"Lakhta-Center at sunset", pastel, cardboard 40x30cm, 2023
Series: Dominants of St. Petersburg


In our age, cities develop rapidly and radically change the space around them. The construction of a new modern center, a real skyscraper, St. Petersburg and its residents experienced very hard. There were many disputes, doubts, postponements. The city of Peter the Great did not agree to deviate from the great command to build buildings no higher than the spire of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The city did not give up, but was transformed at the same time. The historical center was not touched, despite all the fears of the coryphets. Our eyes are already seeing a majestic building with incredible ergonomics and possibilities that will amaze many visitors.

In this work I wanted to emphasize the pressure and tension felt by the city, its inhabitants and the very fabric of existence that emerged with the appearance of Lakhta. The spire that tramples the very sky, the building seems to be cramped within the framework in which one tries to describe it. The sky changes several tones of colors and finally extinguishes in the sunset rays from floor to floor. And here is the paradox, it would seem that the Lakhta Center building is an apotheosis of man's triumph over nature, a colossus that by its existence seems to be trying to violate its laws. However, the beauty, flight and softness of the building are emphasized and revealed thanks to the harmony and play of light that envelops it in its soft glare. Incredible colors that are often born on the shore of the Baltic Sea, cold and harsh, as if trying to warm our hearts, drowning in the harsh reality, weather and not only.

In this work I wanted to emphasize that despite all the scale and grandeur of the undisputed dominance of St. Petersburg of the XXI century, the harmony of nature and light, their colors and everything that fills our soul with light and life with meaning remains unambiguous, unshakable and indestructible. The Colossus has risen into the sky, but it is embraced and accepted by the sensitive, gentle and magical forces of nature.