Kolya Kopeykin
"ELEPHANTS"
In the halls of the gallery

The art project " Elephants of Petersburg " mentions one of the curious pages in the history of the city, connected with the life of these remarkable animals in the Northern Capital. In sixteen big canvases (after all, elephants were to be depicted there!) the whole story is being unveiled from the advent of the first elephant in 1714, presented to Peter I by the Persian Shah, and to the murder of the last one in 1917 in Tsarskoe Selo by revolutionary sailors. The purpose of the project is not to simply illustrate historical events connected with elephants. The author issues the challenge to inform the spectator in the language of allegorical images and mystification of the dramatic tension in relations between the world of animals and the realm of man.