An extensive artistic and educational project titled “Explorer and Artist: Art on Expeditions” has opened in Moscow with the support of Norilsk Nickel. Russia’s leading specialist museums and private collectors have presented exhibits from their collections dedicated to the cultural understanding of the North and expeditions in the Russian Arctic in the last 400 years.

The project includes several exhibitions, alongside a broad educational programme. The exhibition in Zaryadye Park occupies several different sites. Science Art is displayed in the Conservation Embassy pavilion, while historical exhibits are on show in the Old English Court, an architectural monument dating back to the 15th-17th centuries where the very first expeditions to the Arctic were planned. This site in Zaryadye presents engraved and handwritten maps, alongside drawings by scientists and artists and their travel diaries. Pride of place goes to paintings by the first Nenets artist Tyko Vylka and the first Russian artist to have worked beyond the Arctic Circle, Alexander Borisov, who was a pupil of Ivan Shishkin and Arkhip Kuindzhi.

“The artist Borisov’s name was known not only in Russia, but also abroad,” said Ivan Katyshev, head of the Borisov Museum of the Artistic Development of the Arctic in Arkhangelsk. “He held triumphant exhibitions in Vienna, Prague, Berlin and London. Incidentally, in 1908 Borisov showed the Russian Arctic to the U.S. President Roosevelt personally at the White House, with the support of Tsar Nicholas II. In Soviet times, this man, who was the first to build a studio in the Arctic, was undeservedly forgotten. So we’ve brought to Moscow 16 original canvases by Borisov, painted in Novaya Zemlya more than a century ago,” he explained.

“It’s great that Nornickel has created this space for dialogue between museum professionals, scientists and artists. As part of this exhibition project we tried to systematise the experience of four centuries of Russian expeditions to the North and to Siberia,” said Katyshev.

The Explorer and Artist project has been timed to coincide with the end of the second year of the Great Scientific Expedition, a joint project organised by the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Norilsk Nickel.

“The triad of science, art and culture are very important for our company. We want the results of our expeditions to be accessible, understandable and brought to as many people as possible,” explained Stanislav Seleznev, Vice President for Ecology and Industrial Safety at Norilsk Nickel. “It’s pleasing that the objects collected here can show the whole history and all aspects of man’s relationship to the Arctic.”

This collaboration between Norilsk Nickel, Zaryadye Park, the State Darwin Museum, and the Stroganov Russian State University of Arts and Industry is aimed at popularising the cross-cultural link between science and art among the public. The visual component of the exhibitions is represented by artefacts from various eras, from exhibits from the time of Tsar Alexis of Russia through to examples of modern performances.

“This is a large project, which is being displayed at three exhibition venues in Moscow and had brought together specialists from various fields and several large museums,” said Art History D.A., Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Arts and project curator Kirill Gavrilin. “It’s nice that the participants include scientists from the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and participants in the Yakut and Krasnoyarsk contemporary art biennales, and artists representing science art. This community has helped us all to immerse ourselves even more deeply in the wonderful world of the Arctic. We’re very pleased with the interaction and broad dialogue.”

The educational programme, which kicks off on 30 January at Zaryadye Park, is based on lectures and master classes by Russian scientists, historians, environmentalists and artists. You can follow the events on the project’s official website: www.artexpedition.ru. In the first lecture, Alexander Osadchiyev, a leading researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Oceanology, will talk about how scientific discoveries happen during expeditions. The educational programme will be held at all participating venues.

“The Arctic is today not only a territory for scientific discoveries, but a source of inspiration. And the Art on Expeditions exhibition project is a real breakthrough,” said Vladimir Burmatov, Deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Ecology. “We’re now being told the story of the Arctic in a completely new language. This project has been designed to occupy the crossover point between scientific thought, serious scientific discoveries and modern technologies.”

The exhibitions and educational programmes at the Stroganov Russian State University of Arts and Industry and the State Darwin Museum open on 5 February and 12 February, respectively.

Art in the Russian Arctic: groundbreaking art project backed by Nornickel opens in Moscow