Russia’s top graffiti artists collaborate at Perm museum

PERMM, the museum of contemporary art in Perm, has opened a new major exhibition showing the work of a number of street artists from major cities across Russia. Entitled Transit Zone, the exhibition will be the last to be shown in the city’s former river boat station, which has been the site of the museum for the last five years.

The exhibition involves 28 artists and art groups from the Russian cities of Perm, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Novosibirsk and Moscow, showing works by prominent artists including Timofei Radya, Kirill Kto and graffiti collective Zuk Club. In addition to the Russian participants, the exhibition will also showcase Ukrainian street artists Gamlet Zinkovsky and Roman Minin. The two Ukrainian artists made a name for themselves in Perm following their numerous graffiti works and their collaborative street art project Homer, which was painted on the now demolished Dyagilevskaya school.

Curator of Transit Zone Nailya Allakhverdieva said: “The museum is located on the threshold of a moving boundary, opening its doors to the city, collecting the art of the country’s street artists on its walls. The interpenetration of the museum and the city creates a ‘transit zone’. The street art turns itself into a museum, and the museum becomes pliable, and like urban space, gives the artists its walls. In fact, the artists’ work is more collaborative, all parts of it are connected to each other.”

During the exhibition, the museum has organised several special events, including a film on street artists, a virtual tour of street art projects in Russia and an educational programme exploring street art.