Rock Sovetskaya Street

15.07.2012

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Original text by: Anna Vyprytskaya, Siburbia
Translation by: Monoton Translation Agency

For about half a year the theme “Siberian rock” is hard to consider forgotten and irrelevant. The beginning of nostalgic trend was given by documentary film “Siberian Woodstock”. That is why the “Rock exhibition” is considered not as the fresh idea, but as continuation of memories chain of remonstrative 1980-s.

At 6 p.m. on Novosibirsk Birthday Sovetskaya Street lost its status of one of the most peaceful streets in the city for a while. By the little stage placed near the porch of the Novosibirsk City Museum, people are gathering, and they differ a lot from typical idlers.

“If the exhibition took place not on Novosibirsk Birthday, far more people would’ve come, - Evgeniy Antropov, the curator of the exhibition, noticed.– For the museum it is a good chance to attract interest of the audience. The exhibition should be something more than just exposition; there should be noise, action. All this will allow us to attract not just much more people, but fundamentally new audience, which visits museums rarely”.

“This theme is with the catch: they came not only to the rock exhibition, but to see the history of Novosibirsk of 1980-s”.

There was enough noise at the opening. Not waiting for the audience, the musicians of the “SPID” (russian for AIDS - NovosibirskGuide) band started their performance and competed for the attention with father of Yanka Dyagileva (see her profile on Wikipedia), who was invited to the opening. However, despite the heat and music accompaniment, Stanislav Dyagilev was listened to with great attention: “Rock itself is questionable art. It is not just a protest, it is also the depth of intonations – they are really unusual, they excite, make us think of ourselves and about what is happening around us”.

The exhibition itself occupies two halls of the museum and strongly contrasts with the next exposition of the Soviet wedding dress. Jeans are hanging on the walls, and on the background of large photos of pioneers and Komsomol members there are old rock-posters, press cuttings and guitars, which emphasize once again inseparability of the system and the protest.

The corner with teapot, bread rings and faceted glasses is arranged in one of the halls, as the symbol of that time, some people sit with it, and some people help themselves.

“This theme seemed very interesting for us, - Evgeniy continues. – The theme of rock’s history and the history of the city are in close intertwining. We didn’t have a task to create the anthology of the Novosibirsk bands”.

“In here, for example, there are lots of things from the history of the “Kalinov Most” band only thanks to the photos from the collection of Andrey Marakasov that we had”.

The exhibits are gathered from very different places. For example, the old reel-to-reel record player was borrowed from Novosibirsk Radio Components Factory. While young people are examining it with interest, the elder generation joyfully exclaims: “I had the same one!” From private collections at the exhibition – there are guitars of Yanka Dyagileva and Anna Vladykina, rare photos from home concerts, newspaper files, records.

“There is a great meaning in the rock of 1980-s, which is wider than the music history, - Evgeniy tells. Protest is just one of its sides. We can talk a lot and in different ways about it, the point is the youth of 1980-s is the same, as we are now, and what music we are listening to – doesn’t really matter”.

The exhibition will last till August 24 @ Novosibirsk City Museum, 24 Sovetskaya str.
Photos by Darya Chernyavskaya.