Travel Notes

Remaking Kama 

The Siberian city of Perm held an open contest to design and build a modern art gallery similar to Bilbao’s Guggenheim and Cincinatti’s Museum of Modern Art. The ambitious project aims to invigorate tourism and culture in Perm, which boasts Siberia’s largest art collection. Architects from 50 countries submitted some 320 proposals, which were reviewed over the course of 18 months. The jury finally decided to choose two winners:  Boris Bernasconi, who designed a giant glass parallelepiped that will combine gallery space with Perm’s Transsib railway station, and Valerio Olgiati, who proposed an uneven pyramid on the bank of the Kama River. Zaha Hadid was awarded third place. 

The jury awarded $300,000 in prize money, yet it is unclear when or if the ambitious project will begin construction, and with which design. Although Perm’s art collection needs a new exhibition space, local officials are wary of funding a unique, state-of-the-art (and expensive) new development, Kommersant reported.

Santabek Claus

Kyrgyzstan hopes to attract more tourists with a new slogan: “Kyrgyzstan is the Land of Santa Claus,” said Turusbek Mamashov, minister of tourism. The Kyrgyz Parliament is currently drafting legislation regarding the “Santa Claus” brand, and most of the $943,000 that the government has allocated toward the development of tourism will be spent on “Santa,” Regnum news agency reported.

New Old Square

Russia’s most famous square, Red Square, is going to get a complete facelift for the first time since the 1970s. The brick stone surface is deteriorating because of underground water and the uneven surface of Borovitsky Hill. The square will be completely redone, including its underground passages, which are currently full of mud and water, Vladimir Kozhin of the Presidential Administration told RIA Novosti. Red Square was first covered with bricks in 1930. Red Square’s surface was last retouched for Victory day in 2004, replacing bricks which were broken or missing.

Georgia Reconnected

Passenger flights between Georgia and Russia have resumed. Direct flights had been blocked for 18 months in the aftermath of a diplomatic brouhaha, when several Russian officials in Georgia were arrested and accused of espionage. The Russian Transportation and Communications Ministries announced the blockade in October 2006, in the middle of the crisis, later denying it was a politically-motivated move. The official reason given for resumption of direct flights was Georgia’s pay-down of $2 million in debt to Russia for air navigation services, the Transportation Ministry said.

Tarkovskiana

The site of the former Tarkovsky family home may soon have a cultural center. The two-story building that was home to poet Arseny Tarkovsky and his son, famous filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, was set to become a museum 20 years ago, but the building fell into ruin when promised investments did not materialize. The idea was resurrected last fall by several cultural figures and politicians, and presented to the Moscow City Duma, which gave its approval.

Unfortunately, the original building has already been demolished, and it is unclear what the new cultural center will look like. The Tarkovsky family occupied a room in a communal flat and lived modestly, so not many personal articles remain, said Marina Tarkovsky, the filmmaker’s sister. The city government nevertheless approved the cultural center’s creation over the next two years. Funding, however, has yet to be determined.

Road Work

Russia’s top cop, Victor Kiryanov, has said Russia wants to host an international conference on reducing traffic fatalities. Russia has one of the worst road-fatality records in Europe, the Moscow Times reported, with some 33,000 persons dying on Russian roads last year. Fatalities and accidents dropped 16 percent during the first two months of 2008, however, as more severe penalties were enacted for serious road violations.   ◗