“When the days get dusty and the colors start to fade, I take a book by Grin, open it on any page... That's how you wipe windows in the house in the spring. Everything becomes light and bright, everything is mysteriously exciting again, as in my childhood.”
D.A. Granin
The Leningrad Center show space’s gallery is presenting a joint project with Channel 5 (part of National Media Group CJSC), backed by Bank Rossiya JSC. The exhibition, entitled “The Legacy of Alexander Grin in Scripts and Documents,” is dedicated to the holiday in celebration of graduates, which is known as “Scarlet Sails”.
Officially, the year 2022 has become a year celebrating folk art and cultural heritage, thus the exhibition covers lesser-known aspects of life of Alexander Grin, the author of the romantic fantasy “Scarlet Sails”. The exhibition includes artifacts relating to his literary activity, which immerse guests in the world of book printing and tell stories of how the writer’s works were produced. The exhibition is devoted the most secret chapters of Alexander Grin’s life that were hidden from the public, the peculiarities of the times when he was writing his most famous works, his creative concepts, and the story of how he produced his works. Guests will have a chance to see unique materials, including hundreds of items from the personal archives of the Grin family, as well as drafts and outlines of his works.
The atmosphere of book craft of the early 20th century will be recreated at the Leningrad Center’s exhibition spaces, consisting of original exhibits from the foundation of the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, the Museum of Printing and from personal collections, some of which are being made available to the public for the first time. The centerpiece of the exhibition is the unique printing equipment that once introduced the characters of “Scarlet Sails” and “She Who Runs on the Waves” to the world. Thus, the entire technological process of the book production will be shown at the Leningrad Center. The emotional side to it will be revealed by personal letters sent to each other by Alexander Grin's first wife, Vera Abramova, and his second and last wife, Nina Grin, which stretch chronologically over the entire space of the hall. The Grin family archive will immerse guests in the atmosphere and everyday life of the fin de siècle, displaying the emotions, feelings, and drama experienced by real people, which formed the basis of the works of that time.
The exhibition will be open to visitors from June 28 to August 14, 2022, every day from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Leningrad Center show space’s gallery at 4 Potemkinskaya St., St. Petersburg. Free admission.