The Zvyazda newspaper published an article about our gallery-workshop “one film away”
Author:
Nadezhda Dryndrojik
“An art gallery in a remote village? Away from the capital?.. Minsk residents Artur and Laura Pavlov, when they hear such questions full of surprise, just smile. “Why not? Art has no boundaries. The bolder the idea, the more likely it is that it will be crowned with success and people will respond””
About Shishkin’s reproduction and one chair
It all started nine years ago. From what Arthur and Laura bought on the shore of a picturesque lake in the small but very beautiful village of Cheresovo, near Lepel, an old house. There was no point in repairing it. During the time that the building was unattended, the logs were rotten. Therefore, in its place, the new owners built another solid house.
– For all these nine years, we have been driving past an abandoned wooden house located a hundred meters from our house. And they didn’t pay attention to her,” says Artur Pavlov. – And only last year, in May, when we were passing by once again, Laura (she is an artist) said: “Arthur, I don’t have a normal studio. Why don’t we buy this house and I’ll paint in it?””I’ll have to think about it,” I replied. and already in June, I was applying for that house.
– How did you come up with the idea to create an international art gallery in a simple village house?
“In the house that Artur and I originally bought for my studio, we found two framed paintings among the numerous junk,— says Laura Pavlova. — One of them is a reproduction of Shishkin’s “Mordvinov Oaks” from 1891. We don’t know the author of the second one, but it’s also got nature on it. Today they occupy an honorable place in our permanent exhibition. We left them, preserved them as part of the history of a simple Belarusian hut, which turned into an art gallery. When I first came here, the presence of the paintings amazed me. I immediately felt that there was good energy in the house and I would enjoy painting here. And then I imagined that I could not only work here, but also arrange exhibitions. “Can you imagine,” I say to Arthur, “if there are too many paintings by different artists on display here, people will start coming here, including from abroad, and the village will come to life even more.”
– That’s how the idea came to combine the artist’s studio with an international art gallery… I jumped at the idea and got inspired,” says Arthur. – At the end of July, I rolled up my sleeves and started reconstruction. Only then I still had no idea how much I would have to redo…
– You purchased the house on June 13 last year. And already on December 24, the opening of the gallery – House of the artist “Lora Pavlova gallery Lepey” took place. It’s only been six months, and you don’t recognize the old house. How did you manage to restore everything so quickly?
– As they say, the eyes are afraid, but the hands do. Idea and desire are the most important engine. I worked almost every day from morning to evening. I did almost everything myself. He only brought in assistants from time to time. I saved a lot of money that way. Many ideas were born during the reconstruction process, because there were surprises at every turn… When we bought the house, we thought: well, we’ll paint the walls, the floor, the ceiling a little… And then, after the rain, it turned out that the roof was leaking and the stove was smoking… Therefore, it was necessary to completely replace the old roof with a new one, and the huge stove, which occupied 1/3 of the house, with a compact, more energy-efficient fireplace oven. By the way, we gave the old brick a second life-we closed the holes that remained in the floor in place of the former stove.
– It was possible to demolish the old building and do everything from scratch. But you went the other way…
– Who would be surprised by a modern building today? They are all the same: the walls are white, everything is perfectly smooth. We wanted the gallery to have a “twist”. Therefore, they built a new one, preserving all the good, the old…
– What was saved?
– The old log house has been completely preserved. The exterior was sheathed with pine board using vent facade technology. The wood texture was specially left inside, I just cleaned all the logs with a grinder. In the part of the house where the exhibition hall is now located, the walls were plastered with clay on wooden chips. We slightly repaired that plaster, specially preserving all the irregularities, depressions and bulges that were there, and painted it white. Such walls can be viewed for a long time, they are like a separate work of art. They also left the old floor, as it is made of boards about eight centimeters thick. You can’t even find them now. Such a floor, as I say, will last forever. When the old windows were replaced with new ones, it turned out that they were “blocked up” – they were not in the same plane as the facade. It was possible, of course, to level it up, but we decided to keep this curvature as well. By the way, after we cleared the area from the undergrowth, it turned out that on one side of the house, where Laura’s workshop is now located, there is a magnificent view of the field, so we specially replaced the small windows with one large panoramic one. Of the furniture that was here, only the armchair was left, which helped us from the beginning of the reconstruction of the gallery to the end. We said “thank you” to him and, having slightly adjusted and tinted, gave him a second life.
– Why did you decide to paint the house black?
– In the village, all the old houses are traditionally blue, yellow, blue, and green. I wanted the gallery to stand out, look unusual, and memorable. At first, I had thoughts of painting it gray, but they beat me to it, there is already one gray house in our village. That’s why we settled on black. By the way, we are in the top of the most original buildings of 2022, according to the Internet portal dedicated to real estate.
About the spaceship and the lavender field
– Do you really believe that the townspeople and foreigners will come to the village art gallery? After all, it’s a long world, 160 kilometers from Minsk…
– If I hadn’t believed in this idea, this project wouldn’t have happened. and a spaceship was also unrealistic once, and laser therapy, and nanotechnology. It seems to me that the more difficult the path, the more incredible the goal and dream, the more likely it is to succeed. People are just used to going to galleries in cities. The one who goes to our village art gallery will get much more. It will be a whole adventure for a person. Not only visiting the exhibition, but also getting to know the artist, a new place. The gallery is located near a picturesque lake, near a hilly area. And if you combine the visit to the exhibition with the lavender bloom season, the attraction of the place doubles.
In the village of Cheresovo, next to the house of Arthur and Laura, which is ten meters from the lake, there is a lavender field of more than a thousand shrubs. Last year, in July, they held the first Lavender Better music festival with photo shoots, an exhibition of paintings, a concert, and a presentation of lavender products.
– Villages have become more and more attractive lately. Therefore, we plan to make the lavender festival an annual event and eventually reach an international level. I want people to come to us, because there is incredible nature and energy here. As for the distance… And what is 160 kilometers? It’s only two hours by car. Two hours and you’re in another world. I call it “being one movie away.” Someone settles on the couch, turns on the TV and watches a movie. And someone gets in the car and in the same two hours goes to a new place and learns something new.
– And how did the locals perceive the gallery?
– As a rule, people are wary of everything new… I remember when Laura and I planted the plot with lavender, the villagers also didn’t understand at first how to plant the whole garden with flowers. But what about potatoes?.. After that, they got used to it and even came to our festival. By the way, thanks to the lavender field, the village has come to life. There are no empty houses left here anymore – everything has been sold out. Even now, some people still don’t understand how the gallery can be located in the village. Why is she here? Nevertheless, everyone is interested. Now all the locals walk past the gallery to see what’s there.
It is rare to see a work of art on the walls of houses and apartments. People get an expensive bathroom, a TV, but not paintings… It’s a pity… “Oh, I don’t understand anything about art,” is a phrase I’ve heard from more than one person. We’re trying to convey that art is accessible to everyone. You hear music, and you either like it or you don’t. So is painting. You either like the painting or you don’t. The culture of visiting exhibitions and art galleries needs to be expanded. So, today we are already sowing the seed of love for art. We want to show that relaxation can be not only in front of the TV. I think the gallery is not our last project.”
