‘The project is utopian, but Kazan has conquered bigger mountains’
The fate of an underground gallery on Bauman Street was discussed in Kazan
The underground gallery on Bauman Street in Kazan has a more than century-old history — food supplies for trading houses were stored here in the 19th century. However, over time, it fell into disrepair, and in the 20th century it began to look more like an abandoned landfill. In the 90s, the city authorities decided to take on the premises — the gallery was to become a trading area. The project was planned to be completed by the 1,000th anniversary of Kazan, but there was not enough funding, and the idea was put on hold. Later, a one-time use was found for the facility — its installations were exhibited here as part of NUR media art festival. Now the public and city authorities have taken up the gallery again. Read about what ideas are proposed by different communities and how feasible it is to implement them in a report of Realnoe Vremya.
“You can make the coolest club in the world here”
Minister of Culture of Tatarstan Irada Ayupova was the first to speak about the idea of creating something creative at the underground gallery. In her opinion, in Kazan they talk a lot about supporting and developing creative industries, but there are no real long-term projects:
“My opinion as an external expert is that we lack spaces like Clouds in Ufa. This is a powerful story. We talk a lot about creative business, the creative industry, about its support, training, etc. But creative business is monetisation, monetisation through self-identification. There are few such spaces in Kazan. We can initiate some one-time projects, but there is no permanent site.”
She added that the area should become multifunctional, and there is no need to abandon the old idea of creating a food court because it can also be integrated into the art space.
“There was a very interesting story about making a full-fledged food court here for tourists who come to Kazan. You could go in and eat in the presence of characters from Kazan history. This is about projection visualisation. There was such an idea and it can be implemented as an element of this space. In any case, in my opinion, the mystery and sacredness of this space could be used in a very interesting way,” she said.
Further, the entire discussion took place in the context of creating a creative space in this place. Thus, a representative of the Movement of the First Kamilla Nurullina spoke about the idea of a skate park for teenagers who were not included in the community of the Uram extreme park. Uram, in her opinion, is more focused on achievements, and not on street culture. However, this idea was rejected by some of the other speakers.
Kazan DJ Bulat Bubblegum also suggested moving towards the underground. He drew the attention to the non-standard nature of the gallery and the lack of such venues for artists of the corresponding format.
“I have a proposal. In my opinion, it is obvious. You can make the coolest club in the world here,” he believes. “Yes, of course, there are some restrictions. But you need to solve problems and adapt to requirements during the construction of any facility, any project. I think there are some options for how to build a cool art space here, where at one time there will be installations, for example, NUR festival, there will be some concerts during other period, and at night, there will be a huge world-class party because the space allows for this.”
The speech about creating a creative platform was interrupted by Enter’s editor-in-chief Danil Gubaydullin. He is sure that there are enough such places in Kazan, and the gallery should be given over to the needs of the business that will settle here.
Tourists versus citizens
One of the questions that few of those present could answer unequivocally was the intended purpose of the underground street. “Who should it be given to? Tourists or citizens?” moderator of the discussions, assistant to the leader of the republic Timur Suleymanov raised the question. Before that, most people did not focus on such a criterion. Then a guest of the meeting, a Kazan tour guide said that tourists have nowhere to go in bad weather: there are no closed attractions on Bauman Street, and in the rain or winter, visitors lose interest in the street. In addition, stories about the underground gallery arouse great interest among holidaymakers, and they want to see it with their own eyes.
Gubaydullin agreed with her:
“Bauman Street is the heart of the city. I think we should stop patronising Bauman and give it to tourists. In any case, the street will always be a tourist street, always. For city residents, there is Profsoyuznaya Street, there is Shchapova Street, there are other quiet streets.
However, another guest rejected these ideas. She is a KFU Master’s student. According to her, the gallery should not be given to tourists under any circumstances because they will leave in autumn, and the real “residents” of Bauman — students — will stay.
“Bauman Street is a student street. The guests will leave, but we will stay. We always walk here, we eat here, communicate, meet. Student life takes place here. I wrote my term paper in Bauman’s coffee shops, I met with friends here, did my homework. I wrote my diploma here and defended it,” she insisted.
The student who was more in favour of the idea of opening a creative space asked to take care of the students’ leisure time, to allocate a place here for their extracurricular activities.
The idea is important
Perhaps, the only idea that everyone present unanimously agreed with was the need to give this place a national flavour. Thus, Kazan local historian Mark Shishkin drew the attention to the need to pay tribute to history when implementing the project:
“This part of Profsoyuznaya Street was the most crowded, most visited place 100 years ago, up until the early 1930s, it was a busy market. It was a passable place practically with no barriers from the territory of the National Museum to Prolomnaya (Bauman) Street. People moved back and forth like that, creating a crowded place here. This way, we are reviving historical continuity because now this part of Profsoyuznaya is a bit dead.
The aide to the leader of Tatarstan proposed creating an analogue of the oceanarium in this gallery — Volganarium” During the discussions, the idea began to obtain new ideas, and the speakers came up with the idea of creating a collaboration with other regions of the Volga region. However, Ayupova emphasised that the project is not suitable for this space.
“Imagine that there is a large aquarium in the centre where we walk but this is the Volga River, this is flora and fauna, this is a big history,” said Suleymanov.
Also, referring to Russia exhibition in Moscow’s VDNKh, many speakers suggested creating a presentation of all the districts of Tatarstan in the gallery. However, this is difficult to implement in theory and in practice, recalled head of Vakhitovsky and Privolzhsky districts Albert Salikhov:
“The underground Bauman street has an older brother — Okhotny Ryad in Moscow. <...> This project cost colossal, huge amounts of money. Therefore, in any case, an engineering system, fire extinguishing systems, ventilation systems, etc. are needed in order to simply do something here, no matter what, restaurants or museums. From a business point of view, the project is utopian. But Kazan has conquered even bigger mountains.”
Suleimanov answered the logical question about the source of funding for the project:
“Today, the topic is not finding an investor, today, an idea is the topic of discussion. Today, we dream, but everything starts with an idea, with fantasy, a dream, with the first step. If we were thinking about whether anyone has money for this space now, we would not have gathered here. Because there is always money, but, as a rule, where there is a good idea that people begin to believe in it.”
