Russia in photo. Norilsk

MULTIMEDIA ART MUSEUM, MOSCOW
PJSC MMC NORILSK NICKEL
V. I. SURIKOV STATE ART MUSEUM, KRASNOYARSK

Exhibition from 13 July to 5 August 2018
at the V. I. Surikov State Art Museum, Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk, Prospekt Mira, 12

The Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow and the company Nornickel are long-standing partners in realisation of the ‘History of Russia in Photographs’ project. During this collaboration they have created a unique Internet portal at www.russiainphoto.ru, published 4 volumes of a documentary edition entitled ‘History of Russia in Photography’, and held numerous exhibitions in different Russian cities (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, Samara, etc).

MAMM and Nornickel have brought the exhibition ‘History of Russia in Photographs. Norilsk’ to Krasnoyarsk as a gift to inhabitants of the region, timed to coincide with the 65th anniversary of the city of Norilsk and the company day that Nornickel celebrates this year on 15 July.

The exhibition is based on unique NKVD albums from the State Archive of the Russian Federation, as well as photographs from the Moscow House of Photography collection and the Nornickel archives. On display are classic images of Soviet photo reportage by Vsevolod Tarasevich, and the work of contemporary photographers Grigory Yaroshenko and Ivan Mikhailov. In total some 130 photographs will be shown.

Visitors to the exhibition can trace the history of the formation and development of this unique industrial city located three hundred kilometres to the north of the Arctic Circle, one of the northernmost cities in the world. The exhibit will show how geological surveys of the Taymyr ore deposits first began in the 1920s, led by renowned geologist Nikolai Urvantsev, and the initial construction in the 1930s of the Norilsk plant, one of the largest and most complex facilities in the era of Stalin’s industrialisation due to its remoteness from the populous mainland and extreme natural and climatic conditions.
Photographs shown at the exhibition to chart the prewar and military history of the combine are also unique: the start of production in 1939, export along the Northern Sea Route and the use of Norilsk nickel in the assembly of durable armoured alloys for heavy-duty equipment, as well as in ultra-light designs for military aircraft.

In 1953 Norilsk gained the status of a city, and after Stalin’s death it began to acquire the features of an ordinary ‘civilian’ city, gradually dispensing with the tragic associations of a ‘special settlement’. Gradually Norilsk became the centre of a complex system with satellite towns and settlements that later took responsibility for various stages of the production complex. During the 1960s and 70s a special urban planning programme was established in Norilsk, in order to reduce the impact of strong squalls and blizzards on the inhabitants. This period of formation can be seen in the photographs of Vsevolod Tarasevich, who worked on a series of reports about Norilsk from 1963 to the 1970s.

A look at modern Norilsk is presented by Grigory Yaroshenko and Ivan Mikhailov, well-known young photographers and several times winners of the Silver Camera competition, who have made photo reportages on the city and the plant that were commissioned by Norilsk Nickel.

For reference: