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Fairytale Russia of the Great Hamsun
At the Arts and Crafts Museum in Moscow the doll exhibition Hamsun’s Fairytale Country after Knut Hamsun’s works and Norwegian folklore has been mounted. This is the final event of Hamsun Days in Moscow devoted to the 150th anniversary from the birth date of the great Norwegian writer, a Nobel Prize winner in literature. The exhibition is organized by the Russian National Arts and Crafts Museum, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in the Russian Federation, the Norwegian Information Centre and the web-association Kukly.ru (“Куклы.ру”). Hamsun Days in Moscow are a very important component of the Norwegian international festival HAMSUN FEST. The festival was opened simultaneously in Oslo and Moscow and was devoted to the writer’s memory day. The main part of the exhibition is represented by unique author dolls made for this project by doll artists after Knut Hamsun’s works and Norwegian folklore. Knut Hamsun is also among the show pieces; the doll representing him was made by the talented young artist Anton Solnykov (Антон Солныков). Specialists say the author managed to capture precisely the Norwegian writer’s character and manner. At the exhibition there are also many graphic materials depicting the life and works of the famous writer. Trolls have a special place among the show pieces; lots of very different trolls are spread in the exhibition rooms; they hide themselves in the corners. Among them there are leshys nisse with Norwegian flags and pets, and harmless and funny trolls in horny helms. There are also rough compositions that remind one of rocky fiords with snow-capped tops; there a troll turning to stone drops his heavy club, and his humpbacked neighbour form the Rondsky rocks holds a human skull in his hands. But most mountain spirits do not look frightening; to understand it you only have to look at the touching character of Marina Davidovskaya’s (Марина Давидовская) composition Troll in Love. One can also meet the mysterious magic Zwerg; he wears a horny helm and beads attire and follows the visitors with his eyes; three Fates throw their seine into the waters of a mountain spring; the Scandinavian goddess of love and fruitfulness, Valkyrie leader Freya, rides a cart with a pair of black cats... 
The variety of fairytale motifs is the idea of the organizators. Hamsun Year in Russia project coordinator Nataliya Budur (Наталья Будур) says that the organizators “did their best so that every visitor can feel the pre-Christmas fairytale atmosphere. According to his son’s reminiscences Knut Hamsun was one of the few parents who at the beginning if the 20th century read fairytales to their children though at that time fairytales were not considered to be entertainment for children”. The plots of Hamsun’s realistic prose were not deprived of attention either. One-Way Love of Pan characters, Edward, Glana, and the Doctor, is depicted by the composition by Tatyana Lyakhovich (Татьяна Ляхович), the tragic story Hunger, еру pearl-haired Victoria — all this is represented in 35 wonderful works by artists from Moscow and other Russian cities. Visitors can also see a very interesting collection of unpublished book illustrations to Norwegian fairytales that are also made by the doll artist Tatyana Lyakhovich. Knut Hamsun Konstantin Stanislavsky thought Hamsun to be one of the world’s best playwrights; his plays At the Gate of the Kingdom, In the Grip of Life were on for several seasons at the Moscow Artistic Theatre. The Theatre devoted to Hamsun Days the exhibition Knut Hamsun, The Knight of the Dream about the Great Norway. It can be visited at the hall of the Artistic Theatre. The exhibition shows pictures of actors who performed in plays after Hamsun’s works in the Artistic Theatre, their costumes, decoration sketches, Hamsun’s letters to the Theatre, concerning translation of his plays into Russian and staging of his plays, as well as programmes and play bills. 
In his turn, Knut Hamsun worshiped Russian literature and adored Russia. “I have been to Saint Petersburg and Moscow, I have travelled along Russia and the Caucasus; I will never see a better and nicer fairytale”; this is what Hamsun wrote in his itinerary published in 1899 after his trip to Russia. He named the itinerary In a Fairytale Country, and this name is the keynote of the doll exhibition. Today Knut Hamsun has a solid place in the spiritual life of Norway and in the world’s literature. In Russia his works are published a lot; these are separate novels, storybooks, poems, letters, and articles by the famous Norwegian. The monthly periodical October (“Октябрь”) devoted its 11th issue solely to Knut Hamsun. On December 10 in the Moscow Cultural Centre Dom (Kультурный центр “Дом”) the play Hunger will be performed after the novel by Hamsun. The exhibition project, as well as Hamsun Year in Russia in whole, will be brought to a close on December 22 by a festive event that will be mounted by the Arts and Crafts Museum together with the Norwegian Embassy, the Norwegian Information Centre, and the Moscow Artistic Theatre. The best exhibited doll will be chosen by public vote and its author will be given a special prize. One can vote at the web-site All Norway (www.norge.ru ) as well as at the exhibition; in the hall there is a special box so that visitors can at once appraise the work they like. * The material and pictures used were provided by the Russian National Arts and Crafts Museum and taken from the web-site www.norge.ru
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© 2010 Department of Foreign Economic |