

Tel: 8 (401) 230 03 88

Web: www.kinozarya.ru
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kinozarya/

Opening Times
Sun-Mon 9am to 12 midnight
Fri & Sat 9am to 1am

Auditorium details
The cinema has two screening halls: one with 343 seats and the largest 3D-screen in Kaliningrad and a smaller hall where festival films and an arthouse are shown.

Out and about in Kaliningrad

Premier Cafe Bar, Kaliningrad
Bar Drednout [Dreadnought], Kaliningrad
Apartment Museum, Kaliningrad (Königsberg)
Max Aschmann Park, Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad Ferris Wheel at Youth Park
Kavkaz Restaurant, Kaliningrad

The Tilsit Treaty and Rhythms of Kaliningrad

19 October 2019

The former Königsberg Stock Exchange, aka the Khudozhestvennaya Galereya, is home to a permanent exhibition, the title of which is The Shadow of Königsberg. It also holds temporary exhibitions on a regular basis. Two exhibitions attracted us recently, Alexander I and Napoleon Meeting on the Neman and Rhythms of Kaliningrad.

The Königsberg Stock Exchange (now the Khudozhestvennaya Galereya) is an impressive two-storey Neo-Renaissance-style building, which stands on the southern side of the Pregel River.

The grand building, which opened in 1875, was the work of architect Heinrich Muller and Emil Hundrieser, the latter to which is owed the external decoration, including the allegorical figures at roof-top level and the two lions on either side of the entrance steps.

As with most of Königsberg’s municipal buildings, the Stock Exchange suffered extensive damage when bombed by the RAF in 1944 and again during the Siege of Königsberg in 1945. It is believed that it narrowly escaped the systematic demolition programme of what remained of Königsberg after the war, as the new owners and powers that were ~ the Soviets ~ identified Russian Neo-Classical features in its construction (pphhhewww!). Since the building was reprieved, reinstated and reconstructed in 1967, it has passed through various transitions and is today one of Kaliningrad’s most important, and unequivocally, one of its most regal cultural centres [see the Tripadvisor website for photographs of this magnificent building].

Khudozhestvennaya Galereya

Stock Exchange Konigsberg — Napoleonic exhibition

The Khudozhestvennaya Galereya stages changing exhibitions on a regular basis. The building can accommodate two or three exhibitions at any one time, depending, of course, on the size, using dedicated and versatile screening facilities. To the right of the entrance hall and on the second floor, space is reserved for a permanent exhibition, The Shadow of Königsberg, which traces the history of this unique city and region through the turbulent transitions of its 20^th century history. Whether you are a professional historian, amateur historian, budding history scholar or are simply fascinated by the changing fortunes and character of Königsberg-Kaliningrad, The Shadow of Königsberg provides a pictorial timeline of indelible significance through drawings, sketches, paintings and photographs, supported by detailed models and electronic simulation. Its depiction of pre-war Königsberg in contrast with its post-war ruins and subsequent Soviet inheritance and legacy, that of life lived for three decades among weed-strewn, crumbling buildings, a hollowed out shell of a once noble city, has a pathos seldom encountered in the modern world we inhabit today.

Mick Hart Konigsberg Stock Exchange at Tilsit Exhibition — I really would like this poster …

Alexander I and Napoleon Meeting on the Neman

The exhibition, Alexander I and Napoleon Meeting on the Neman [River], opened in the former Königsberg Stock Exchange building, now a cultural centre, on 19 October 2019 and runs until 15 December 2019. The exhibition is dedicated to one of the two Tilsit* Treaties, that which took place on 7 July 1807 following Napoleon’s victory in Friedland. The treaty, which was well-satirised in the British press of the time, examples of which are included in the exhibition, is unforgettable not least because it took place on a purpose-built raft anchored in the middle of the Neman River. But its real importance was the ensuing impact it had on regional and world geo-politics. The principal loser of the treaty was Prussia, which was forced to surrender almost 50 percent of its territory. Russia and France achieved a peaceful settlement, a settlement which not all Russian’s were agreeable to, but the peace only lasted five years: in 1812 Napoleon returned to the Neman River, crossing it this time with invasion in mind. Be this as it may, the treaty inspired numerous artistic representations, both in Europe and Russia. And this is what this exhibition is dedicated to.

The exhibition contains about 60 exhibits from the collection of The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, including paintings, drawings and sculptures, as well as original uniforms of Russian and French soldiers and is complemented by works contributed by the Kaliningrad Museum of Fine Arts and Private Collections.

*Tilsit was renamed Sovetsk when the East Prussian region changed hands at the close of World War II. It is located in the Kaliningrad Oblast.

Rhythms of Kaliningrad

The Rhythms of Kaliningrad exhibition comprised an eclectic selection of art ~ paintings, sketches, drawings, sculptures ~ and even elaborate contributions from the Kaliningrad region’s world-renowned amber industry, examples of which included handmade jewellery of the most imaginative and exquisite calibre, highly detailed icons and an urn of Classical and Baroque form lavishly adorned. Designer clothing, handmade and avant-garde, added an unpredictable dimension to what was already an exotic and exhilarating showcase of regional artistic talent.

Taken as a collection, the thematic denominator subsumes the randomness of each subject into a distillation, and the compendium of impressions is a lyrical exposition that neither aggrandises nor underestimates the unique heritage, urban environment and natural images by which it is informed but rather acknowledges them and celebrates them as a compound expression of an esoteric experience. Sunsets across water, abstracts, natural landscapes, urban landscapes, pseudo-incarnations of Königsberg’s nobility ~ the castle and the city’s monuments ~ (none of which ever existed in the modern artist’s memory), Expressionism, Impressionism, Surrealism, Realism, Painterly and the rest, a gamut of artistic subjects and the styles through which they are brought into being vying to define, striving to encapsulate what it is about this place, this city and its territory, that draws you inexorably into its soul.

A personal reflection

Sherbak-Pyankova artist Konigsberg villa at Rhythms of Kaliningrad Exhibition. — Haunting painting of Konigsberg by Sherbak-Pyankova

In delivering the essence of the exhibition’s title, Rhythms of Kaliningrad, no one artwork should be singled out for being lesser or greater than the others in its company, but spectators and critics alike are fickle, prone, as we all are, to the common human failing for putting personal preference before impartiality, and thus although I would shy away from the impossible task of deciding which work of art was the best, whatever the given criteria, there was, inevitably, one among the paintings which resonated resoundingly with my not altogether impartial predilection for the sublime and metaphysical.

This painting was by the artist Sherbak-Pyankova. It was the study of a Königsberg house, a villa, set back in its own grounds, surrounded by its own garden, demarcated by iron railings with a wrought iron gate of unusual splendour.

Naturally, reliant on the theme of the exhibition, the subject matter in and of itself was not by any means a surprising leap into incongruity, but to narrow down the appeal criteria not to what had been painted but the way in which it had been painted ~ no, more, much more than this ~ the manner of its composition, its inherent composition and the intrinsic affect it had upon me, is how I would like to proceed.

In this respect I have no inclination to classify the artist’s technique within a particular school or style, because by doing so I would by default promote taught technique above inspirational teaching and, ultimately, individual creativity. My attraction to this piece of work was at once instantaneous ~ an impulse, a reaction ~ the rationalisation that ensued, if indeed you can call it this, being a process of thought, of mind.

When I first examined the painting I was, as is the norm, standing relatively close to it.

The outlines of the house were distinct enough but the details, although present, impressed me with the notion that they were fading before my eyes. It was as though my view was partially obscured or obfuscated by a thin veil, or a light film, as though the building was slipping away from me. Suspecting the fault lay in my eyesight, I stepped back a few paces and took another look. From my new, more removed, position, unless I was mistaken, the subject on which I now gazed had developed a clarity hitherto unseen. Encouraged by this promising shift in perspective, I removed myself still further, at which greater distance the details became so clear that I could well have been standing outside the house itself, next to the ornate gate, not viewing it on canvas.

So now I began walking slowly back towards the picture and, as I did, I was relieved to discover that the suspicions about my eyesight were unfounded. With each step that I took the mist that had so impeded my vision from the moment I looked upon the picture was, by stealth and with steady degrees, returning.

I repeated the exercise, just to make certain.

I was of the understanding that the further I removed myself from the Königsberg house the closer I came to it, or it to me; conversely, the closer I came to the house, the further away it became, until almost evaporating.

This inversion of physics bemused as much as the metaphysics eluded, but then, with a Eureka moment, Romanticism kicked in and the haze before the house, being the haze behind my eyes, lifted in the subjective sunlight.

Of course, the visibility of the house was so much better delineated from a distance. The distance between myself and the house was not the insoluble distance of time that I had first believed it to be, but in fact quite the reverse. The further I walked away from the house the closer I came to Königsberg. Walking back was walking back in time towards the point of origin. But when I approach the house, in an attempt to go backwards, I walk back into the present, Königsberg slips from my grasp and all that I am left with is the hazy, phantasmagorical image of something I aspire to see, to experience in the physical world.

Sherbak-Pyankova artist: Konigsberg street , shown at Rhythms of Kaliningrad Exhibition — Konisberg street by *Sherbak-Pyankova*

This painting, and a second painting of a street in Königsberg-Kaliningrad by the same artist, got both my vote and my wife’s Olga’s before we knew anything about either the artist or her mentor. However, given the profound effect that her work had on us, it should not have surprised us to learn that the artist she had studied under, and had an enduring respect for, was a mutual friend ~ Victor Rybinin.

Victor had taught art for many years at the Kaliningrad Art School. He had, as he said, ‘grown up among the ruins of Königsberg’ and was ‘the product of two cultures’; he invested his entire life in the philosophical, artistic and historic exploration of the Königsberg-Kaliningrad continuum. As our artist and historian friend Stanislav Konovalov said, who had himself been taught by Victor, Victor’s artistic representations came from the heart, they are each and every one imbued with a symbolic mysticism, a profundity, a deep soulfulness which emanates from his appreciation of and unwavering love for Königsberg-Kaliningrad, always described by Victor, with characteristic understatement, as ‘this unique place’.

That none of Victor Rybinin’s art saw inclusion in the Rhythms of Kaliningrad exhibition is a sorrowful oversight, particularly since those who knew him and who know his art share the conviction that he was and will remain a principal figure in the city’s and its region’s cultural history ~ history being the final judge.

Romanticist attribution or irony of fate? Either way it is an uncanny coincidence that we should choose as favourite the painting which we chose today …

Essential Details:

(Khudozhestvennaya Galereya) Königsberg Stock Exchange

Prospekt Leninskiy 83

Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad Oblast, 236039

Map location: https://en.kaliningradartmuseum.ru/contacts/

Tel: 8 (4012) 46-71-66

Email: secretariat@kaliningradartmuseum.ru

[Website checked but not working on 12 April 2022]

Opening times:

Sat, Tues & Wed: 10.00 ~ 19.00 (10am to 7pm)

Thurs & Fri: 10.00~21.00 (10am to 9pm)

Closed Monday

Apartment Museum Kaliningrad (Königsberg)

10 November 2019

Our second cultural day in a row (yesterday we attended an unusual art exhibition) found us heading off for a guided tour around a flat that had belonged to a Königsberg merchant in the early 20^th century. I had heard of this flat from our dear friend Victor Ryabinin ~ artist, philosopher, historian (sadly now deceased) ~ who had, as with all things Königsberg, stimulated my curiosity by informing us that the flat in question had been preserved, and restored where necessary, in all its original glory.

The flat we were going to visit today is located at 11-1 Krasnaya Street, Kaliningrad. The official name of the venue is simply but effectively ‘Apartment Museum’. A century ago, it was the home of merchant and grocery store owner, Gustav Grossmann, and his family. As the advertising leaflet boldly and honestly claims, the authentic interior allows you to ‘travel back a hundred years’ and experience life ‘as a citizen of Eastern Prussia’.

Public interest in and success of the project had prompted the exhibition owner to invest in a retro café on the site of Grossmann’s original store, which is located in the same building as the merchant’s flat, and it was here that we were rendezvousing with friend and Königsberg historian Stanislav Konovalov, known to us as Stas.

Gustav Grossmann Konigsberg Cafe — Apartment Museum, Kaliningrad 2019: Shop & Cafeteria

The café, which is housed in a corner section of the historic apartment building, extends from the main structure out towards the pavement. The entrance to Grossmann’s apartment is recessed, away from the pavement, a small flagstoned area leading to the front door, and can therefore be easily missed. However, the café signage does a wonderful job, calling your attention to a building of stature, which is distinctive and old-world gentrified thanks predominantly to the large show window on the ground floor and above it on the first and second floors the unusual arched windows.

The lower window has been fitted out with shelving and, even before we climbed the small flight of steps leading to the café entrance, it excited us to see a variety of bygone items beckoning us inside. The artefacts displayed included, but were not limited to, kitchen pans, clothes’ irons, ceramic pots, oil lamps and the stock in trade of antique emporiums in this part of the world, the ubiquitous German stein.

Grossmann Retro Cafe Konigsberg — Gustav Grossmann Cafe, Kaliningrad

Anyone obsessed with the past could tell, from the demeanour of the building and the items displayed in the window, that you would not be disappointed when you stepped inside. The interior of the building has been subject to a complete and comprehensive retro makeover, with so much by way of antiques and collectables adorning shelves, festooned on the walls, cuddling in cabinets, swinging from the ceiling and dotted here and there that ~ as it is with the nature of such places ~ it was impossible at first glance and even ten minutes afterwards to take everything in. Certain features, however, made their mark and stayed there. Behind the front counter, for example ~ a long counter and one of impressive height ~ wall-to-ceiling shelving has been erected, and this shelving, consisting as it does of different sized compartments, the top section reserved for larger items such as a pair of antique radios, is occupied by a mixture of vintage and antique objects rubbing shoulders with the modern accoutrements that are vital for running a business like this, such as branded cups and saucers, selections of teas, different kinds of coffee varieties and so on. The café till, which may be modern, appears on the customer side of the counter as though it is made of wood, whilst the coffee machine, all made of shining chrome, is, in shape and appearance, an icon of the 1950s. Indeed, not everything in the café was what we English would call Edwardian or of early 20^th century origin: the radio in the window, which has most likely been fitted with an electronic player, was post WWII, although the music it aired pre-dated it as late 1920s or 30s.

Window Seat, Apartment Museum, Kaliningrad

As with the interior décor no expense in detail had been spared with regard to the café’s furniture, all of which has a heritage background, from the open-sided armchair beside the counter to the two armchairs and circular salon table in front of the window. As these chairs were occupied by patrons, who were studiously observing an unwritten code of conduct, which is, or so it would seem, to adhere to a kind of library silence in the presence of the past, we took up temporary residence in the only seats available, Olga on a dining chair with a Rococo-style splat and myself on an interesting settle, which was comfortably upholstered and had, at either end, small fitted cabinets with carved, pierced fronts.

Partaking of tea in Apartment Museum Cafe ~ *Königsberg*

Tea was served in two dish-shaped china cups with matching saucers, backstamped Konig… . We could not make out the exact wording, but we felt certain that the proprietor of this establishment would not have trusted us with an original Königsberg tea service.

Vintage tea cup Altes Haus — Vintage china tea cup, Gustav Grossmann Cafe, *Königsberg*

More or less observing the silence that everyone else was bound to, we drank our tea and continued our visual assessment, taking in the various enamel-fronted advertising signs that no antique-oriented premise should ever be without and recognising three wall-mounted cast-iron signs as tram destination plates, each bearing the number of a specific tram and the Königsberg districts which each tram had served. These distinctive and, I should imagine, highly sought-after Königsberg mementoes, which remembered the route that specific trams took, I had only seen once before and that was in the art studio of our late friend Victor Ryabinin.

Apartment Museum Cafe sells antiques

Alas, these plaques were not for sale, but some of the items were. There were three large wood and glass display cabinets containing all manner of small antique pieces ~ ceramics, tableware, relics from Königsberg ~ as well as some larger items, such as a silver-topped walking cane and a silk top hat, all of which could be purchased. Both Olga and I took an interest in the two-tier, Art Nouveau plant stand, which was slightly more unusual than the standard fare, but as the asking price was considerably higher than that which I would normally expect to pay for a similar piece in England, our interest remained just that.

We finished our tea and now that Stas had arrived and wanted a smoke, we joined the other interested parties who were waiting outside on the damp and chilly streets for the venue to open.

As 11am came and went Stas took the initiative to ring the doorbell. And seconds later the door was opened by a tall lady appropriately dressed Edwardian style, that is in a high-necked blouse and long woolen dress fastened and highlighted around the waist by an enamel-buckled cinch belt.

We were shown in to the communal hallway of the building, a spacious entrance hall with a flight of six or seven steps to the ground-floor landing, beyond which could be seen a rather imposing wooden railed staircase.

The door to the time capsule we were about to enter was mid-brown wood, with long vertical paneling , the upper section letting in light through a series of small windows, the glass inside being of the wire-reinforced variety. Our little entourage filed one by one inside and as we passed ~ me gratefully ~ from the 21^st century into the past, I pointed out the doorbell to Olga, which was housed in a metal plate wrought into a typical and prepossessing Art Nouveau design.

Art Nouveau Apartment Museum Kaliningrad — Art Nouveau doorbell, Apartment Museum, Kaliningrad

The corridor inside the flat was rather narrow and, indeed, we were soon to discover that this merchant’s flat was of no great proportion anywhere. Naturally, the space was made considerably less by the unusual volume of people that it now occupied, all at once milling and jostling as they tried to divest themselves of their outer winter garments to place in temporary storage within the deep, but not very wide, cloakroom reserved for this purpose.

Naturally, the initial impact of the transition from now to then, from new to old, would be better served with less people present, but ventures such as these need to be administered and maintained, and I would anticipate that the fee for a private viewing might prove cost-prohibitive. Nevertheless, I did find room to reflect on how reserved and dignified Mr Grossmann’s hallway was, with its black and white tiled floor, tall dark doors fitted with ornate and heavy brass handles and its wonderful bygone telephone, equipped with open cradle and sporting a large pair of bells.

Open-plan design

When we were all partially disrobed, so to speak, we were led into the living quarters, which was fundamentally one large room divided into two halves by the simple decorative effect of wooden vertical frames and pierced and moulded fretwork where the uprights meet the ceiling.

The door through which we had entered had taken us effectively into the living room/study. In the corner of the room, in front of the window, was a desk with shelves and drawers in all the usual places and with more incorporated in the elevated section of a glazed cabinet super structure. The desk held various interesting and curious pieces, including the first typewriter I had seen manufactured by Mercedes Benz. Next to the desk there was a large double-fronted glazed cabinet, containing many antique artefacts, and next to that a small sofa and copper-topped circular table.

This table was one for us. It had a built-in standard lamp, with a large bell-shaped fabric lampshade centred above it, c.1920s. Other objects of interest in this part of the room included a small, circular gramophone table complete with horn-type gramophone, a very nice carved and stuffed-over seat corner chair, used here as a desk chair, and various wall-hung paintings and antique ornaments.

Mr Grumpy (photograph withheld)

One thing that Olga had not forewarned me about was that Stas would be translating as the guide spoke, and Stas, in turn, had not been forewarned that Mr Grumpy was present. Mr Grumpy took umbrage at Stas’ mumblings in English, and even after Stas had explained his intent and purpose, Mr G could not quite permit himself the liberty of graciousness, turning every now and then to scowl at us, until eventually he slid away. At first I felt myself lean charitably in his direction, after all had not he paid for the tour like everyone else? ~ so why would he want to be distracted by Stas’ infernal utterances? But by and by I noticed that he was pretty much dissatisfied with everybody and everything. Perhaps his wife had dragged him there when he should have been in the bar? (If that had been the case, then it was perfectly understandable!)

Mick Hart Kaliningrad — Gustav Grossmann? No, Mick Hart at Gustav’s desk!

The guide’s talk continued for some time but the duration was necessary as we were not after all in the Palace of Versailles but in a very small, lower middle-class apartment, which, had the guide whipped us through, would have no doubt had Mr Grumpy demanding his entrance fee back!

Judging by the reaction of the rest of the group, with the omission of Mr Grumpy, the guide’s efforts appeared to meet with universal appreciation. Even with my sparse knowledge of Russian I could tell that she was a good speaker, instigating and maintaining interest and adding to it, from time to time, by drawing our attention to certain curious items, which she passed around for people to hold and examine, asking if anyone knew what they had been used for in their previous life. This technique was adopted throughout the tour, and, I am proud to say, I got most of the items right, except for a small pagoda-style, black-lacquered miniature house which, it transpired, had been a pet sanctuary for crickets, no less. As they say, and quite rightly so, you learn something new every day.

The second half of the room into which we had first been shown functioned as the dining area, the taper-legged table and simple but appealing early 20^th century chairs occupying centre place. Behind the table, set against the wall, stood a typical Könisbergian lump of a sideboard. I do not mean to sound disparaging, since these heavy, massy pieces of furniture typically adorned with heraldic and armorial appliques and supported on chunky ball and claw feet or, as in this example, large lion pads, solicit the Gothic in me, but I fully understand that their dominating presence is not, as we English are wont to say, everyone’s cup of tea.

Apartment Museum magnificent fireplace/stove

In this instance, however, it was the fireplace that got the better. Here we had a typical German glazed-tile fire-come-boiler affair ~ a masonry heater ~ distinguished above any I had seen hitherto, with the possible exception of one very ornate example, which may or may not be original, which resides within a hotel bar on a picturesque stretch of the river a few kilometers from Königsberg.

The fireplace we were privy to today owed its impressive status to its two-tiered format, and the fact that the decorative tiling was taken up from floor to ceiling, the top being surmounted with a rather elaborate carved and scrolled finial.

The metal grate doors at the lower level of the boiler also expressed an Art Nouveau intricacy, the artistic quality of which I have not witnessed elsewhere in this region.

Overall, the furnished and decorative note struck in Mr Grossmann’s flat was a mellow and conservative one, possessing and conveying an unaffected dignity. Towards this consummation the doors, all of which exhibited the same uniformity of design, added not a little. In fact, they stamped an authority of social standing on the nature of this abode, their dark-wood, tall and sober character surmounted by a dignifying architectural gable pediment.

Crotchless bloomers

The next stop on the itinerary was the bedroom. It was not at all very spacious and the two wooden single beds pushed together to make a pseudo double bed allowed for nothing more than a cabinet and a dressing table. The most remarkable bygone in this room was the mannequin, or rather the female underwear in which it was dressed, of which the principal feature was the long pantaloons. These, our guide revealed, were split-crotched in the most significant manner, which, my wife concluded, explained why men in the early 20^th century made such an eager audience when young ladies danced the can-can.

Apartment Museum Guide Kaliningrad — Apartment Museum guide, Kaliningrad

You see what I mean when I say, ‘you learn something new every day’.

We could not all get into the confines of the bed chamber, so some of us were necessitated to undertake our viewing from the hall, along which we then walked, as instructed by our guide, to the kitchen.

Nowhere does bygone domestic life impress itself more contrastively than in the kitchen setting. The kitchen décor of our modern age and the implements we use therein would seem so thoroughly futuristic from an early 20th century point of view, and also more recently for those who lived in the 1940s, as to make them impossible to envision. In years gone by kitchen items were heavy, solid-state, screwed, riveted, mechanical; they were constructed from metal and glazed stoneware, cast and wrought iron, and they were obviously made to last, which is why they are still with us. A few people aspire when they behold kitchens of yester-year to recreate something similar in their own home as a retro statement, but few people ~ only those of the most stalwart nature with a near to obsessive love of obsolescent times ~ are willing to go the whole hog, completely renouncing smooth, easy-to-clean surfaces and modern, time-saving kitchen utensils [see Art Exhibition Kaliningrad] for their more quirky but difficult to use and maintain predecessors.

Kitchen utensils Apartment Museum, Kaliningrad — Early 20th century kitchen utensils

In Mr Grossmann’s flat, the kitchen was quite small. Too many cooks was certainly not an option. The kitchen stove, or range, ruled the visual roost, it was, after all, an indispensable piece of home-living equipment, in this case cast iron, the front beige and green-enamel tiled and the whole raised on sculpted, ornate cabriole legs.

Above the cooker there was a row of hooks containing various kitchen utensils and, on the wall, cream and white enamel back-plates with integral hooks on which hung various straining, stirring and other culinary implements. The back plates to these utensil holders are lovingly shaped and are much sought after today by discerning collectors and interior decorators. Enamel products were, of course, the kitchen equipment stalwarts of their day, and another nice example, one of which I had seen before in Victor Ryabinin’s studio, was a three-compartmentalised kitchen-cleaning substance holder, which included a slot for a product well-known in England, Persil, the name of which, along with others, is printed on the surface.

Antique Kitchen Shopping List — Slider-controlled enamel kitchen shopping list reminder, c1910-20

One item that I was not acquainted with was an early refrigerator. The appliance looked like a tall, square, solid wooden box, but when the lid was lifted the top section could be seen to contain a perforated metal basket. The cabinet space below held the provisions whilst the ice above cooled the interior. A simple mechanism indeed, but I suppose it must have worked.

The kitchen was large enough to accommodate a dresser, with glazed cabinets to the upper middle section flanked by two enclosed cabinets, in which an assortment of curious contraptions were displayed, and the storage space offered by this piece of furniture was augmented by a small larder in the corner of the room, containing a stimulating jamboree of bottles, tins and jars, many with ageing contents.

The last room on the inventory was the toilet and bathroom, and this indispensable facility was to be found on the left just inside the door. You’ve just got to love a proper toilet, being one with a high-rise cistern with a chain and porcelain hand-pull, of German heritage of course.

Apartment Museum Kaliningrad Bathroom — Gustav Grossmann’s toilet requisites

Whether large country estate, stately home or a relatively small apartment such as this one, the question I always ask myself at the conclusion of my visit is not did it interest me but did it have the desired effect, namely during the time I spent there was I there at the time and in a different time at the same time? The answer in the case of Kaliningrad’s (Königsberg’s) Museum Apartment is Yes. Thank you Apartment Museum and thank you Mr Grossmann!

Essential Details:

Apartment Museum (Altes Haus)

11-1 Krasnaya Str

Königsberg

Tel: Kaliningrad 33-50-60

Email: alteshaus12@gmail.com

Website: www.alteshaus.ru

Excursions:

Monday to Saturday 11am, 12pm & 3pm

Attendance at the museum at any other time, including Sunday, can be booked in advanced

Art Exhibition Kaliningrad

I’ll have that painting and, by the way, how much for the flat?

Saturday 9 November 2019

Today we were off to an art exhibition. Of the exhibition I knew little or nothing, except that it would be different and was by invitation only. Oksana, our neighbour, had invited us, and the ‘different’ element made all the difference in that I was very curious.

I had no idea what to expect, as, in Oksana’s car, we pulled into a cramped carpark opposite a new red-brick block of flats. A group of people were walking alongside the building to a gate and were directed back from whence they came ~ we followed.

On the opposite side of the building we were shown into a narrow corridor. A woman, carrying a clipboard, appeared. The group, of which we were a part, about 20 in total, lined up on either side of the corridor, whilst the clipboard lady delivered a short introductory talk, about which, of course, I understood nothing. Then we filed through the door and took the lift to one of the floors above.

Designer flat project, Kaliningrad, Russia — Modern Chic or Retro Chic?

The block of flats we were in was new and unfinished, but the corridors, at least on the floors we were occupying, appeared to be in quite an advanced stage of completion. Chunky white door surrounds and white walls dominated the décor. From a distance it appeared as if a series of thin slate-like slithers of different dimensions had been painstakingly inserted at various depths to give a naturalistic, uneven surface finish to the walls, but on closer inspection you could see, as with even the best toupées, where the join was. Cunningly, the complexity of construction had been made considerably easier by the slate pieces being mounted on, or integral to, brick blocks. As modern as this was supposed to be, I could not help feel that there was something rather retro about the whole ensemble, so much so that it would not have surprised me had Russian versions of John Steed and Emma Peel come sauntering out from one the flats.

Designer flats in Kaliningrad, Russia, 2019 — Flats for sale, Kaliningrad

The flats themselves were at the stage known here as ‘grey scale’. This is an apt description, which means that the walls and ceilings have been plastered and skimmed but no finishing décor has been applied. There were no internal doors as yet but the double-glazing was in, as were the rads.

The concept explained

The concept of the art exhibition was an interesting one. My wife explained it to me. A number of empty flats in the building had been requisitioned to serve as exhibition halls. Each participating flat ether contained the displayed work of one individual artist or, if the artist’s contribution was less prolific, one room would be allocated. Thus, in some flats you would find the work of one artist and in others the work of, say, three artists, housed in separate rooms.

The concept worked surprisingly well. Since the walls of the flats were grey-scale they provided the perfect neutral backdrop and as, apart from the artwork, the only other items in the rooms were display units, advertising brochures and the odd bottle of mineral water, distraction had been obviated. Even the display modules were as basic as they could be ~ simple unobtrusive plinths and the occasional wooden easel. As there were few wall hooks in evidence, many of the exhibits were placed at ground level. This was in hindsight one possible flaw, as arguably the works in question were not shown at their best in this position.

The exhibition rooms not all being situated on one floor meant that the viewing public had to hop into lifts and run up and down stairs, and this alone added an interesting twist to what was already a novel concept.

Among the contributing artists whom we liked best was the work of Yri Bulechev and a second artist who, to add intrigue to his work, wished to remain anonymous. We did learn that the anonymous artist was by profession an engineer, and this calling was demonstrated thematically throughout his art. The focus subject matter was portrait: strained, tense faces with worried, uncertain eyes, apprehensive, frightened even, contextualised within a claustrophobic grid, an invasive backdrop of lines, narrow rectangles and circles, which reminded me of the geometrical patterns that I used to draw as a nipper with the aid of my then trendy Spirograph set.

Anonymous Kaliningrad Artist — Modern consciousness

This background fretwork ramped up the element of tension, especially since it invaded the human features, as if intermeshing the frailty of the human condition with the modern world’s increasing connectivity, the pressures that such a Brave New World inflicts and the hard-wired engineering by which our lives are ruled and controlled. That my good lady wife liked these paintings, indeed was drawn to them so much that she put in a bid for two, was, given her penchant for the light, airy and positive, somewhat surprising.

One painting she particularly liked was that of female face. It was, in fact, half a female face, the portrait painted on the very edge of the substrate with half of the image missing. Taught and compelling, the one eye blue and bright reflected something like fear, and there again was that all-pervasive geometrical static, smothering the backdrop and overlaying the startled features. Interestingly enough ~ but remember the artist’s vocation ~ this art form had not been painted on board or canvas but brought to life and into the world on a sheet of rusty iron.

Art Exhibition Kaliningrad — Half way there

The industrial-look of this artist’s work was indubitably enhanced by the stark, incomplete environment in which it was displayed, a factor which also fed into the large picture of a Russian female comedy actress, noted, I was told, for her happy-go-lucky and comical typecasting, drawn or painted all in white, whilst the dark shadowy head and face of Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs) looks predatorily over her shoulder with a hunger in no way related to the baguette that the actress is ready to eat.

Silence Of The Lambs in an empty flat in Kaliningrad!

As a long-time devotee of Leonard Cohen, Lord Byron and Edgar Allan Poe, and being continually reminded by my wife that I am bleak and melancholic, these pieces should have been right up my nightmare street and, I have to confess, I enjoyed them, but on this occasion incongruously a role reversal had taken place, with me feeling enthusiastic about a large painting in contrasting pastel and vivid colours depicting two stylized lovers floating in the luminous air somewhere between Heaven and Earth. Seldom have I seen such a picture which radiates instant Karma ~ so soothing, idyllic, tranquil and so ethereal in every sense. Until, that is, I discovered how much it cost. Brought quickly down to earth again by the asking price of (ssshhhh!), I am yet inclined to say that the painting is worth every ruble ~ it was only my wallet holding me back!

Yri Bulechev painting, exhibited in Kaliningrad, Russia. — Yri Bulechev composition, which would look very nice hanging above my bed!

Seldom have I seen such a picture which radiates instant Karma ~ so soothing, idyllic, tranquil and so ethereal in every sense.

Flat 10

During our wandering from room to room, I had had the good fortune of being addressed by a very tall, very attractive young Russian woman, dressed in red leather trousers and elevated on a pair of block high heel shoes that seemed to be giving me vertigo.

She told me, among other things, that the best was yet to come ~ wait until you get to apartment number 10, she said. Funny, but the last two exhibit rooms before I got to number 10 are difficult to remember.

I am tempted to say that all I can recall about flat 10 was that it contained a massive king-size bed and a bath tub large enough for four Donald Trumps, but, in reality, I can remember quite a lot more.

Flat 10 was a showcase flat. It had been given the personalised designer treatment and as with all ~ or most ~ of the paintings here on display was up for grabs if you wanted it. Indeed, I was told by the interesting young lady who was talking to me in very good English that I could buy it if I wanted to.

Flat 10 as illustrated on the cover of the art exhibition advertising leaflet

Well, did I?

The old adage that first impressions count may or may not be true, but it is as good a place to start as any. I may have been the only one amongst today’s privileged public to have made a mental note that the door design harked back to the Soviet era, in that access to the apartment (too grand to call it a flat) was governed by two doors in close proximity: first the traditional Russian heavy weight external door with its Fort Knox bolting system and then a more conventional door painted in non-conventional salmon pink. Beyond this curiosity, one walked into a tall, narrow corridor flanked by what appeared to be grey veneered paneling but which was, we discovered later, discreetly shuttered cabinet space. As one would expect from a modern designer flat, the accent was placed firmly on minimalist décor and maximalist space-exploitation. The floor-to-ceiling paneling, which was utilised again in the walkway between the master bedroom and bathroom, was as discreet as it was maximising, and this was because, as with the kitchen cabinets, all of the grey paneled doors had been built sans-handles. All one needed to do to access the space beyond was to touch lightly and the doors pop open. Nothing wrong with that, I thought, unless, of course, you have just woken up from a nightmare in which the world had been robbed of its handles.

If you have a fetish for handles, the flat had a place for them. Indeed, as designer flats go, this one was very much built with a place for everything and everything in its place. The wall directly opposite the entrance has been thoughtfully provided with floor-to-ceiling box shelving in a beech-veneered wood, the rectangular display units varying in size being reminiscent of the modular concept. Space such as this could hold any number of different sized handles and anything else for that matter.

Space optimisation at its best!

By turning left you were heading to the master bedroom, which was located on the right, with the toilet and bathroom opposite. First impressions again: the door with its angled lozenge panels. These I liked. They were one of only two nods in this ultra-modern flat to the past and to antiquity. As for the master bedroom, I was not quite sure whether it was somewhat small or whether the bed was very large, but any risk of complete claustrophobia was dispelled by the timely inclusion of a large glass window that looked out into the covered balcony beyond.

The next stop, however, was the bathroom. I have already referenced the bath tub. It was big. And so was the fixed shower rose above it. As the musician and singer Judge Dread once said, ‘I haven’t see one as big as that before’.

The toilet was round the corner in a separate place of its own and here we were in for more surprises. No, it wasn’t a bucket; it was as designer-modern as the rest of it. We were shown into the toilet cubicle in the dark, but no matter as the inside of the pan was illuminated with little blue lights and the seat popped up automatically. Really, there was no way that you could not be impressed. I whispered to my entranced wife that such a toilet as this was made for a hypochondriac such as me. I had reached the age where ailments and hospital tests are more prevalent than hot dinners, and an illuminated toilet bowl was an excellent idea for checking your stools.

My wife refrained from comment (a phenomenal moment in itself), perhaps because she was already peering inside another room hidden away behind more grey paneling. This was a narrow room, also accessible by the paneling on the inside of the apartment door. It was here where you did your washing and hung your clothes out to dry. On one side there were a couple of 21^st century washing machines and elevated above them an up-to-the-minute tumble dryer; on the other, there were fitted wardrobes and shelves for your clothes. This was so right. The very idea of hanging your socks, pants and sundries over the edge of the balcony just would not work in a place like this.

Room with a view

We were on the balcony next. Make no mistake, this was no khrushchev flat. The balcony was completely self-contained, a great plate of double-glazed glass extending from the yellow-ridged floor to the dizzy heights of the ceiling. The wall had appropriately ~ given the artistic concept by which the event was defined ~ been fitted out with two large abstract paintings, whilst a handsome reproduction antique desk and swivel desk chair demonstrated how the space therein could be utilised as an additional ‘room’, in this case as an office. I liked this balcony. It was, as they say in British estate agents’ parlance, well-appointed, and I could honestly see myself sitting there typing away on an evening as I tried to resist supping beer in the nearby London Pub. I could not, however, see myself walking there ~ too much ~ as impressive as the modern floor structure was, like most modern floors today which are made of composite wood it tended to shift and creak. Not good if like the Sheik of Araby, you tend to creep about at night, and in a compact space-saving flat like this no one could blame you for feeling so inclined, particularly as this balcony contained an adjoining door to the guest room.

Although the guest room was rather small, containing a kind of settee bed, the strategic positioning of a slim vertical mirror opposite the balcony entrance and a wide mirror on the wall facing it, created the illusion of much more space than there was, particularly when the tall, Baroque-style door from bedroom to sitting area was left open.

Looking back at this door, from the sitting room to the guest bedroom, endorsed my earlier prejudice that the lozenge-shaped panels struck an essential and clever juxtaposition, the geometrical profile, although simple, being the perfect foil to handle-less cabinets and satin-smooth textures.

The sitting room and kitchen were, in essence, a double act. The sitting room determined by its flat wall-mounted TV screen and serpentine-shaped comfy settee and the kitchen starting, but partly concealed, behind a tall block screen. If anything did not work for me inside this flat it was the screen. It was dark-coloured and its height and breadth reminded me of the type of front desks that you feel belittled by in old Soviet-style hotels, such as Kaliningrad’s Moscow. Behind the front desk in this room, there were the kitchen work surfaces and state-of-the-art kitchen appliances and, immediately behind them, and soaring up behind them, a monolithic formation of touch-door operated fitted-kitchen cabinets. I am a beans-on-toast man myself, but even I could see that for kitchen aficionados there was nothing wanting in high-tech, or in ultra-swish, clean and easily cleanable where this kitchen was concerned.

Flats designed to buyer's spec, Kaliningrad, Russia — As I gaze thoughtfully at the ceiling stencil in the Swish kitchen …

The one thing that I have omitted to mention so far is the absence of a proper ceiling ~ by proper I mean traditional. In fact, there is no ceiling, at least no plasterboard painted ceiling. Above your head in this flat the concrete structure looks down on you in all its unexpurgated and natural naked glory. I like it. It melds perfectly into the industrial and steampunk ethos by which we live our modern lives, from train station to airport, from café bar to attic revamp, it is the modern-day equivalent of the nuts, bolts and rivets statement which defined the architecture of the industrial revolution. That it has followed us into our homes should not surprise us, but in this flat, just in case it did, the designers had taken the decorative precaution of stenciling onto the overhead concrete an elaborate sequence of scrolls, this constituting the second nod to antiquity, as the distinctive outline and shell-like form is unmistakably related to the family Rococo.

For a man who has spent most of his life dodging minimalism as if it were the plague, I have to confess that I was happily engaged by what I had witnessed today and the way that it had affected me. There is every possibility that I will never be able to look at a half-finished flat again without thinking, ‘this needs artwork’ or ‘what I could do with this space if only I had the creative vision of the designers of flat number 10’.

Mick Hart looking devilish at the Kaliningrad Art Exhibition 2019 (apologies to Zeus!)

Essential Details:

Kvartirnik Exhibition

The exhibition is a joint offline project of the ART SPACE Internet Gallery and PEPA HOME STEGING, which prepares real estate for sale.

Project Organisers

Stepanyuk Natalya, Exhibition Curator & Artist (examples of her works exhibited)

Kiseleva Tatyana, Architect & Interior Designer

Contributing Artists Include:

Baeva, Natalya

Elfimov, George

Elfimova, Lyudmila

Bulychev, Yuri

el cartoon

Kiseleva, Tatyana

Stepanyuk, Natalya

Vernikovskaya, Olga

Chepkasova, Natalya

Elfimov, Alexander Prokopyevich

Apartment Design

Tatyana Kiseleva, Architect (planning, interior design, furniture and all interior items)

Personalised Interior Design Project

Following consultation with the architect, an individual planning solution is offered to any buyer of any apartment in the building this article features.

For more information, contact

Tatyana Kiseleva

Tel: +7 9211033313

KSK Real Estate