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      (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov: Leningrad 80s >>

(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov
“ART from the USSR / ART for the USA.”

Three objects on bus stop signs, 1988
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: The logotype
Page 3: Leningrad bus stop signs
Page 4: Three objects on bus stop signs

Documentation: Hannelore Fobo, 2019




Leningrad Bus Stop Signs

Admiralteysky Prospekt bus stop, St. Petersburg, with historical sign, early 1990s. Photo: Hannelore Fobo

Admiralteysky Prospekt bus stop, St. Petersburg, with historical sign,
early 1990s. Photo: Hannelore Fobo



Leningrad bus stop signs possessed the charm of any manual, slightly improvised production: the raw wooden strips nailed to the ochre board contain knotholes, and the letters and numbers were applied with the help of stencils, which made the spacing irregular. The size of each sign was, however, standardised: 42.5 cm (height) x 59.9 cm (width) x 2 cm (depth).

In the above picture of Admiralteysky Prospekt bus stop, St. Petersburg, we see one of these historical signs. The picture was taken in the early 1990s. The large “A” stands for Автобус – Autobus, and the numbers refer to the bus lines serving the bus stop. Below each number is a smaller rectangular field to indicate the frequency of the respective bus – the time interval, given in minutes. When these fields were left empty, as in the example, passengers were required to rely on their experience or patience.



St. Petersburg city centre, early 1990s. This bus stop served line 10, 49 and 128 Photo: Hannelore Fobo

St. Petersburg city centre, early 1990s.
This bus stop served line 10, 49 and 128
Photo: Hannelore Fobo


Bus stop pole without a sign at Peterhof, near St. Petersburg. Photo: Hannelore Fobo, early 1990s Present-day view of the same place. Photo: Igor Khadikov, 2019

Left: Bus stop pole without a sign at Peterhof, near St. Petersburg.
Photo: Hannelore Fobo, early 1990s
Top: Present-day view of the same place.
Photo: Igor Khadikov, 2019

In the picture on the left is a bus-stop pole without a sign. The picture was taken in the early 1990s near St. Petersburg – at Peterhof, more precisely at Novy or New Peterhof, next to the central library. The place is a short walk from the apartment Kozlov lived in between 1970 and 1989. It was in this part of Peterhof that Kozlov actually “found” his objects in the late 1980s. As the construction was just placed on the ground, but not fixed to it, it was easy to get hold of the sign: the pole just had to be toppled, and after that the sign could be stripped from the iron beam.

It goes without saying that this type of action art could have had severe consequences for Evgenij Kozlov. But, as Alexander Pushkin wrote in his poem Eugene (Evgeny) Onegin, “Судьба Евгения хранила” “Fate saved Evgeny from perdition” (tr. Ch.Johnston, more >>).

Besides, it cannot be entirely excluded that after Kozlov's action, this very bus-stop pole had been standing deprived of its function up to the moment the picture was taken – perhaps even longer.

The photograph on the right offers a present-day view of the same place. The wooden signs, manufactured in a preindustrial manner, have been replaced by modern ones, displaying timetables, routes, and a QR code.

The old bus stop signs have now become historical in more than one way, as many Peterhof streets were renamed in 1993. From the 1920s to 1993, the street with the derelict bus-stop pole was called “Lenin Boulevard”; its current name is “Erlerovsky Boulevard”, and the bus stop is now “Zharnovetsky Street”.

(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov with fishing-rod at Peterhof Palace Gardens, 1980.  Photo: Viktor Labutov

(E-E) Evgenij Kozlov with fishing-rod at Peterhof Palace Gardens, 1980.

Photo: Viktor Labutov



Living in Peterhof has always been very different not only from living in Leningrad/Saint Petersburg, but also from living in any other of Leningrad's suburbs. Peterhof, the former summer residence of the Russian Tsars situated on the Gulf of Finland, is famous for its large number of palaces and gardens, as well as for its system of canals, water pipelines and ponds supplying water for the Great Cascade and other fountains. No high-rise building were allowed in this area, which spared Kozlov the view of those standardised twelve to sixteen storey apartment blocks typical for other suburbs.

Kozlov enjoyed fishing in the early morning at Marli Palace pond at the lower park of Peterhof Palace. He remembers many late night walks at Peterhof, strolling through quiet streets and parks. The atmosphere of those moments felt both exclusive and meditative, to which the traces of Soviert poverty – dilapidated cottages or crumbling wooden houses – stood in striking contrast.

For Kozlov, who was born with a strong perception of harmony and perfection, the bus stop signs belonged to the defective side of life. To him, they were not representing "charming” Soviet design – they exemplified Soviet primitivism. Yet he saw in them ideal “found objects”, because they possessed the basic features to become a work of art.

The wooden border strips of the bus stops signs made a natural frame Kozlov accentuated in his works, sometimes keeping fragments of the original silver bronze paint. The board’s ochre colour has also remained visible, either as background colour or, occasionally, in smaller sections. Other original features that can still be recognised are the grids for bus numbers and intervals, the street names, and the letter A, which has become the initial letter of the word ART.

 Art from the USSR  Art for the USA (Comintern Street), 1988
Front and reverse of a bus sign object.

Left:
Art from the USSR right: Art for the USA (Comintern Street), 1988



Since the bus signs had two identical sides, there was no need to give preference to one side or the other, but it is interesting to note how the artist created a “natural” polarity among them. In the example above, Kozlov used one side for the motif ART ИЗ СССР (Art from the USSR, left), and the other side for ART ДЛЯ USA (Art for the USA, right). As a result, the once identical sides have been given a sort of linear account starting on one side and continuing on the other, like the A and B-sides of vinyl records.

The three objects from the 1988 series “Art from the USSR / Art for the USA” were made with signs from the “Lenin Boulevard” bus stop and two other stops nearby – at “Lenin Boulevard / Comintern Street”, and at “Comintern Street” (later renamed Razvodnaya Street).

Just a little later, in 1989, the artist used three more bus stop signs to create the six “sketches” for his cycle “New Classicals” (see next page). Here the six motifs cover both sides of the original signs entirely, and we therefore cannot identify their original location.

At the turn from 1992 to 1993, Kozlov created another object with a bus stop sign from “Comintern Street”, entitled
С НОВЫМ ГОДОМ (HAPPY NEW YEAR, see next page).Thus, the total number of these works amounts to seven.




Three objects on bus stop signs, 1988
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: The logotype
Page 3: Leningrad bus stop signs
Page 4: Three objects on bus stop signs


Uploaded 25 March 2019
Last updated 29 July 2019