For the 125th city anniversary of Novosibirsk, the Goethe-Institut invited Sebastian Lörscher to spend a week reporting on everyday life and the art scene there. It’s impossible to capture a city of millions like Novosibirsk as a visitor in just one week, so Sebastian Lörscher limited himself to brief incidents and encounters that together form a larger picture of life in the city.
As Sebastian Lörscher sat and drew on the streets in India, Haiti or Nigeria, people could look over his shoulder and ask what he was doing – and he could ask them questions, too. For him, drawing was always a door opener to the people and their stories.
Novosibirsk is the capital of Siberia and the third largest city in Russia with 1.6 million inhabitants. It was founded in 1893 as a hub for the Trans-Siberian Railway. Novosibirsk made a name for itself not only as an obligatory stop on the journey with the world-famous railroad. But also as a center for culture, science, tourism and transport.
The main sights are concentrated in the center. A must see, e.g., the St. Nicholas Chapel with its eventful history: built in 1914-1915, then demolished in 1930, it was rebuilt in 1993 to commemorate the centenary of the city. Also worth seeing: the Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, which is larger than the famous Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.
When space superheroes dance with unicorns and Super Mario, Pikachu and Jesus imitate Rammstein - that's ZNAKI. The festival of young subcultures has been held annually in Novosibirsk since 2009. Young cosplayers, goths, emos, science fiction fans, dancers, artists and poets meet to celebrate together.
The interesting thing about Sebastian Lörscher's ZNAKI series is not only that there are all sorts of curiously disguised people and bizarre personalities to be seen, but also in particular the fact that the military has crept in among the event. With the aim of advertising among the visitors there, not for only weapons.
About 20 km south of downtown Novosibirsk lies the district of Akademkogorod (literally "Academic City"), the Silicon Valley of Siberia. Among birch trees, pine trees and squirrels are university buildings, prefabricated flats and the villas of rectors and deans. Before the Soviet Union collapsed (1991), about 65,000 scientists and their families lived here.
Jonas Engelmann on "Novosibirsk"
As in his travel book Making Friends in Bangalore, Lörscher’s drawings are dominated by sketchy lines, pale shades made with coloured pencils and felt-tip pens that set accents."
