Arkaim art objects as vernacular practice
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47475/2070-0695-2025-56-2-149-156Keywords:
vernacular, Arkaim, art object, memorial landscape, architectureAbstract
The article presents the concept of a vernacular, applicable to the analysis of "popular" names of art objects on the territory of the Arkaim Museum-Reserve in the Chelyabinsk Region, obtained during expeditions from May to September 2024.
We analyzed 6 publications on the request "art object" in the official ARKAIM community on VKontakte. The names of relevant sculptures on the territory of Arkaim are summarized. The survey revealed the attitude of respondents to four art objects of the memorial landscape – the sculptures "Arkaim Sunrise", "Awakening of Russia", "Contemplator" and the installation "To the Sun! My Arkaim (Anna)". The sample includes new objects "Man Soaring on the Timeline" and "Fiery Color", which have not yet acquired a "popular" name, since they were installed during the current tourist season of 2024. During the survey of visitors, the vernacular names of the art objects were recorded: the sculpture "Arkaim Sunrise" - "White Woman", "Little Horse", "White Sculpture", "Girl with a Horse", "Girl and Horses". The sculpture "Awakening of Russia" - "Yin-Yang", "Male / Female", "Two-Faced". The sculpture "The Contemplator" - "A Piece of Iron on a Stool", "A Chair", "A Dude on a Stool", "Sitting on a Chair", "A Man with the Moon on a Chair", "A Man on a Chair". The installation "Towards the Sun! My Arkaim (Anna)" - "Hands". It was also revealed that the other art objects are not popular with visitors, since the location of the sculptures does not coincide with popular tourist routes. The author comes to the conclusion that art objects are sacred for visitors, but the vernacular name does not contradict the understanding of the monument as a spiritual element. For a vernacular name to emerge, some time must pass so that a certain attitude towards the art object can develop, which will be transmitted in the "popular" name. When analyzing publications in the community and comments to them, it was found that actions aimed at changing the memorial landscape are perceived negatively by visitors. This attitude is also transmitted in relation to the project to create a land park and the first installed sculptures.
Acknowledgments: The study was Supported by the Russian Science Foundation and Chelyabinsk region, № 23-18-20098, https://rscf.ru/en/project/23-18-20098/
References
Abramov, R., Zaporozhets, O. (2014). Prostranstvo lyubvi i prostranstvo zaboty: praktiki narodnogo osvoeniya Tsaritsyno [Space of love and space of care: practices of popular appropriation of Tsaritsyno]. Tsaritsyno: attraktsion s istoriyey [Tsaritsyno: attraction with history]. Moscow: New Literary Review. 273–302. (In Russ).
Akhmetova, M. V. (2021). Parodiynye monumentonimy: k opredeleniyu granits [Parodic monumentonyms: on defining boundaries]. Onomastika Povolzhya: materialy XIX Mezhdunar. nauch. konf., posvyashchennoy 220-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya V. I. Dalya, Orenburg, 11–12 noyab. 2021 g. Orenburg, Orenburgskaya kniga. 13–18. (In Russ).
Zagidullina, M. V. (2024). Gibridnye epistemicheskie ubezhdeniya: ob osobennostyakh turisticheskogo osvoeniya Arkaima [Hybrid epistemic beliefs: on the specifics of tourist appropriation of Arkaim]. Gorizonty civilizacii, 15 (2). 19–28. https://doi.org/10.47475/2413-0125-2024-15-2-19-28. (In Russ).
Zubanova, L. B., Zykhovskaya, N. L., Shub, M. L. (2024). Arkhaicheskii pamyatnik Arkaim: praktiki osvoeniya i sub"ektivnye smysly vospriyatiya memorial'nykh landshaftov [The archaic monument Arkaim: practices of development and subjective meanings of memorial landscape perception]. Diskurs-Pi, 21 (2), 90–110. https://doi.org/10.17506/18179568_2024_21_2_90. (In Russ).
Ivanov, A. (2023). Arkhitektura bez arkhitektora. Vernakulyarnye rayony gorodov mira [Architecture without architect. Vernacular districts of world cities]. Moscow: Slovo/Slovo. 320 p. (In Russ).
Kiselev, D. G. (2024). Populyarizatsiya arkheologii sredstvami teledokumentalistiki (na primere fil'ma Zhana-Mishelya Gotro "Arkaim") [Popularization of archaeology through television documentary (case study of Jean-Michel Gotro's film "Arkaim")]. Magistra Vitae: elektronnyi zhurnal po istoricheskim naukam i arkheologii, 9 (3), 77–82. https://doi.org/10.47475/2542-0275-2024-9-3-77-82. (In Russ).
Kotova, V. S. (2024). Vernakulyarnaya toponimiya Arkaima na primere art-ob"ektov [Vernacular toponymy of Arkaim through the example of art objects]. Mediasreda, 2. 80–83. https://doi.org/10.47475/2070-0717-2024-1-2-80-83. (In Russ).
Medvedeva, A. R. (2025). Strukturnoe vospriyatie prostranstva: v poiskakh affekta (na materiale oprosa posetiteley Arkaima) [Structural perception of space: in search of affect (based on a survey of Arkaim visitors)]. Znak: problemnoe pole mediaobrazovanija, 1 (55). 125–132. https://doi.org/10.47475/2070-0695-2025-55-1-125-132. (In Russ).
Pavlyuk, S. G. (2009). Klyuchevye voprosy izucheniya vernakulyarnykh rayonov [Key issues in the study of vernacular districts]. Voprosy ekonomicheskoy i politicheskoy geografii zarubezhnykh stran [Issues of economic and political geography of foreign countries], 18. Moscow; Smolensk, Oikumena. 46–56. (In Russ).
Radchenko, D. A. (2019). Baby zharyat krokodila: pravo na interpretatsiyu pamyatnika [Babushkas fry crocodile: the right to interpret the monument]. Fol'klor i antropologiya goroda, 2 (1–2). 230–255. (In Russ).
Radchenko, D. A. (2023). Zabor [Fence]. Neprikosnovennyy zapas. Debaty o politike i kulture, 1 (147). 143–154. (In Russ).
Razumov, R. V. (2015). Ob uporyadochenii onomasticheskoy terminologii v oblasti urbanonimii [On the standardization of onomastic terminology in the field of urbanonymy]. Verkhnevolzhskiy filologicheskiy vestnik, 2. (In Russ).
Safonov, A. V., Topchii, I. V. (2024). Faktory samoidentifikatsii posetitelei memorial'nogo landshafta arkheologicheskogo pamyatnika Arkaim [Factors of self-identification of visitors to the memorial landscape of the archaeological site Arkaim]. Russian Studies in Culture and Society, 8 (4), 98–125. https://doi.org/10.12731/2576-9782-2024-8-4-265. (In Russ).
Simakova, S. I. (2024). Praktiki osvoeniya prostranstva memorial'nogo landshafta kak element simvolicheskogo kapitala Arkaima [Practices of memorial landscape development as an element of Arkaim's symbolic capital]. Znak: problemnoe pole mediaobrazovanija, 1 (51), 103–107. https://doi.org/10.47475/2070-0695-2024-51-1-103-107. (In Russ).
Rudofsky, B. (1964). Architecture Without Architects: A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture. New York, Museum of Modern Art. 157 p.
Tuan, Y.-F. (1974). Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception, Attitudes, and Values. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall. 260 p.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Виктория Котова
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
