It should be noted that the new center is not the first object of the Astafiev museum complex on Ovsyanka. He spent the last years of his life here, in his native hut, where many famous politicians and cultural figures visited at different times. In 2002, almost immediately after the writer’s death, the first exhibition opened in this house. In 2004, the house of the grandmother of Ekaterina Petrovna Astafiev was included in the complex, which became a museum of the autobiographical story “The Last Bow” – one of the most famous and favorite works of Viktor Petrovich by readers. In 2014, on the occasion of the writer’s 90th birthday, two more buildings were added to the complex.
The works for the creation of a new center began in 2019, when a competition was called for the development of the project. The first winning project involved the construction of a relatively small complex, but plans to scale up were later revised. As a result, in 2021, the development of the project was entrusted to the architectural workshop “A2”. Its specialists prepared the final version, which was released the day before.
The new complex will be able to present many unique exhibits from the writer’s family collection, previously inaccessible to the public.
– When designing, we did not try to play pseudo-personas, but tried to include motives related to the biography of Viktor Petrovich, – says Boris Shatalov, general director of the A2 workshop. – We start from several images: in the center – a cozy white Russian stove, around which the entire space is built; large transparent stained glass windows reflect the image of water, the image of the Yenisei; the helmets built into the “oven” have the image of heating military wagons. At the same time, although the center was planned in a modern look, of course, we wanted to “make friends” with the cottages in the village, so that, like in a large family, it could be seen that children and the elderly are relatives. Let our object be much higher than the huts, but after all, in the villages there have always been, for example, churches that acted as an architectural dominant, but did not contradict the image of the village, but headed it.
The new complex will immediately and seriously increase the exhibition area, which means that the Krasnoyarsk Museum of Local Lore, which includes the Astafiev Museum Complex, will be able to present at exhibitions many unique exhibits from the writer’s family collection, previously inaccessible for the public.
In addition to things related to Viktor Petrovich himself, visitors to the museum complex will be able to see and appreciate the context of Russian culture of the time in which Astafiev lived and worked. The government of the Krasnoyarsk Territory hopes that the implementation of the project will increase interest in the life and work of the writer, as well as boost the development of tourism.
In addition, as the press service of the Governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory said, the new center is planned to hold large scientific conferences, festivals and other important events in the region.
The new complex will be able to present many unique exhibits from the writer’s family collection, previously inaccessible to the public.
