Credit: repubblica.it
It’s Monday: the alarm clock hasn’t gone off, the clothes don’t match, the rain and the rush to avoid arriving late for work. When you finally enter the subway, the situation only gets worse: the people yelling on the phone, the smell of food at 8 in the morning and all the seats occupied.
This is the routine of a large part of the people who live in big cities and yet there are those who have instead decided to change this monotony by adding art to people’s daily lives.
Let’s see together how Russia has transformed metro trains into art galleries.
In Moscow, an entire train has been transformed into a gallery containing 35 paintings ranging from the 17th to the 21st centuries, the originals of which are kept at the Ryazan Museum in western Russia.
This train, called “Watercolor”, leaves from Partizanskaya station and was inaugurated for the first time in 2007, hosting five different exhibitions since then.
Although it has also become a major attraction for tourists from all over the world, the initiative was born above all for the many commuters who take the subway every day. This traveling art gallery extends infact for 300 km and hosts over 8 million passengers every day.
The rail gallery has proved to be an intelligent and innovative way to promote art, redevelop often neglected spaces and entertain passengers.
Combining art with public transport seems to be a Muscovite prerogative. In fact, the metropolitan of Moscow offers its visitors some of the most luxurious stations in the world, embellished with paintings and decorations.
From the “Tunnelbana” in Stockholm, to the Toronto subway famous for the “Museum Station”, there are many stations in the world where there are various works of art that make the corridors, stairs or even the outside of the trains more pleasant.
Yet no one seems to have replicated the idea of the paintings inside the trains. Every day taking the train has become torture for me. But if there were paintings waiting for me I would be much happier. Who will be the first country to replicate the made in russia idea? All bets are off.
ARIANNA BOTTINI