the street is our gallery

Street artist Misha Most finished a 10.800 sq. m. monumental wall painting. This is the largest mural in the world, which belongs to one artist. The project was curated by Sabina Chagina and the Creative association Artmossphere. The mural was presented to the public as part of the urban art festival ArtOvrag in Vyksa, Russia.
The name of the painting is Evolution-2. It covers the facade of the “Stan-5000” industrial complex, one of the industrial complex buildings in the oldest Russian manufacturer Vyksa Steel Works, which is part of the United Metallurgical Company in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The mural was created by the artist and five assistants in 35 days, with short interruptions, caused by bad weather.  The Mural painting project is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the United Metallurgical Company (OMK) and the 260th anniversary of the metallurgical plant in Vyksa.

According to the Artmossphere’s expertise, this artwork is the largest monumental wall painting in the world, which authorship belongs to one artist. The world knows other major murals – but in terms of the complexity, volume and speed of work, scale and number of participants involved, they are not comparable to the wall created in Vyksa.
So, for example, the work of the duo Ella & Pitr (21,000 m²) in Norway, depicting a sleeping girl, is performed on the roof, and not on the facade of the building, which implies a different level of complexity, and in co-authorship, which also classifies the work in a different category. The huge Hall of Fame in Colorado (16,554 m²), fixed at the moment in the Guinness World Records Book as the largest street mural in the world, has existed for several decades – it was created by hundreds of artists, and every year it is supplemented by the works of new authors.

Other examples of large-scale paintings on the facades known to us are a large-scale design, that means, they do not have artistic value and certain authorship. The closest to the category and scope of the murals, created by one author with the assistants – the artist Kobra and his wall in Brazil – 5.700 m², and the famous French artist JR, his artwork in Kenya – 4000 m², but those walls are much smaller than the “Evolution – 2.

The mural project was chosen in the course of the “Vyksa 10000” open competition, juried by well-known artists, designers and architects. Organizers of the competition received 260 applications: sketches came from 34 countries, including Japan and Australia, as well as Latin and Central America. Representatives of the “Guinness World Records” expressed interest in the “Vyksa 10000” contest. They are considering the inclusion of the winning project in the collection of world records.

The artist develops issues of progress, evolution and overcoming one’s own abilities. He rethinks the ideas of Russian cosmism and aggrandizes a working man.

Misha Most:

The project was greatly influenced by science fiction from the 60-70s about the development of the world in the nearest 50 years. Actually, it’s already about nowadays.

The future is traditionally associated with certain changes: in society, in individual person changes, in personal psychology and physiology, in relationships, environment and nature.
The essential graphic element of the project is a scientist, a robotized man, a human-like android, as well as the elements of Chemistry, Physics and other sciences.
I tend to visualize the thoughts in the investigator’s head.

I included into the scheme six stories taken from the past and present of the Vyksa smelter. I think the workers can easily recognize them. If you look at the wall from left to right, you can grasp the development of the plot: from small – to greater, from research – to creation, from idea to result.

About the artist

A painter, street artist and a graffiti-writer. Misha Most started with painting in 1997 at the dawn of the Russian street art. He is a member of the first graffiti team in Moscow. He is an organizer of large festivals, including “Graffiti Winzavod”, a curator of exhibitions and projects dedicated to different aspects of street art. A permanent participant and an author of lectures and discussions about the development of graffiti. His personal projects have been displayed at different exhibitions of modern art in Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, USA, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France and other countries. He was nominated for the Kandinsky prize in as “Young Artist of the Year” in 2008. He is a member of the 3rd Moscow biennale of modern art. His latest personal exhibition was held at the Lazarides Gallery, London, 2014. Misha Most created 300 square meters painting in Bronx (New York) in 2016.

Artmossphere studio:

A creative association, which curates various art projects, exhibitions and festivals, connected with street art. Artmossphere brings together established and upcoming artists from all over the world. As a result their team work appears and go up city monumental wall painting collection. Studio is a creator and organizer of the same-name Moscow street art Biennale (2014/2016), the only international festival in Russia dedicated entirely to street art.