I’ve made it: After spending 36 hours on the train from I’ve reached my final destination Saint Petersburg. What a joy!
After my first flying visit in April this is now the second time I’ve come to this still exotic place. I would like to extend my stay up to 2 months, but, well, you never know … (still dependent on a job I have to do from here via the internet – which is another story). Same as for my first visit I am staying at the Gryasnaya Galereya (the “dirty gallery”) on Ulica Marata, quite in the center of the city.
Gryasnaya Galereya is basically a flat in one of the many old houses of Saint Petersburg (the peripheeral parts of the city look somewhat different …), not having lost its cosmopolitan flair. The place is probably an extraordinary place, even for a 4 million people city. Originally rented by Valie Göschl and turned from a “filthy hole” (cite from a guest who knows the place for years) to a gallery and artist residency, the location is know permanently inhabited by Misha a Crest, an artist and a modern “alchimist”. (more on that to follow soon …)
I hope my current residency will serve me well as a base for further explorations of the city and especially my research of tendencies contemporary Russian art and culure (though I already experienced that my internet connection is not quite what I have been used to from other western cities … patience is a virtue).
2 Comments
Thank you, Sergey! It’s been such a pleasure travelling with you, Anja and Sima. Russia has really given me a warm welcome …
…Welcome to Russia, Stefan!