An open-air performance takes place in the central park of Vyksa in the natural ravine that gave name to the festival Art-Ovrag (‘’ovrag’’ means ‘’ravine’’ in Russian). The Batashev brothers were fond of culture, and they established a theater in Vyksa, inviting actors and musicians from the capital. Nowadays the aim of the festival is to revive the cultural tradition and to maintain it.
All Photographs by Elena Chernyshova

How a Russian Factory Gave Birth to a Street-Art Renaissance

ByBecky Harlan
April 13, 2016
7 min read

A tiny Russian factory town is a curious place to find street art around every corner, but that’s exactly what photographer Elena Chernyshova saw when she wandered into Vyksa, a mono-industrial community 230 miles east of Moscow.

a young girl performing during a tae kwan do lesson in Vyksa, Russia
A young girl performs during a tae kwan do lesson. Sports are a major pastime for youth and adults in Vyksa.

In the mid-1800s, two brothers, the Batashevs, discovered a large deposit of iron ore in an uninhabited forest in western Russia. They developed the area—clearing trees, creating ponds to use for hydropower, and eventually founding an iron ore factory in what would become the town of Vyksa.

For a while the region accounted for almost 30 percent of the cast-iron production in Europe and western Russia, and it became famous for its beautiful castings. Vyksa was the definition of a monotown—culture and the landscape were formed around the factory’s needs.

a house in Vyksa
A woman walks along the central street of Vyksa. The town represents a particular mix of architectural styles—old, private wooden houses; Soviet blocks from prefabricated panels; and more modern buildings from the eighties.

Over time, demand shifted, and higher quality iron ore became available elsewhere for a cheaper price. But Vyksa didn’t go the way of the ghost town like so many economies reliant on one industry—instead it adapted and survived. Today the modernized factory produces steel pipes and train wheels, employing 12,000 of the 50,000-odd residents.

A happy enough story, but that’s not what sets Vyksa apart. Back in 2010, the company that owns Vyksa Steel Works put out a call for mural proposals as part of a new festival, Art Ovrag, that was to bring fresh ideas and fertilize the culture.

a mural on the side of a transformer vault in Vyksa, Russia
The Art-Ovrag Festival allows street artists to realize their ideas on the walls of residential and industrial buildings. This eye on the transformer vault was painted by Nikita Nomerz from Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, in 2012.

The artistic oasis that resulted piqued Chernyshova’s interest, when she was invited by the Austrian Cultural Forum in Moscow to explore a Russian “factory city” of her choice as part of a larger exhibit called “The Hope Principle.”

She headed to Vyksa, and in summer wandered the streets during the festival. It’s not an exaggeration to say she discovered art around every turn—there are now more than 80 pieces of public art to be found. “When I came to this town I couldn’t imagine that they had all of these interesting murals,” she confesses. “It’s not even on the main railway.”

Vyksa's specialization in the heavy metallurgy industry has been replaced by the fabrication of pipelines and wheels for trains.
Vyksa’s specialization in the heavy metallurgy industry has been replaced by the fabrication of pipelines and wheels for trains.

In the winter, she observed residents swimming in the icy water and sledding on the frozen surfaces of ponds that were once used to power the iron factory but have now become part of the landscape. (One advertisement for the city boasts that “Vyksa is decorated by a necklace of lakes.”)

“The idea was to show how the factory influenced the creation of the space in general,” she says. “All these landscape elements were created because of the factory. And the street art we see now is also thanks to the factory.”

people on a beach in Vyksa, Russia
In the 18th century this landscape was covered by thick forest. Ponds were dug around Vyksa to provide energy for the factory. Nowadays the sandy beaches on the shores of the ponds are popular for relaxing on hot summer days.

In her images, which fall somewhere between documentary and art, Chernyshova searches for visible symbols of the factory’s impact on life—intersections of nature and industry, architecture and art. She singles out people who are so immersed in what they’re doing that they seem to be part of the landscape themselves, like fixtures of this isolated town. You can tell that the story of the town and the stories of the people are codependent.

a man swimming in an icy pond in Vyksa, Russia
The local Walrus Club unites several dozen cold-water swimmers. Vyksa is surrounded by five ponds created in the 18th century to provide energy for the metallurgical factory. No longer used for industrial purposes, today the ponds have became a particular feature of the local landscape and a natural attraction.

In a Moscow Times review of the “The Hope Principle”In a Moscow Times review of the “The Hope Principle”In a Moscow Times review of the “The Hope Principle” Joanna Kozlowska writes that documenting these Russian factory cities “was meant to show their decline—and sometimes, rebirth—without sugar-coating, but with a view to highlighting the possibilities their future might still hold.”

Vyksa’s iron deposits used to be extracted from the earth’s upper layers using a method called ‘’dudki.’’ Workers would dig holes several meters deep, which would leave the landscape in disrepair. After the iron mining stopped, new pines were planted and the landscape was reforested. Nowadays this park sits on an old mine in the center of the city.
Vyksa’s iron deposits used to be extracted from the Earth’s upper layers using a method called dudki during which workers would dig holes several meters deep, leaving the landscape in disrepair. After the iron mining stopped, new pines were planted, and the landscape was reforested. Today this park sits on an old mine in the center of the city.

And though some young natives do leave Vyksa if they aren’t going into the steel industry, other people transplant themselves there for the work. The city’s population isn’t fading away. “I was surprised to see so many pregnant women and women with prams and children,” Chernyshova says.

Even if people aren’t coming to stay, for the past five summers, a stream of new faces has trickled into Vyksa—greeted by a pink flamingo with a corkscrew neck and a face playing peekaboo on an unassuming facade—to engage in an unlikely but totally welcome incubator for the arts.

See more of Elena Chernyshova’s photographs on Proof: Russians Adapt to a Freezing, Dark, and Polluted Place

And explore more of her work on her website.

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