Hunt for street art

Almost every step in Yekaterinburg is accompanied by characters of all stripes and stories for every taste. In the yards, happy dinosaurs in cone hats are celebrating their birthdays and, farther away, people in uniform are rubbing the backs of other dinos at the ‘Dinosaur Wash’. There’s a real Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lair hidden in a drainpipe by the river and Lennon, McCartney, Ringo and Harrison are peeking out from around the corner. Somewhere near the Printing House, a “Cat in the tall grass” is running and, in a yard on Tolmachev Street, they are launching a paper plane from Yekaterinburg all the way to Magnitogorsk!

Don’t be alarmed if even road signs try to start a conversation with you and the letters on the buildings share wisdom and ask deep philosophical questions - that’s the way it is here!

In Ekaterinburg, street art takes on a variety of forms and it does not end with just graffiti and murals.

The ‘Proud Lantern’ by the ‘SPEKTR’ (@spektr.space) team is going up in front of the ‘Cosmos’ cinema and concert hall. The only one among its brethren, the straightened street lantern shines in front of itself, symbolizing the resilience and courage of man in the most challenging of circumstances.

Walking down Pervomayskaya Street you will definitely see… a slice of life from a computer game! But it doesn’t belong to any fantasy character, but to the historical building at 1Zh Pervomayskaya. The team of artists ‘Hot Singles in Your Area’ (@hot.singles) draws attention to the condition of the historical heritage in the city with their work ‘Health bar’: for example, if the house lining is sprinkled, then the “lives” become less, and when repairs are being made, the stripe grows.

And, of course, you should pay attention to even the smallest inscriptions and stickers; they reveal and show a lot of interesting things!

How to hunt for street art?

To see as many works of street artists as possible, we advise you to contact local guides or volunteers working at the street art festival @stenograffia. They will show you all the most interesting and big projects that have graced the city in recent years and tell you about their creators and the stories behind the artworks.

If you really want to fully join the crowd, then you should be in Ekaterinburg on the dates of the festival itself: this way, you can not only admire the finished works scattered throughout the city, but also watch street artists creating them before your eyes! The festival has been held here every summer since 2010 and is getting bigger and bigger.

And, if you do decide to go hunting on your own, check out the navigation services. A lot of works are specially put on the maps, so that Ekaterinburg residents, as well as tourists, can find the most popular and interesting ones. And don’t forget about the instincts of a real hunter: you will definitely find a couple that are not on the map!

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We’d like to thank the volunteers and participants of the @stenograffia project for their help in organizing the shoot, as well as the teams @spektr.space, @hot.singles, @destroyers_style_crew and @bboy_ghettokid_dsc, @shyrik_bo, @headfoot_dsc, @personbutspider, @darindayka, @garoldadventure for participation!