15 september – 29 november
The exhibition will present the collection of objects of folk culture and everyday life of the Russian North It was collected by Igor Kochetkov and Inessa Antypko – the married couple - and donated to the All-Russian Decorative Art Museum in 2021. In total, it consists of 236 items from the second half of the XVIIIth to the middle of the XXth centuries, half of which will be presented at the exhibition for the first time: festive costumes, samples of traditional weaving, decorated with folk embroidery, headdresses. The exhibition will also feature household items: chests, spinning wheels and details of the weaving mill decorated with northern carving and painting, bowls with relief and painted decoration, bronze icons, folds and crucifixes, candlesticks. The exhibition will be complemented by archive photographs from historical and ethnographic expeditions to the Russian North: village landscapes, home interiors, portraits of peasant women.
A separate part of the exhibition is a film-interview with Igor Kochetkov specially prepared for this event. It touches upon the history of the collection, the couple’s travels to the Russian North in the Soviet years, the reasons for the interest in collecting folk antiquities.
In the 1960s and 1970s the couple travelled to the Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions, visited villages along the banks of the Onega, Northern Dvina and Vychegda rivers. The Moscow intellectuals of the 1960s were attracted by "primordial" folk life: musical and poetic folklore, sincere and sometimes naive stories of villagers, unique North Russian wooden architecture and icon painting stored in attics and barns of village houses. Of course, they were interested in various kinds of arts and crafts, which were given to the travellers by the locals as a memory of acquaintance and gratitude for communication. Collecting was never an end in itself for Igor Kochetkov and Inessa Antypko, but rather a manifestation of interest in the history of their own country - their "national self-knowledge".
"Thanks to the travels of Igor Kochetkov and Inessa Antypko and the collection of items of folk culture and everyday life of the Russian North donnated to our museum, we can look into the past, get acquainted with the life and history of our country. This exhibition is not only about the disappearing masterpieces of folk art, but also about the unique nature of the Russian North, the influence of which can be felt in every exhibit. We are very happy and grateful to collectors, project -managers, artists, craftsmen and all those who enrich the museum's collections with decorative and applied art objects. Together we create a bridge between the past, present and future," said Elena Titova, Director of the All-Russian Decorative Art Museum.