On May 28, journalist and architect Ilya Varlamov arrived in Elista. He is known for visiting different countries of the world and cities of Russia, evaluating them from the point of view of urbanism. On Saturday, May 29, the blogger acquainted himself with Elista.
“I walked a lot today. People came up to me. And everyone who approached me asked same question: "Well, how do you like Elista?"
The journalist noted the national flavour of the republic's capital, which other cities cannot boast of. “Such scenery is rare. You can be proud of it,” he said. “Even in Moscow there are no so many excellent modern sculptures as you have. And that's great,” the blogger added.
The history of the appearance of sculptures on the streets of Elista is as follows: in 1997-1998, by order of first President of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, four international biennial competitions were held in Elista: "The Great Silk Road", "Man and Nature through the Eyes of the East", " World of David Kugultinov" and "Planet Kaissa ".
At that time, sculptors from many countries, installed their sculptures on the city’s streets as part of a competition. Some sculptures were created outside the framework of international competitions on the initiative of Kalmyk sculptors.
Most of the sculptures are based on Kalmyk folklore, history, epic of Dzhangar and Buddhism. The sculptures have plaques with the authors’ names and year of installation.
In the courtyard of the D. Kugultinov House-Museum, there are 10 sculptures installed during The World of David Kugultinov III International Symposium.
There are several chess sculptures in the Chess City. These sculptures were created by the participants of the Planet Kaissa International Symposium in 1998.
There are many sculptures on the streets of the Kalmyk capital. These were installed in 1997-1998.
