The exhibition is a part of a large-scale project “Russia in Erarta” that promotes contemporary art of the regions of Russia at the museum and abroad.

Within the Minnebaev’s exhibition, Erarta visited Vyborg for the first time. It was the right to go there because of the program “We are the Russians”, a project by the Vyborg Castle museum. Within this project, there are various events (including exhibitions, jazz, music and film festivals, special programs and other surprising activities) in the castle. Often you can see contemporary artists among the guests of the castle.

As for the art technique, you could see hand-made paper compositions painted in deep ochre colors. Those compositions matched the ancient plaster walls of the castle. The series “Atlantropa” refers to the utopian engineering project that was organized in Germany in the 1920s. According to that project, it was planned to build a dam across the Strait of Gibraltar, which would have led to the lowering of the surface of the Mediterranean Sea, and irrigate the Sahara to create a new continent named Atlantropa. They believed that Atlantropa would have become a flourishing garden. As for the Minnebaev’s works, it is a most likely scenario. There are burnt out landscapes and cracked earth, as if you could look at it from high up. Another series of works refers to the geoglyphs, the giant ground drawings, which can be seen only from the sky. There are scaled-down landscapes and various world cities on these sheets. Historical and environmental themes in Minnebaev’s works sound solemn and significant in the castle.

In November, the artist’s works will be exhibited as part of the exhibition “Ufalogiya. Ufa Contemporary Art” at the Erarta Gallery in London.