Tselinniy Cinema - Sgraffito - MONUMENTAL ALMATY

Author

Year

1965

Title

Untitled

Description

The famous graphic artist and illustrator Yevgeniy Sidorkin created one of Almaty's most famous works of monumental art for the Tselinniy Cinema, which when it opened in 1965 was one of the largest and most state-of-the-art cinemas in the USSR. The facade of the building consisted of a large glass screen, and on the wall of the lobby facing the street through this window a large sgraffito was installed. The work depicted four main scenes. In the first two, families sit under apple trees, In another scene, women dance to the music of a dombyra player. In the largest scene, two men race on horseback. Interspersed with these four scenes are bands of Kazakh patterns, similar to the felt carpets and bands that would be seen on the inside of a kiyiz ui, or Kazakh yurt.

In the 1990s, the cinema transferred ownership and during major renovations to convert the space into a nightclub, the sgraffito was covered up by plaster panels. After the lobbying of the artist's son, Vadim Sidorkin, and wife, the artist Gulfairus Ismailova, a compromise was made where the a replica of the work was installed on the exterior, southern wall of the cinema in 2000. The artists installing the copy complained about their access to proper materials, and the quality suffered as a result.

The fate of the original sgraffito was forgotten until June of 2018. The cinema was bought by a local developer, Almaly Group, with the initial intention of demolishing the building and turning it into a McDonald's franchise. After much public outcry over the demolition of two other historic cinemas in Almaty, the Tselinniy Cinema was set aside and it was decided to renovate the building instead and open it up as a center of contemporary culture. During the renovation, the plaster panels were removed to reveal the original sgraffito underneath, which had been forgotten. It is now undergoing renovation and will be revealed at the opening of the culture center.