Published: 2024-12-17

The stories told by Yakutsk murals

Wojciech Lipiński
Journal of Urban Ethnology
Section: Miscellanea
DOI https://doi.org/10.23858/JUE22.2024.012

Abstract

Yakutsk, the capital of the Sakha Republic located in the Siberian part of Russia, boasts numerous murals. They are also found in the smaller towns of the republic. The current fashion for murals has been in existence there since 2016, when the first such works were created. A characteristic feature of many of them are references to Yakut traditional culture and folklore. These spheres of cultural heritage are clearly present in the reality of post-Soviet Yakutia – they are studied, discussed, recreated and reconstructed, as well as used in family and public celebrations. Many people and dozens of institutions are involved. The popularity of murals and their thematic orientation described above are the result of the processes of institutionalisation of urban art and the related subordination of the message of large-format images to official discourses of memory and identity.

Keywords:

Sakha Republic (Yakutia), murals, tradition, memory, institutionalisation

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Lipiński, W. (2024). The stories told by Yakutsk murals. Journal of Urban Ethnology, 22, 185–204. https://doi.org/10.23858/JUE22.2024.012

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