“Not Art but Life”: 360° Vision Practised by the Egyptian Sphinxes in the Capital of Russia

As we all know – art is what we find in museums and – with the exception of statues of rulers and warlords in city squares – life is everything else. But wait! Not everyone viewed things in exactly the same way. The Group for Organic Culture visited different places in the city of Petersburg/ Petrograd/ Leningrad to make observations. One such place was the steps down to the water in front of the Academy of Arts. One day a conventional academy-professor saw them there and became outraged: "They sat with their backs to the river painting it." The spot however, was well chosen. What did they see? Oddly, there were (and still are) two stone sphinxes. What are Egyptian sphinxes doing in northern Europe? Why in St Petersburg? And why this location? What did they see from between the sphinxes on the steps down to the river Neva? From the well-chosen spot between the Egyptian sphinxes, they saw a panorama of tasteful palaces. They practiced vision with a 360° angle. But to be able to see what happened behind your back also meant having to be vigilant. Names mentioned in the text (in order of appearance): Albert Benois, Ivan Pavlov, Mikhail Matiushin, Ender siblings – Boris Ender, Ksenia Ender, Maria Ender, Yuri Ender, Nikolai Grinberg, Elena Guro, Napoleon, Tsar Peter the Great, Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Empress Catherine the Great, Denis Diderot, Kazimir Malevich, "Seryi" - Grigorii Ginger, Herostratus, Evgenii Kovtun, Nikolai Punin, Rembrandt, Angelica Zander Rudenstine, Natalia Murray, Andrei Zhdanov, Putin, Russian Tsar Alexandre, Kirov, Gustav Eiffel, Tolstoy, George Costakis.
As we all know – art is what we find in museums and – with the exception of statues of rulers and warlords in city squares – life is everything else. But wait! Not everyone viewed things in exactly the same way. The Group for Organic Culture visited different places in the city of Petersburg/ Petrograd/ Leningrad to make observations. One such place was the steps down to the water in front of the Academy of Arts. One day a conventional academy-professor saw them there and became outraged: "They sat with their backs to the river painting it." The spot however, was well chosen. What did they see? Oddly, there were (and still are) two stone sphinxes. What are Egyptian sphinxes doing in northern Europe? Why in St Petersburg? And why this location? What did they see from between the sphinxes on the steps down to the river Neva? From the well-chosen spot between the Egyptian sphinxes, they saw a panorama of tasteful palaces. They practiced vision with a 360° angle. But to be able to see what happened behind your back also meant having to be vigilant. Names mentioned in the text (in order of appearance): Albert Benois, Ivan Pavlov, Mikhail Matiushin, Ender siblings – Boris Ender, Ksenia Ender, Maria Ender, Yuri Ender, Nikolai Grinberg, Elena Guro, Napoleon, Tsar Peter the Great, Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Empress Catherine the Great, Denis Diderot, Kazimir Malevich, "Seryi" - Grigorii Ginger, Herostratus, Evgenii Kovtun, Nikolai Punin, Rembrandt, Angelica Zander Rudenstine, Natalia Murray, Andrei Zhdanov, Putin, Russian Tsar Alexandre, Kirov, Gustav Eiffel, Tolstoy, George Costakis.