Every day, the project’s audience interacts with the products of Mama Ro:
through the platforms, website and the studios themselves. Including the interior design studio and
furniture workshop. However, few people imagine that behind all of this is the hard work and talent of many
people, including artists, engineers, designers, architects, cleaners, managers, poets, visionaries,
stonecutters, woodworkers, electronic engineers, enthusiasts with even lazy guys and many, many others. Read
about all these people in the new material by Mama Ro.
FOREWORD
We are Mama Ro!
This chronicle appeared by chance. At the beginning, we just wanted to
gather everyone in a common photo with an oak. But time passed, and the number of iconic people for the
project exceeded fifty. Plus, given the fact that all the people are dispersed throughout different cities
and countries, the idea of getting together on a clear summer day to be photographed on the branches of a
century-old oak turned out to be an impossible task.
Then we divided the idea into two parts. We decided to get the entire
actual staff in the photo and to talk about those without whom Mama Ro wouldn’t be Mama Ro in the
classical way: portraits and descriptions. This actually turned out to be incredibly boring...
So, began the laborious work on the chronicle: selection of photos,
interviews with participants, search and clarification of dates. The collection of material began to
create a valuable portrait of the era. And this chronicle was born.
Today we talk about the most interesting in our project: the synergy of
characters and talents, friendship and mutual assistance, coincidences and chance encounters, fooling
around and prophetic dreams. In one word, describing the people who create Mama Ro.
Sasha Marusheva
Artist.
Mama Ro
administrator
Mama Ro administration. Illustration. The author of the 21st studio titled
British.
This chronicle appeared by chance. At the beginning, we just wanted to gather everyone in a common photo
with an oak. But time passed, and the number of iconic people for the project exceeded fifty. Plus, given
the fact that all the people are dispersed throughout different cities and countries, the idea of getting
together on a clear summer day to be photographed on the branches of a century-old oak turned out to be an
impossible task.
Then we divided the idea into two parts. We decided to get the entire actual staff in the photo and to talk
about those without whom Mama Ro wouldn’t be Mama Ro in the classical way: portraits and descriptions. This
actually turned out to be incredibly boring...
So, began the laborious work on the chronicle: selection of photos, interviews with participants, search and
clarification of dates. The collection of material began to create a valuable portrait of the era. And this
chronicle was born.
Today we talk about the most interesting in our project: the synergy of characters and talents, friendship
and mutual assistance, coincidences and chance encounters, fooling around and prophetic dreams. In one word,
describing the people who create Mama Ro.
INDEX
Heroes
This index performs two tasks: Everyone who is interested in Mama Ro's project sees
its heroes and visualises the heroes of the chronicle where many of which have the same name. The latter
also makes it easier to navigate the text: look at a few tips on the left on how you can conveniently use
the index while reading.
Among the heroes of the index, there are also three founders of the project. Not that
they claimed a place in this pantheon, but are there for the same navigation convenience. At the same time,
there are three other important heroes (we could not add them into history because of the confidentiality of
their service). Let them be mentioned at least here anonymously.
And the last one. When we remembered everyone, who is dear to Mama Ro, we realized
that there are still a great number of people who, even though went through the project on a tangent, also
made their modest contribution to it. Some will be mentioned in the chronicles on occasion. And at the end,
we will try to remember and thank everyone by name.
Tips
Click on the index to read about the character you want who are in the chronicles.
Click on the verse to the left of the paragraph to see its characters and where else they are mentioned.
Click on the hero’s icon to read more about him or her in the Heroes section.
Click to return. Here you can find the history of your three previous clicks.
Click on the index to read about the character you want who are in the chronicles.
Click on the verse to the left of the paragraph to see its characters and where else they are mentioned.
Click on the hero’s icon to read more about him or her in the Heroes section.
Click to return. Here you can find the history of your three previous clicks.
Click on the table of contents to the right to move within sections of the material.
«So that human events may not be effaced by time, and the great and marvelous deeds».
Herodotus
INTRODUCTION
At Roxana’s Mother’s
pring 2011, Yulia finishes the construction work in a rented room on the Vodootvodny channel. Torn wallpaper,
newly plastered walls, a sculpted and dark varnished parquet. A dilapidated window patched by a plane tool.
Everything is done carefully, with her own hands. And a minimum of furniture: a bed, a table, a chair, a
working iMac, and around it all, a pencil box of clean, white, three-meter-long walls stretching to the
ceiling. With a window looking out into spring sky and old-brick Moscow. On the street and around the corner
the Moscow Kremlin is seen across the bridge.
Time will pass, the guys will recall Yulia’s work frequently while working on the project. The small forty
cubes of space snatched from the Zamoskvorechye used to be the walls of the warehouse of the Supplier of His
Imperial Majesty P. Smirnov. In the 20th century it would be used as communal apartments and just like the
creation of the world, the project’s history will start to grow from here. In the eyes of the founding fathers
of the project, Yulia's work is a proto-construction and it opens up a whole series of events leading to the
birth of Mama Ro.
Yulia is in her room after the renovation. Over time, the word “renovation” in this project will give way
to “construction”, which is more suitable for the intensity of the process. Yulia’s renovation that was at
the origins of Mama Ro, would be called “proto-construction”.
Wine drinking ceremony at Kitay-Gorod. Dima and Yulia already know each other. With the idea to shoot a
cartoon, Dima triggers a chain reaction of meetings leading to the birth of the project. In the above
photo: the roofs of Zamoskvorechye from Yulia’s window would become part of the Mama Ro logo.
April 12, 2011, Dolgoprudny. Dima while listening to the songs of Milana is completing the development of an
identity for Coltmedia, a company invented by Tolya and Denis. Tolya and Denis rent a workshop on Armenian
Lane from the artist Sasha Povzner and work all day in Kitay-Gorod. They conduct focus groups on how to sell
the online conference to Heineken. On the same day, the day of cosmonautics is celebrated in Russia, and Yulia
invites her former classmate Anton, who helped her, among others, with the construction, to see the exposition
in the Polytechnic Museum in Kitay-Gorod.
Dima finishes the layout and comes to Tolya and Denis to present the business cards and a logo. He recommends
the guys to do a short promotional cartoon for Heineken instead of a “boring presentation”, following the
example of Red Bull or Reach Access Plus toothbrush. Tolya recalls that his classmate Anton made a cartoon
with his friend when they were at school. He sends him a short message on a social network platform and,
together with Denis, leaves the Armenian Lane to have lunch in cheburechnaya on Pokrovka. In the same moment,
after leaving the Polytechnic Museum, Julia and Anton come to the cheburechnaya on Pokrovka for lunch.
Six months later, on the night of October 3, 2011, a fire devastates a local bathhouse in Anton’s village, It
burns in front of his eyes and four hours later it burns down completely. It turned out that it was an issue
of an overheated stove. The bathhouse belonged to a friend of his father, and upon returning to Moscow, Anton
writes a post about the intention to temporarily rent his workshop in Kitay-Gorod. It was imperative to get
the rental money in order to collect and pay 250,000 rubles to the owner of the bathhouse.
The workshop on Kitay-Gorod, announced by Anton as a sublease, is located in Maliy Ivanovsky Lane in a
pre-revolutionary building near Khitrovskaya Square. Half a year ago, when by some chance the cheburechnaya on
Pokrovka united the guys together, the basement floor was empty in this building. During the work on the
promotional cartoon for Coltmedia, Anton, Tolya, Masha, Yulya, and Zlata begin to be friends and, inspired by
Yulia’s work, they rent and equip their own creative space. During the fire at the bathhouse these, friends
have already rented the entire floor.
Yulia's renovation and guys’ favorite Kitay-Gorod inspired Tolya, Anton, Masha and Zlata to set up
their own workshops here. Tolya and Anton as a striking force. Volodya is missing for the moment as
the guys haven’t met yet.
The arrangement of the first workshop begins with exposing the walls to the "historical" understeer:
nineteenth century bricks and plaster shingles. Yulia (on the left) teaches the guys how to putty
the walls.
Tolya and Anton while cleaning brick walls in Zlata's workshop. Headscarves instead of expensive
respirators.
Masha and Tolya. After cleaning the ceilings from whitewash.
Yulia and Zlata. During painting the walls and ceilings.
After a month of renovation works, the building 11/6 in Maly Ivanovsky Lane (on the left) becomes
the first "anchor" thrown by the guys on Kitay-Gorod. Friends are finishing the arrangement of
workshops. From left to right: Zlata, Masha, Tolya, Anton.
A few months later, Anton's workshop would be sublet as Anton would burn a neighbor's bathhouse in
the village. Volodya becomes the new tenant.
Familiar from school, but losing touch for several years, Tolya and Anton become friends. The reason was
Dima's work on the identity and promotional materials for Tolya's startup, the Coltmedia company.
The bathhouse burned by Anton. Thanks to the fire, the guys meet Volodya.
October 12, 2011, right here, in Maly Ivanovsky Lane, Anton, Yulia, Roxana, Tolya and Masha drink tea in
Zlata’s workshop and talk about the movie “Rain Man” in relation to the idea of starting their own business
and selling “at least cars”, as did the Tom Cruise’s character. “Aram opened a hostel in Seoul today!” - Anton
suddenly recalls the morning post of a common friend from South Korea. “Exactly, let's open the hostel too!”
says a voice that the group picks up. “Yeah, and let's call him ‘At Mother Roxanne’. The participants of the
conversation don’t remember who exactly said this but the highest probability indicates it was most likely
Zlata. Everybody laughs.
Ro appeared at the origins of the project as imperceptibly as one day she appeared living in New York. With
the organic nature of Roxanne, this was no surprise to anyone. As the rain doesn’t ask when to start and stop,
and the sun to look out or hide, Ro just appeared on the threshold of the boiling construction site of Anton
and Tolya who were covered with a thick layer of construction dust. She was laughing, chirping stories and
disappeared again in the summer day.
On one of these days, when Anton, Yulia and Tolya were just finishing up equipping a workshop, Ro brings to
the Maly Ivanovsky her mother. Her mother was a practicing psychologist in finding new space for her work, and
Anton and Tolya helped her rent the last remaining room on the floor. Roxana's mom and the guys become
neighbors.
Meanwhile, in between these dates when Anton watches the bathhouse burn down and returns to Moscow, and Zlata
who for the first time, pronounces the name of the future project over a cup of tea, a week passes. Anton’s
post about the sublet of the workshop space was in great demand, was selected as one of the recommended posts
of the VK (VKontakte – a Russian social network) and pops up in the Volodya’s iPhone somewhere in the
Nikolskaya street. Volodya is not yet familiar with these guys. They have no common friends in the social
network platform.
Emigrant Ro before the departure of the Odessa-New York steamer. Odessa, 1919.
Workshop after sublet. Volodya rearranges and brings his own taste to the space. Step by step, the guys
become friends.
The presentation of the "Mama Ro" start-up wouldn’t help to attract an investor, but it would provide a
service: In order to do it seriously, the guys quit their jobs, not leaving a way back.
At the same time, Tolya, inspired by the very high conversion of the post about renting a workshop, says to
the guys right away, “jokes aside, right on the knee…” and he takes out a calculator and using the time span
of a summer construction, estimates the possible costs and profits of a “At Roxana’s Mother’s” hostel. Anton
and Zlata develop the idea of the name and are already coming up with a place where to hand a doorbell at
“Roxana’s Mother’s”. Everyone laughs because the nominal name of Roxana's mom who rarely appears on Maly
Ivanovsky. She has imperceptibly settled in everyone’s mind and turned into a muse of the place. The friends
discover a workable economic solution on Tolya’s calculator.
Four months later after drinking tea at Zlata’s three giant icebergs broke off from a glacier somewhere in
Antarctica and melted down. One was the size of Greenland, the second – of New York, and the largest – Chistye
Prudy. It’s February in Moscow and the streets are nasty. Anton, Volodya and Tolya are already good friends.
It was Volodya who became the tenant later. They come to the studio to warm up and for the first time they
discuss the presentation of the project “At Roxana’s Mother”. The idea the came as a joke while drinking tea
in the fall, then matured and took a firm place in the minds of the three friends. The project gets its first
breath. In the same evening, its name becomes a laconic "Mama Ro".
Young group of friends in full force. Along with Ro. From left to right: Volodya Nizovtsev, Anton Kozlov, Roxana
Kadyrova, Masha and Tolya Smirnov.
March 23, 2012, Vodootvodny channel. In Yulia’s room, the guys prepare the first illustrations drawn by Uncle
Pasha, Anton's father. He helps son to find an artistic solution for the future presentation of Mama Ro. At
the same time, Uncle Pasha is in the last stages of his life due to his cancer. As always, he manages to
continue jogging and do sports, to joke and to laugh, furthermore, he helps his son and wishes the guys
success. Later, during the exhausting construction works, the great strength of spirit of Uncle Pasha will be
remembered more than once and will serve as an example to these friends.
pring 2011, Yulia finishes the construction work in a rented room on the Vodootvodny channel. Torn wallpaper,
newly plastered walls, a sculpted and dark varnished parquet. A dilapidated window patched by a plane tool.
Everything is done carefully, with her own hands. And a minimum of furniture: a bed, a table, a chair, a
working iMac, and around it all, a pencil box of clean, white, three-meter-long walls stretching to the
ceiling. With a window looking out into spring sky and old-brick Moscow. On the street and around the corner
the Moscow Kremlin is seen across the bridge.
Time will pass, the guys will recall Yulia’s work frequently while working on the project. The small forty
cubes of space snatched from the Zamoskvorechye used to be the walls of the warehouse of the Supplier of His
Imperial Majesty P. Smirnov. In the 20th century it would be used as communal apartments and just like the
creation of the world, the project’s history will start to grow from here. In the eyes of the founding fathers
of the project, Yulia's work is a proto-construction and it opens up a whole series of events leading to the
birth of Mama Ro.
Yulia is in her room after the renovation. Over time, the word “renovation” in this project will give way
to “construction”, which is more suitable for the intensity of the process. Yulia’s renovation that was at
the origins of Mama Ro, would be called “proto-construction”.
April 12, 2011, Dolgoprudny. Dima while listening to the songs of Milana is completing the development of an
identity for Coltmedia, a company invented by Tolya and Denis. Tolya and Denis rent a workshop on Armenian
Lane from the artist Sasha Povzner and work all day in Kitay-Gorod. They conduct focus groups on how to sell
the online conference to Heineken. On the same day, the day of cosmonautics is celebrated in Russia, and Yulia
invites her former classmate Anton, who helped her, among others, with the construction, to see the exposition
in the Polytechnic Museum in Kitay-Gorod.
Wine drinking ceremony at Kitay-Gorod. Dima and Yulia already know each other. With the idea to shoot a
cartoon, Dima triggers a chain reaction of meetings leading to the birth of the project. In the above
photo: the roofs of Zamoskvorechye from Yulia’s window would become part of the Mama Ro logo.
Dima finishes the layout and comes to Tolya and Denis to present the business cards and a logo. He recommends
the guys to do a short promotional cartoon for Heineken instead of a “boring presentation”, following the
example of Red Bull or Reach Access Plus toothbrush. Tolya recalls that his classmate Anton made a cartoon
with his friend when they were at school. He sends him a short message on a social network platform and,
together with Denis, leaves the Armenian Lane to have lunch in cheburechnaya on Pokrovka. In the same moment,
after leaving the Polytechnic Museum, Julia and Anton come to the cheburechnaya on Pokrovka for lunch.
Familiar from school, but losing touch for several years, Tolya and Anton become friends. The reason was
Dima's work on the identity and promotional materials for Tolya's startup, the Coltmedia company.
Six months later, on the night of October 3, 2011, a fire devastates a local bathhouse in Anton’s village, It
burns in front of his eyes and four hours later it burns down completely. It turned out that it was an issue
of an overheated stove. The bathhouse belonged to a friend of his father, and upon returning to Moscow, Anton
writes a post about the intention to temporarily rent his workshop in Kitay-Gorod. It was imperative to get
the rental money in order to collect and pay 250,000 rubles to the owner of the bathhouse.
Yulia's renovation and guys’ favorite Kitay-Gorod inspired Tolya, Anton, Masha and Zlata to set up
their own workshops here. Tolya and Anton as a striking force. Volodya is missing for the moment as
the guys haven’t met yet.
The arrangement of the first workshop begins with exposing the walls to the "historical" understeer:
nineteenth century bricks and plaster shingles. Yulia (on the left) teaches the guys how to putty
the walls.
Tolya and Anton while cleaning brick walls in Zlata's workshop. Headscarves instead of expensive
respirators.
Masha and Tolya. After cleaning the ceilings from whitewash.
Yulia and Zlata. During painting the walls and ceilings.
After a month of renovation works, the building 11/6 in Maly Ivanovsky Lane (on the left) becomes
the first "anchor" thrown by the guys on Kitay-Gorod. Friends are finishing the arrangement of
workshops. From left to right: Zlata, Masha, Tolya, Anton.
A few months later, Anton's workshop would be sublet as Anton would burn a neighbor's bathhouse in
the village. Volodya becomes the new tenant.
The workshop on Kitay-Gorod, announced by Anton as a sublease, is located in Maliy Ivanovsky Lane in a
pre-revolutionary building near Khitrovskaya Square. Half a year ago, when by some chance the cheburechnaya on
Pokrovka united the guys together, the basement floor was empty in this building. During the work on the
promotional cartoon for Coltmedia, Anton, Tolya, Masha, Yulya, and Zlata begin to be friends and, inspired by
Yulia’s work, they rent and equip their own creative space. During the fire at the bathhouse these, friends
have already rented the entire floor.
The bathhouse burned by Anton. Thanks to the fire, the guys meet Volodya.
October 12, 2011, right here, in Maly Ivanovsky Lane, Anton, Yulia, Roxana, Tolya and Masha drink tea in
Zlata’s workshop and talk about the movie “Rain Man” in relation to the idea of starting their own business
and selling “at least cars”, as did the Tom Cruise’s character. “Aram opened a hostel in Seoul today!” - Anton
suddenly recalls the morning post of a common friend from South Korea. “Exactly, let's open the hostel too!”
says a voice that the group picks up. “Yeah, and let's call him ‘At Mother Roxanne’. The participants of the
conversation don’t remember who exactly said this but the highest probability indicates it was most likely
Zlata. Everybody laughs.
Ro appeared at the origins of the project as imperceptibly as one day she appeared living in New York. With
the organic nature of Roxanne, this was no surprise to anyone. As the rain doesn’t ask when to start and stop,
and the sun to look out or hide, Ro just appeared on the threshold of the boiling construction site of Anton
and Tolya who were covered with a thick layer of construction dust. She was laughing, chirping stories and
disappeared again in the summer day.
Emigrant Ro before the departure of the Odessa-New York steamer. Odessa, 1919.
On one of these days, when Anton, Yulia and Tolya were just finishing up equipping a workshop, Ro brings to
the Maly Ivanovsky her mother. Her mother was a practicing psychologist in finding new space for her work, and
Anton and Tolya helped her rent the last remaining room on the floor. Roxana's mom and the guys become
neighbors.
Meanwhile, in between these dates when Anton watches the bathhouse burn down and returns to Moscow, and Zlata
who for the first time, pronounces the name of the future project over a cup of tea, a week passes. Anton’s
post about the sublet of the workshop space was in great demand, was selected as one of the recommended posts
of the VK (VKontakte – a Russian social network) and pops up in the Volodya’s iPhone somewhere in the
Nikolskaya street. Volodya is not yet familiar with these guys. They have no common friends in the social
network platform.
Workshop after sublet. Volodya rearranges and brings his own taste to the space. Step by step, the guys become friends.
At the same time, Tolya, inspired by the very high conversion of the post about renting a workshop, says to
the guys right away, “jokes aside, right on the knee…” and he takes out a calculator and using the time span
of a summer construction, estimates the possible costs and profits of a “At Roxana’s Mother’s” hostel. Anton
and Zlata develop the idea of the name and are already coming up with a place where to hand a doorbell at
“Roxana’s Mother’s”. Everyone laughs because the nominal name of Roxana's mom who rarely appears on Maly
Ivanovsky. She has imperceptibly settled in everyone’s mind and turned into a muse of the place. The friends
discover a workable economic solution on Tolya’s calculator.
Презентация стартапа “Mother Ро” не поможет привлечь
инвестора, но
сослужит службу: чтобы заниматься ею всерьез, ребята увольняются с работ, не оставляя дороги назад.
Four months later after drinking tea at Zlata’s three giant icebergs broke off from a glacier somewhere in
Antarctica and melted down. One was the size of Greenland, the second – of New York, and the largest – Chistye
Prudy. It’s February in Moscow and the streets are nasty. Anton, Volodya and Tolya are already good friends.
It was Volodya who became the tenant later. They come to the studio to warm up and for the first time they
discuss the presentation of the project “At Roxana’s Mother”. The idea the came as a joke while drinking tea
in the fall, then matured and took a firm place in the minds of the three friends. The project gets its first
breath. In the same evening, its name becomes a laconic "Mama Ro".
Young group of friends in full force. Along with Ro. From left to right: Volodya Nizovtsev, Anton Kozlov, Roxana
Kadyrova, Masha and Tolya Smirnov.
March 23, 2012, Vodootvodny channel. In Yulia’s room, the guys prepare the first illustrations drawn by Uncle
Pasha, Anton's father. He helps son to find an artistic solution for the future presentation of Mama Ro. At
the same time, Uncle Pasha is in the last stages of his life due to his cancer. As always, he manages to
continue jogging and do sports, to joke and to laugh, furthermore, he helps his son and wishes the guys
success. Later, during the exhausting construction works, the great strength of spirit of Uncle Pasha will be
remembered more than once and will serve as an example to these friends.
n May 12, 2012, after several unsuccessful attempts to attract an investor, Tolya, Anton and Volodya, put
aside the completed presentation and start the Mama Ro project on their own. They rent a small space at
Spiridonovskaya, buy plaster, tools and start the very first construction in Mama Ro’s history. Just like
Yulia at the very beginning, and then in Maly Ivanovsky, with their own hands. The guys have almost no money,
they have to scrape and borrow. Dima Trusov, Aydar, Zlata, Yulia and Lena help out. The project only needs to
define a studio format which will be born in the construction process.
May 20, 2012, 2:09AM, immediately after the demolition of the walls. The next day, it would be decided
to leave everything as it is: two spacious studios instead of rooms. At that moment, all subsequent Mama
Ro studios were born.
May 27, 2012, there is a festive table set in the space of the future Studio 1: stacked bags of plaster laid
over each other. There is a navy-style pasta (Russian dish made of cooked pasta mixed with stuffing made of
stewed ground meat), a rice salad with onions, shrimp and eggs, bread and three different ice cream flavors on
the "table". Volodya’s mom, Nadejda Alekseevna, doesn’t allow the comrades to die of hunger. The guys go out
for Coke and forget to buy disposable cutlery, so they will have to improvise with a grinder’s key. It’s
Volodya's birthday.
Masha comes to the guys every day after work to help with the construction work and to feed them.
Volodya is twenty-four, but his parents are still setting the festive table. The birthday boy's mother
prepared and brought food to the construction site. Using the bags of plaster as a table. A tool instead
of cutlery.
The end of June. Sun rays creep along the newly laid, varnished floor of solid pine. Having climbed onto the
window sill, Ro jumps into the space of the future Studio 1. There is a pleasant coolness inside and a summer
afternoon outside. Ro finds a cut-off bottom of a plastic bottle, kneads a viscous white paste in it and
proceeds to do slow and crazy work: a careful chiseling out of the joints in a large wall of glass blocks.
After lunch, Alina comes in through the door and takes the baton from Ro. The day is drawing to a close. Masha
comes from work and sets a dinner for the guys right there on the floor. It’s the first meal of the day. Ro,
Alina, Anton, Volodya and Tolya take a break from work and gather at the “table”. Eating from a floor that is
laid with your own hands seems much tastier. Days are running by fast. Yulia, Masha, Roxana, Zlata, Alina,
sometimes together, or replace each other, appear, support, and help friends. The struggle for the result
acquires a special meaning.
Roxana, Masha, Tolya and Yulia at the festive table. It’s festive
because the girls know how to bring comfort to a construction site with a light hand.
Masha and Roxana. The participation of the girls in the process, from purchasing building materials to painting windows, inspiring guys to overcome the challenges that come with construction.
Alina describes her participation in the tedious, monotonous construction processes with “rest” after being fired from an advertising agency.
The support of Yulia, Masha, Zlata, Alina, Roxana holds a lot of meaning for the friends. As Anton recalls,
“They worked like hell from morning ‘till night, from bell to bell, non-stop and without days off... and all
the work is difficult, in the morning you have to work on your body, otherwise it’s not possible to turn the
arm or leg, it hurts everywhere…the second week, everyone felt it at the same time. I weighed 76 kg before the
construction work, after it - 67! And the guys lost 10 kg each. Well, this five-year plan fit into 60 days was
only possible because the girls saved the men. They would feed us, and since we had no money left at the end,
they would then come and help. And we don’t even ask them for help, somehow we do it all by ourselves. At that
time, I absolutely admired this sensitivity to our needs, and for the first time I realized what heroism is;
when a soul is able to lift and grind everything in its path in spite of any fatigue. With the support of the
girls, we felt like real heroes.”
July 17, 2012, Volodya, Yulia and Anton come to the studios before anyone else. Vartan, who responded to
Volodya’s request to help take photos of the studio, comes next. The interior shooting is scheduled for the
evening. The cleaning and preparation begin. It’s a warm July rain outside. Shooting is the final step in the
construction process, the moment of alienation of the work from the author. In a few hours, the very first two
studios of the project will begin an independent life. Two days later and 69 days from the start of
construction, on July 19, 2012, the Mama Ro project opens its doors for the first time for guests.
July 19, 2012. A little over two months into construction, the first two studios of "Mama Ro at
Patriarch's Ponds" are open. In addition to the invited friends, the guys themselves, as well as Alina (in
the chair), Masha (behind the bar on the right) and Vartan (next to Masha) take part in the photo session.
Picnic at the base of the Kremlin Nabatnaya Tower, immediately after the
opening. One of the achievements as a result of the construction site: the guys lost an average of nine
kilograms each in two months without any money in their pockets. In the photo: Yulia, Anton, Volodya.
On the night of July 24, 2012, Alikhan arrives at Kazansky Railway Station at the high-speed train
Vladikavkaz-Moscow. There are poems and songs in a green suitcase. House Keys, Zippo, Lucky Strike. Alikhan
spent about two years in his small homeland, walking to Massive Attack and Skreamin’ Jay Hawkins across the
foothills of Caucasus, tearing wild flowers and scratching a wind song with a pencil until one day he found
himself on the steps of the train leaving for the plains. The moon has risen. Night came on Earth. Alikhan
lowered the flap putting his face to the stars, lit a cigarette and scooped up a handful of new ideas from the
Universe. The train delivered all its rhythms, squeaked loudly and Alikhan found himself in a Moscow night.
Alikhan calls his friends. He needs to find a place for the night. Anton is on duty at Mama Ro and is occupied
with postponed businesses. Studio 1 is empty tonight. The comrades meet at the Patriarch Pond and walk 84
squares
Here is not the figure of speech, but the figure of the pond itself: the Patriarch Pond in Moscow is
really square in shape.
around the shore, talking life about this and that. It will take another year before their
communication can continue again, but for now Anton leaves Alikhan in the studio and runs off on the last
train in the metro.
Night on Earth. Alikhan over Nazran on the eve of his return to Moscow.
August 5, 2013, Anton Voltman and Nastya Paskute come to Mama Ro at Spiridonovka. Volodya and Anton complete
the cleaning in Studio 2. The three of them alternate in pairs to do the cleaning themselves in the newly
opened studios and today it was their turn. After finishing with the cleaning, the friends gather together and
go from Spiridonovka to the Boulevard Ring, take Yulia with them and head off towards Arbat.
The starting point for Volodya’s friendship with Anton Voltman and Nastya Paskute, as well as with the guys,
was the workshop. Here, even before the start of construction of the first studios, the friends didn’t manage
to build a shower room for a long time. In addition, In the spring of 2012, Volodya rents a room in
Milyutinsky Lane to spend the nights here, unexpectedly, his neighbor, living in the communal apartments,
turns out to be Nastya Paskute. Volodya knows Nastya from school.
The guys become friends and Nastya introduces Volodya to Anton Voltman. One evening, Volodya recalls, when
entering the house on Milyutinsky, “there was an incredibly loud and very infectious laugh in the building...
after a moment I see a funny picture: Nastya looks apologetically at me and then at some curly red-haired and
very skinny guy holding a garbage bag. Considering its size, it was a little less by weight than the guy
himself... Nastya says: Volodya, this is Anton, Anton this is Volodya, my neighbour. The red-haired dude nods
in my direction and, having slightly stumbled, very ridiculously jumps down the stairs hugging a bag... being
already downstairs he fell down but jumped up cheerfully assuring us that he was ok and disappeared in the
doorway...”. It turned out that Anton had deliberately escaped from the party in order to come and help Nastya
take out the construction debris.
Anton Voltman lives in the neighboring Bobrov Lane that is perpendicular to Milyutinsky and the guys become
friends. It turns out that Anton and Volodya are united by a common passion in art: in his room in Bobrov
Lane, Anton creates large abstract panels on the walls in the spirit of the Russian avant-garde. Volodya’s
favorite since childhood El Lissitzky and also Tatlin, Malevich, Kandinsky, Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara
Stepanova, Konstantin Melnikov in Architecture and Dziga Vertov in Cinematography… In stormy discussions, the
friends even start thinking about creating the podcast “Evening Art Talks with Voltman and Nizovtsev ". And
after a while, Volodya learns that Anton is friends with a guy named Egor Egorychev who is writing a book
about the Melnikov’s house
The “The House of the Melnikovs: Konstantin and Victor” book, author Egorychev Egor. The publication is
supported by the “Moscow that doesn’t exist” project, 2012.
. Anton promises to introduce Volodya to Egor eventually.
The technique of perpendicular walls to create an optical illusion will subsequently be applied by Anton
Voltman in the "Suprematist" studio. Photo: Anton in his room in Bobrov Lane.
On August 13, 2012 Anton Voltman introduces the guys to Egor Egorychev.
The interest in meeting Egor Egorychev was thanks to his work. Egor finishes writing a book about
Melnikov's house and with the permission of Konstantin Melnikov's granddaughter, Ekaterina Karinskaya,
conducts tours around the house for friends
Friends come up to Arbat where they are met by a tall thin guy with short hair. He’s in a black t-shirt and
jeans, as everyone will note and remember, and looks kind of similar to the young Tsoi. He firmly shakes
everyone's hand, presents his companion Zhenya and, after lighting a cigarette, invites them into the
labyrinth of Arbat lanes. The guys finally get to know Egor.
The house of the architect Konstantin Melnikov on Krivoarbatsky Lane is a monument of avant-garde architecture
of the early 20th century. To get to this house, in August 2012, is not easy as there is a legal dispute
between the descendants of the architect and the state. In the eyes of his friends, Egor seems almost like
Stalker (a popular Russian character in Russian cinematography) in a world full of the avant-garde. He
approaches the dilapidated gate, opens it, and lets them into the courtyard. Ekaterina Viktorovna comes out of
the house towards them and greets everyone. She is the granddaughter of Konstantin Melnikov. Egor helps her
and supports her in conflict with the authorities. After a short introduction, Ekaterina Viktorovna invites
everyone to the house so that Egor can give them a tour and make some tea.
Melnikov's house consists of two cylinders cut into each other: the first one consists of two floors and the
second one of three. It takes some time to walk through it but the way Egor tells the story of the house, as
well as his excitement about it, stops time outside the house and launches them into a special, big world
where they freely embrace and travel between eras.
The waste-free production, invented by Melnikov, is the process where not a single construction waste truck
was taken out of the house and construction site. There are no additional supporting walls or columns inside
the cylinders. According to the architect's design, the floors, in nine-meter round spans, were assembled in
the form of a membrane from boards which are set on their ends. There are cozy warming details in the
architecture such as, an octagonal window on the west wall which was left by Melnikov due to a slanting beam
that penetrated inside the future living room. There is a huge folding window of two and a half meters in
height turns the living room into a covered terrace in summer. A heater that heats the house through a system
of air ducts hidden within the walls is installed in the foundation of the old building preserved by the
architect who lives in the basement. And from a bird’s eye view, the shape of the house forms an infinity sign
(or a solar eclipse). All these elements together give them a sense of the time, a relativeness, after
visiting the house built in 1929. Thus, begins their friendship with Egor and Zhenya.
By introducing Egor Egorychev, Anton Voltman opens the longest series of meetings and acquaintances to the
project. Thanks to the interior design agency it was subsequently created in Mama Ro.
Two years later, the history of the Konstantin Melnikov’s house in Krivoarbastkiy lane will form the
basis of the Melnikov studio in Mama Ro with the approval of the architect's granddaughter Ekaterina
Karinskaya.
The house of the architect Konstantin Melnikov impresses the guys' imagination through the elegance
of its design and innovative solutions that were unexpected for that time. In the photo: during
summer, the living room of the house turns into a terrace.
From left to right: Zhenya Stakhanova, Egor Egorychev, Anton Kozlov and Nastya Pashkute, on the open
terrace on the roof.
Ascent to the roof with the help of a ladder is the final part of the tour around Melnikov's house.
Anton Voltman and Volodya.
Four months later since August 2012, before the construction of the next studios for Mama Ro. Everything is
done for the first time and takes time including paperwork, contracts with agencies, and registration in
reservation systems. List: to learn to sell two freshly built studios, to advertise in the devilish interfaces
of Yandex Direct and Google AdWords, to resolve failures: with guests, with services, with agents, and even
with gangsters. The latter, as it turned out, also rent studios. And the main objective is to pay back the
debts to the people who believed in the project: Dima, Aydar, Zlata, Yulia, and Lena. When all of this would
be in the past, the next step is to find a place for new studios.
The place that Tolya and Anton found in mid-November 2012 driving around with a pack of agency offers on the
side streets of Moscow. It was a former apartment building built in 1896 at the corner of Ogorodnaya Sloboda
and Gusyatnikov lane, near Chistye Prudy. It was built in the nineteenth century! During the 20th century, as
in other parts of the USSR, there existed communal apartments (an apartment shared between several unknown
people or families). At the beginning of the 21st century there were many communal apartments that were in
awful states. Leaking roofs, rotten floors, exposed walls under crumbling plaster shingles. And three-meter
tall ceilings. The friends meet the property agent, climb the wide flights of stairs to the third floor and
roam enchantedly under the pre-revolutionary stucco molding that has been preserved in some places. This place
is something they couldn’t have even dreamed of.
A week later, it turns out that the place has been sold. A certain merchant bought the queue and made an
advance payment for the first month. That was something that the friends couldn’t do as they were collecting
the required amount all week. In short, they didn’t make it in time. The planet will take another 31
revolutions around its axis before the unoccupied mansion of the 19th century somewhere in Moscow suddenly
returns to the friends. During this time, the guys ride around the city, visit new places, choose and draw
layouts, and get agreements on loans. Until one day, it turns out, that the certain merchant doesn’t pay the
rent.
The toponym "Chistye Prudy" (“Clean Ponds”), applied to this part of historical Moscow, does not officially
exist. However, this name following the example of “Mama Ro at Patriarch's Ponds” is included in the name of the
new Mama Ro, and later in the internal folklore of the project. It is also interesting to notice that there is
only one pond at the Patriarch's as well as at Chistye Prudy.
January 13, 2013, the mansion in Gusyatnikov lane. This is the start of the second construction. It’s winter.
It’s cold and it’s snowing. Tolya, with a perforator, lies on the edge of the roof with his feet resting
against the base of the almost completely disassembled (by him) chimney. There is a demolition of emergency
furnaces currently going on. Downstairs we see someone's car and next to it a building of three floors. The
mortar in the pipe is old and the bricks can be removed with a kick. If you accidentally walk out on such a
surface, in this case, even a fence at the edge of the slope will not help, as someone took it off for an
unknown reason. “It's time to get down” - Tolya decides to make a safety harness, when suddenly someone passes
a hand under his back. Pasha, looking out of the dormer window, grabbed Tolya by the belt. Pasha's height
(under two meters) and the scope of his arms are just long enough to secure Tolya as he finishes with the
chimney.
It’s hard not to notice Pasha at the construction site. Pasha is the tallest one among the workers, who on
January 3, 2013 were brought by a foreman recommended by Zlata, to the construction site at Gusyatnikov. In
fact, the acquaintance begins at the very beginning of the construction at two o’clock in the morning. A
10-ton MAZ car loaded with foam blocks just arrived in the yard. Tolya has to wake up the hard workers to go
unload the car. There are no conveniences at the construction site, the guys are sleeping right on the floor
close to the heater. It’s frosty outside.
“And so,” Tolya recalls, “you go up, open the door and you see this picture: it's dark, everyone is more or
less settled down, sleeping. And only Pasha, with his height, when pulls the blanket up to his head – his legs
become exposed. And when he pulls it down – vice versa. The poor fellow isn’t sleeping. But there is nothing
to do, get up, guys, - you say - the MAZ has come! Let’s go to unload... and there is silence in response! And
only the cheerful voice of Pasha in the dark: ‘Well, hello to you, dear’”. Ironically as the construction goes
on, Tolya would repeatedly pay attention and appreciate his permanent involvement in all processes and would
become a good companion to Pasha.
Volodya on the roof of the mansion in the first month of construction in January. The slow,
painstaking renovation of the building starts from top to bottom. In the first year, the guys only
rent the third floor.
Before restoration. Mama Ro’s facade in the first year of operation.
Mama Ro’s front after restoration. 2017.
Back door. Before renovation in 2013 and a year and a half later.
One of the many Mama Ro sketches for the renovation of the main entrance, and the look after its
renovation in 2017.
One can easily guess the influence of the Art Nouveau style in the elements of the decor of the
mansion. It was built in 1896 as a typical apartment building. One of the Mama Ro’s options for
renovating the front door was to restore it back to the historical look. The photo on the right
shows the front entrance after its renovation.
Pasha at a characteristic moment of interaction with Tolya. Installation of the air conditioners.
One of many Mama Ro's sketches for the upcoming restoration of the mansion's front.
January is coming to an end. The construction of the six new studios is in full swing. Volodya, Tolya, Anton,
in pairs, clean and take turns in settling guests in the first two studios. It’s the low season, winter, and,
in particular, the hardest selling month of the year which makes the friends fight for each and every client.
Either way, the project results in 100% occupancy for January as the studios are built with enthusiasm and
love, and guests pay back with their positive reviews. The ideas that hang in the air stayed in their memory
was left in the studio by the guys during the first construction. The inspiration from the visit of the
Melnikov House and meeting the talented workers: all these give a birth to a new leitmotif to the development
of the Mama Ro studio format. Next.
The internal name of the multimedia center and dock stations is in the 3rd-8th studios.
at the behest of the heart.
This is how he would respond to the request of Yulia to realize their idea: "This is the real work - for the
heart." It would take some time to convince Valery Fedorovich to take payment for the work done. A wood
master, a geologist and a poet, he believes that working with wood is not a craft but a way to bring the warm,
tactile sensations of interaction with natural material to the world’s big cities. Anton asks Yulia to
introduce them to Valery Fedorovich who teaches children sculptural carving in an orphanage where Julia works
as a volunteer. And already on February 14, 2013, somewhere in the snowy woods in the Mikhnevo village near
Moscow, Valery Fedorovich, Yulia and Anton, after eating boiled pearl barley, cut a dry pine using a
two-handed saw.
Start of work on the log bridges. Valery Fedorovich approaches the process without unnecessary preludes, “If we
need to do it, then we take a saw and go into the forest.”
Valery Fyodorovich explains that the brick of 1896, revealed and sandblasted
Sandblasting is a method of cleaning the surface of paint, old plaster, etc. by supplying a jet of air
with sand under high pressure.
in the new studios, was like swinging the pendulum back to the 20th century. Since people
who live in cities gradually evade interaction with nature, they now unconsciously seek to get it back: if not
a crust of Borodinsky bread
A variety of rye bread with caraway seeds that is widespread in Russia.
, the texture of the baked clay in the picturesque cracks on the old brick, then the brick reminds one
of the clay utensils in an ancient dwelling. Hence the global trend of people in large cities creating lofts
in former factories.
The idea of the log bridge also came from the same source: the delight of the combination of two natural
textures, wood and baked clay, originates from the workshop in Maliy Ivanovsky lane where even before the
project was born, Anton and Volodya, having purchased a pine timber for the rack, invented the second level in
their workshop with a non-cylindrical log
A log that hasn’t undergone factory processing with a milling cutter in order to obtain the same
diameter along the entire length.
.
Later on, after meeting Valery Fedorovich, for Anton, this line would result in the creation of the “Moscow”
studio and then the “Pine” studio, so Volodya’s acquaintance with Anton Voltman would one day lead to the
creation of the “Suprematist” and then the “Melnikov” studio. Ideas wait for their masters.
Log bridge is a docking station and multimedia center for six new Mama Ro studios.
Working on a log bridge together with a bark beetle is part of Valery Fedorovich's aesthetic vision.
According to him, what nature always offers is best. The result: a bizarre pattern “drawn” by a bark beetle
that had spent winter on a dead pine tree, and was left untouched on all the log bridges.
The search does not last long; Valery Fedorovich calls the forest his second
home and easily navigates it. They found what they were looking for, sharpened it with a saw, and a dead
pine tree crashed into the frosty snow. There are several months of handmade work ahead.
In early February, Anton and Yulia arrive by train in the city of Maloyaroslavets, 120 kilometers from Moscow.
The blue sky, February arrives, and two jackdaws sit on the statue of the hero who fought the war with
Napoleon. Having strayed a little, the friends finally find themselves in front of the gates of the St.
Nicholas Chernoostrovsky monastery. Sister Rafaila meets them and takes them for a small tour of the
monastery; It was only yesterday that they didn’t know each other. For the creation of a Byzantine mosaic,
Volodya had recommended Anton a store with stained glass at the Botanical Garden and here Julia met sister
Rafaila.
It turned out that the nuns who were choosing the glass in the store had already worked out the technology
invented by the guys, and instead of smalt
Deep blue coloured glass prepared by including a cobalt compound, typically cobalt oxide or cobalt
carbonate, in a glass melt. Used for making mosaics.
they were already using colored glass in the mosaic somewhere in the Moscow region. Suddenly, sister Rafaila
stops the guys and whispers to them the story of the mother who had just passed by the temple: the mother had
stopped walking due to cancer, when suddenly, to the surprise of the doctors, the cancer unexpectedly passed
in its final stages.
Finally, the friends are invited to the workshop and the nuns show them how the mosaics are made with the
stained glass. This technology saves money, but Anton is not sure that it is aesthetically justified, so the
acquaintance with sister Rafaela seems to be a kind of miracle too: they were at the right time and in the
right place, and without starting the complicated expensive process got an opportunity to see how to achieve
their desired results. For this, Anton and Julia have come to the monastery.
The idea to inlay a Byzantine mosaic on brick had also come from a workshop in Maly Ivanovsky. Like the idea
of clearing brick walls from plaster, proposed by Yulia in June 2011. The friends partially beat off the brick
from the plaster and were fascinated by the aesthetics of the fragments of stucco moulding that had survived
under the ceiling: “It would be great to leave it here under the lacquer”. “And also to intersperse it with a
couple of fragments of a torn mosaic, like a relic of a bygone era. Just like the mosaic in Hagia Sophia which
survived under the Ottoman plaster.” The only difference this time would be that the guys would have to
realize the idea themselves.
Zlata helps to assemble the “sea” part of the mosaic and brings friends (in the background: Zlata's
friend Volodya Nikolaev). Despite the participation of workers, the work on the mosaic will turn
into a "Tom Sawyer" project over time. During the next stages of the work there will come friends
invited by friends of friends.
Turdibek, Elaman and Elnura after fixing the first mosaic fragment on the wall.
Reinsurance: Yulia supports a fragment of the mosaic from breaking during its transfer to the wall. The panel was assembled on an elastic cement composition, but every single participant in the process assembled the mosaic for the first time.
The main part of the panel is on the wall! Yulia, Anton, Sharif, (name lost), Elaman, Marsel, Elnura, (name lost), Turdibek.
According to the studio legend, Sharif is the worker who discovered the mosaic under the old plaster.
Assembling process.
Assembling process.
Assembling process.
Assembling process.
Turdibek is one of the workers working at the construction, but will go down in the history of the project
primarily as a master of fine jewelry work on mosaics. In the photo above: Yulia in the painstaking
process.
The friends return to Moscow, buy a test piece of the stained glass and take it to the glass workshop to try
to reduce the gloss with the help of a sandblasting tool. The sisters' mosaic is perfect except the glossy,
“glassy” glitter that gives off the imitation. In the meantime, as a replacement for the golden smalt, Volodya
has the idea of covering the glass with a metal leaf. The friends make the first test, then take the
sandblasted fragment from the glass workshop and get a fully formed puzzle - a real mosaic: the “golden” smalt
is different only by using the metal leaf, while the sandblasted colored glass is almost identical to the real
smalt by its texture. The friends share the advanced technology with the sisters of St. Nicholas Monastery.
In the beginning of April 2013, two months later, the last fragment of a seven-meter panel takes its place on
the studio wall: Anton, Yulia, Elnura, Elaman, Marcel, Sharif, Turdibek and others gently lift up the plate of
the Byzantine mosaic, slowly as not to break it, turn it over on its’ edge and put it in glue. The two months
of work are over. Turdibek, the only master of fine jewelry on the team, would need about a week to finish
everything, namely, to patch up the crumbling areas and to combine the alternately applied fragments into a
single mosaic panel. At the same time, in the future “Suprematist” studio, Anton Voltman completes the work on
the avant-garde wall composition while Valery Fedorovich finishes the production of a log-TV
The internal name of the projection screen in the Old Moscow studio (formerly “Moscow”). More
information about it in the studio legend.
in the interior that would later become the “Moscow” studio.
Comparison of similarities during the mosaic
assembly. The mosaic is conceived as "neopastoral" which is a poetic representation of the Golden Age of Mama
Ro, formed in the project during the construction of the first two studios. The guys "plough" (in the literal
pastoral and figurative senses), the girls bring comfort. In the photos from left to right: Yulia (she’s cooking
on the mosaic), Roxana (playing the shepherd's flute), Zlata (seeing the guys off to the work), Masha (in charge
of sea navigation), Volodya, Tolya, Anton are in several scenes at the same time.
Kostya appears on the threshold of the construction site during its final chords. Tolya turns to Denis and
Denis recommends this woodworker named Kostya. In the process of the construction, one of the workers
accidentally sandblasted the old door revealing the beauty of the wooden texture
When treating wood with an air jet with sand under high pressure, the soft fibers of the wood are
squeezed out, emphasizing the texture of the tree rings.
under the layers of paint. And the friends decided to keep all the doors for the time being removing
from each the paint in exactly the same way. The time comes either to throw them away or to find a master
capable to make a worker's mistake into a work of art.
Kostya agrees to take up the challenge together with his friend. One day, they come up with an idea to use
brass as a decorative element that would complement the texture of the wood and mask any of the flaws such as
the holes from the squeezed out knots from sandblasting and the old tie-ins from the locks. The work starts to
pick up momentum. The woodworker and restorer in great form, Kostya turns out to be a real artist and a
talented actor. "I was amazed by the incredible theatricality of Kostya’s actions... a moving picture in the
French studio: materials flying across the entire room - sparks, smoke - combined with the rays of the sun
cutting diagonals of volume and resting against freshly plastered walls that resemble an ancient temple, and
two titans taming a strange golden beast…," Volodya recalls the work of the guys with brass. Later, when
Volodya would propose Kostya to create the original furniture for the Bauhaus studio, Kostya’s talent to turn
any craft into a show will surprise the friends on many more occasions.
Kostya is a professional carpenter and restorer. In the beginning, he’s in charge of repairing old doors
in new studios, but very quickly becomes the soul of the company (even though it happens at the very end
of the construction).
Kostya’s look and artistry remind the guys of the character performed by young Oleg Dahl in the film
"Chronicle of a Dive Bomber". Yevgeni Sobolevski was a gallant pilot, ringleader and merry fellow. In the
gif above: Kostya sings.
The second construction is coming to an end. The woodworkers put the studio doors on hinges, Anton throws out
all the unnecessary things in the trash container from the window of the third floor, and Tolya, cursing, runs
to get back everything he needs. Sasha Povzner, Denis' friend, gives Tolya the contact information of
Aidzharkyn for studio cleaning. Throughout the time span of August 2012 to April 2013 the friends still go to
Spiridonovka to clean the first two studios on their own, and Tolya, looking at the thrill with which Anton
and Volodya straighten the wrinkles when making the bed is worried that with the growth of the company and
delegation of duties all this would be neglected. Aidzharkyn first comes to the construction site with his
sister Mahabat and the guys realize that Tolya's fears were not justified. The long work process begins and so
does the new friendship of Aidzharkyn and Makhabat with the guys.
April 26, 2013, the six new studios of Mama Ro open their doors. Anton and Tolya shave off their four-month
grown beards. Volodya asks Vartan for his help again with a photo session of the interiors. The studios,
starting from the third to the eighth, receive their unique names (the creation of the Byzantine mosaic
influenced the development of this project). During the construction, the “Studio-Legend” format was born for
the first time in Mama Ro: the thematic studios and their stories - the legend. The initial plan of the mosaic
assumed only the mythologization of the project. Following the mosaic (and more precisely the “Byzantine”
studio), the other studios receive their names as well such as “Chinese”, “French”, “Suprematist”, and
“Moscow”.
Together with two months of work (to manage 10 to 20 people work on the mosaic at the same time requires
managerial and organizational skills) the format of a creative workshop is born for the first time in the
project. Subsequently, this experience will lead to the creation of more complex Mama Ro original studios,
such as “Pine”, “Stone” and “Bauhaus”. Studio 7 only remains as the one without a unique name for the time
being. The friends calculate the serial number through the Coriolis force
Fictitious force (inertia) due to the rotation of the Earth, under the influence of which the air flows
in the Northern Hemisphere spin counterclockwise.
for the Northern Hemisphere and by having drawn a spiral counterclockwise between studios in Moscow.
Twelve and a half square meters. This is the exact size of the first working space after the end of the
second construction project. This seems to be more than enough, as during the first year the work was
carried out either from home or at a table in a cafe, or in the middle of a construction site.
Along with the appearance of the working space in Mama Ro, there is also the first place for communication
which is a smoking room. It serves a back entrance of a pre-revolutionary mansion, with an attic window
and comfortable deep window sills. This spot would take place in the hearts of all project participants.
Spring. Chistye Prudy. The very first Mama Ro’s managers’ room is on the third floor. For the time being, the
wooden, freshly painted doors are wide open on April 27, 2013 - it is no longer cold and you can keep them
open even for a whole day. Inside the room are the first guests of the newly opened studios. “They chose the
‘French’ one,” Tolya says, “Nastya, do you need help?” Nastya had already taken the guests to the studio after
having them sign the contract with her. And she replies, echoing from somewhere in the corridor, “No, no, I
want to do it myself, I can manage,” and disappears again in a whirlwind to the “French" studio.
Tolya is familiar with Nastya thanks to his mother’s drama studio where he worked from the age of twelve and
believes that you will not find a more sensitive and involved person. This whole year before the opening of
the new studios Anton has been responding to letters from guests, polishing the booking grid and has been
skeptical about the transfer of duties between them. “In our project, at the first construction site, Tolya
came up with the nicknames of the whole trinity: he is a socialist, Volodya is a capitalist, and I am an
autist. I leave with my head stuck in some process and I don’t see the light until I bring order there. So,
the same happened with Nastya: the system didn’t have time to settle down due to the face that our project
had, not just two, but eight studios. It’s very hard to delegate something imperfect. But everyone understood
that it was time for the team to grow.”
The client is not always right. But the client can always be “non-guilty” as we say in Russia. The matter
obviously depends on the depth and wisdom of the observer. A guest quarreled with someone one minute, couldn’t
find their way to Mama Ro the first time, had a large request or a very heavy suitcase; and there is no dogma
in the world that could help solve these problems, especially since the three project founders are socialist,
autist, and (even!) capitalist. Nastya begins to work with the guys, going into everything easily and
playfully and brings the project a special gift that not only the clients didn’t have, but also the guys
themselves – wisdom.
With the expansion of the project, there is a young star that begins its ascent in Mama Ro’s sky. Nastya joins
the project.
May 23, 2013, Pasha gets behind the wheel of a Rover, sets out and drives off without a rear window: a huge
stump in the trunk smashes the window on the asphalt from acceleration. Tolya found this stump beautiful and
could not pass it by. Pasha continues to work with the guys: they adapted an old seven-seater Rover, bought in
January for the construction and for transfers to the airport. Guests would have to ride with the wind for
some time.
On June 18, 2013, somewhere in the hinterland village, Sasha finalizes sixteen sample letters for Mama Ro in
HTML format, compresses them into a zip-file and sends them thousands of kilometers to Chistye Prudy. Yulia
found Sasha's contact information from someone her friends knew at the Big Cartoon Festival. No one really
knows where Sasha works from but they say that it’s somewhere in Siberia - a hermit programmer living in a
hut. He’s kind, polite, intelligent. The guys first meet Sasha and ask for help with the layout of the typical
HTML-letters for Mama Ro's guests.
The Chistoye village from where Sasha works, at first doesn’t have a strong geographical reference. They
say it’s somewhere in Siberia. Three years later, work on the first full-format Mama Ro website would
begin here.
Sasha is a professional musician and part-time programmer.
June 30, 2013, Nastya, Anton and Alikhan go up to the smoking room, taking with them a pack of Hergé’s comics
about Tintin. “The Adventures of Tintin” is Alikhan’s favorite childhood comic book. After the opening of the
new studios it had become mandatory in Mama Ro to say the Mama Ro studio library is a collection of wonderful
books "from Hergé to Abba Dorotheus" due to the fact that the guys collected the books from their own
libraries for first two studios. Thankfully, the courier has finally delivered a batch of comics from Paris
for the English-speaking clients of Mama Ro.
Alikhan is looking through the comics one by one with pleasure, the guys are telling him about the new saying,
and Alikhan's imagination immediately begins forming an idea of how to illustrate this. The bright spot
scattered on the table here would form the base. Alikhan is taking the panorama of the “Chinese” studio with
him and disappears again for several months.
July 19, 2013, Volodya, Tolya, Anton, Nastya, Yulia and Pasha approach the Kremlin walls and set up a picnic
under the Nabatnaya Tower. They do it on the same hill as one year ago right after the end of the first
construction. That day Yulia brought cheese, fruit and half a bottle of rum to the studios at Spiridonovka
street, and the guys went to celebrate its opening on Red Square. They spontaneously chose the hill with the
best view of St. Basil's Cathedral. While the FSB (The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation) is
sleeping, the picnic at the base of the Nabatnaya Tower becomes tradition. Mama Ro is now one year old.
Alikhan finds a way to illustrate Mama Ro's love for books and together with the "Chinese" studio,
integrates Tolya, Pasha, Nastya, Anton and Volodya into comics about Tintin.
Alikhan's appearance is not connected with any work. Alikhan writes poems, plays the guitar and gushes
with ideas. This is what would ultimately lead him to create a panorama with Mama Ro and Tintin. And after
a while it would lead to his grandiose dream about Tintin and Mama Ro.
The comic book about Tintin and Mama Ro, conceived by Alikhan in 2014 based on his own dream, won’t see
the light of day. Only the plot with several illustrations would remain.
July 23, 2013 Dima arrives at 3:40PM (15:40) at Chistye Prudy. The friends bought bikes for Mama Ro and want
to develop their own cycling routes for guests. Yulia doesn’t have time to help with the layout and Anton
decides to ask for help from the founder of the Kompot design studio, the same person who developed the
identity for Coltmedia two years ago, Dima. The negotiation is ahead: the first two Mama Ro studios have been
operating for a year and four days and, since January, they have started making a small profit, but even with
Anton’s personal money it is barely enough to finally cover the costs of the burnt bathhouse. Up to this point
everything was done in a traditional manner with help and mutual assistance of others.
At this moment Zlata comes to the managers room to have some tea. Together the guys take a small tour of Mama
Ro and show Dima the free "French" and "Moscow" studios. In the beginning, when creating the workshops in the
Maly Ivanovsky, Dima managed to make his own contribution by puttying the walls and now, in contrast with the
how he left the studio, he notes a qualitative growth. “Dima’s opinion at this meeting is of great importance
for me,” says Anton, “Dima is talented and still has a designer’s halo around him...”.
The friends agree on a rough layout for the future cycling routes and Dima thinks about the price. “I don't
know,” Anton recalls, “why he agreed but I really wanted him to take it. Even if he would ask for an
exorbitant price.” Finally, having agreed on a nominal fee under the unexpected Zlata’s "tha-a-at’s expensive"
remark, Anton and Dima shake hands and the project begins to generate its own graphic design for the first
time. Over time, the relationship with Dima would lead to the beginning of the development of Mama Ro’s own
website.
The bike route prepared by Dima in the layout will become the basis for a short promotional video. Guests
like Mama Ro, and the guys try to include the most interesting places in historical Moscow in it by
inviting them for a ride.
Having participated in the origins of the project, Dima appears on the threshold of Mama Ro only two years
later. The work on the layout of the bike route begins. As it turns out, at that moment he was only one
month away from the meeting with Alikhan, Milana's songwriter. This would happen six months later.
On September 10, 2013, Tolya, Volodya and Anton come out by the side streets to New Arbat and, heading towards
the Kremlin, discuss the meeting that just took place. The owner of the mansion, having visited Mama Ro
studios incognito, was impressed and wanted to meet the guys. As a result of the meeting, it becomes clear
that starting from the new year they could rent the entire building. The new third construction is now ahead.
September 14, 2013, bits and bytes from North Palmyra come via the fiber optic cable to Chistye Prudy: a
low-res graphic route from the metro to Mama Ro. Before sending the image in high resolution the artist Nastya
Timofeyeva, who drew the picture, asks to transfer the second part of the payment. Payment bits and bytes go
back. Nastya is as old as the guys but the acquaintance begins with the respectful Russian formal tense of
“You” and want to be reinsured with the payment that the work done isn’t done in vain. Again, bits and bytes
come from Petersburg but this time with the high-resolution image which is immediately redirected (either to
Siberia or to the ends of the earth) to Sasha’s hut for the lay-out work. Nastya finishes drawing a route for
the HTML letters.
Nastya, who has never been to Moscow, begins the work (that has already been done before her) from scratch:
the guys got this contact from the previous artist (and Mama Ro guest) who did not have time to complete the
work on the route. As it turned out it was a happy occasion: the first result that comes from St. Petersburg
is perfect. Over time the guys would realize more than one project together with Nastya: Nastya would visit
Moscow for the first time and then later many more times, becoming a good friend with the guys. It would
become an easy matter to take “Sapsan” train for a Sunday party at Mama Ro or Nastya’s exhibition in Saint
Petersburg. But for now, that’s all in the future.
Pasha becomes the foreman of the third construction and hires young, talented guys from his native
Luhansk. From left to right: Pasha, Zhenya Marchenkov (aka Bruce Willis, aka Zheka), Tolya.
Tolya and Pasha. Development of documentation for strengthening the floors and ceilings of the
mansion.
Tolya and Zhenya. After the reinforcement stage is over, the lathing installation for the new floors will begin.
The pre-revolutionary "Postcard", found during the opening of the floors at the beginning of the third
construction, said that at the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a tenement house in the Mama
Ro mansion. Later it was lost again along with its decorative frame where the card had been placed in it.
On November 18, 2013, in the small wing of the second floor, Tolya and Pasha set up headquarters. They stretch
a sheet on top of the Soviet wallpaper of the old communal apartment, set up the projector, shift the tables
and lay out the mansion’s drawings. The small wing is empty; the previous owners have just moved out and the
guys get the opportunity to start earlier. They display the estimate of the upcoming construction. The start
date is December 1, 2013.
The end of 2013. Anton, Dima and Nastya come out of the cinema, get in the Rover and ride around Moscow
listening to the music of Milana. The third construction has already been underway for a month but Alikhan and
Dima still haven’t met each other due to the fact that while the old partitions are being scrapped, Alikhan
rarely appears at Chistye Prudy. Dima is starting to work on a project magazine, Alikhan, shortly before this,
agrees to come up with a video for Mama Ro about the creation of the new studios. The song “Dance” begins to
play in the salon, it’s Dima's favorite track of Milana: “When I first heard this song in 2010, I asked
myself: What is this passion, what would this performer be like in a live performance, and if I meet him what
would he say to me?" The song is sung by the voice of Alikhan, the author of the text and the founder of the
Milana band.
In 2007, a high school graduate Alikhan Albakov, together with four classmates, conceives the rock group called
Milana. The band quickly becomes popular on social networks. Thanks to the first tracks, the guys find
themselves on the stages of the cult clubs of the capital. In its second year of live performances, Milana gets
contacted by a major music label. But suddenly the group breaks up. Alikhan goes offline and for several years
leaves to his small homeland, leaving a large audience with a discography of twenty tracks... among whose
listeners are Dima and Anton who are not yet familiar with each other. They both like the same Milana songs.
Both first learned about the group through the "Dance" track. The only difference is that Anton, having learned
the name of the singer, was amazed to find that they had known each other from school.
Together with the start of the third construction, Mama Ro’s Rover becomes a mobile dance floor: there is
no personal time left again. They listen to everything here. Most often songs by Milana. Despite the
protests of Alikhan himself.
The poster layout drawn by Alikhan for one of the Milana concerts.
Dima, the descendant of Don Cossacks, refers to himself as a "southern type of people," implying that not
a single emotion "can linger inside." Everything should be wide open. Therefore, trips to the music of
Milana go like this.
On January 2, 2014, Tolya and Pasha pour out the concrete from MAZ car that arrived under the windows of Mama
Ro. The work on the reinforcement of the building begins. Just before the start of construction of the six new
studios, MoszhilNIIproekt (an organization that specializes on the building layouts, reconstructions) examined
the floors of the house and concluded that in Moscow “at the intersection of Gusyatnikov lane and Ogorodnaya
sloboda, there was a fossilized Leviathan skeleton”. For almost 120 years of existence, steel beams in the
ceilings of the mansion took on the shape of a whale’s ribs. Four formwork molds are waiting for their filling
in the basement to become the new reinforced columns.
The concrete M-300 with granite rubble sets for about 40 minutes. During this time, Tolya and Pasha need to
pour it on all in the formwork molds while fixing them on top of it the steel platforms (before they stop
sinking in the solution). The weight of one platform, with the size of thirty by thirty and a thickness of two
centimeters, like a weightlifting plate but instead with weight of fifteen kilograms of pure steel. The most
difficult part is for Pasha: leveling each platform perfectly (a column will rise from it up through the
floors and must stand strictly vertical on the platform).
Pasha is a professional engineer. At first, he takes over most of the “main” work. Later, the gas cutter
will pass into Zheka’s hands.
“The unit for supporting the struts on a reinforced concrete belt”,
assembled in the basement of the mansion, is the base on which Mama Ro stands today, the second foundation
that the guys have yet to lay. After all the work, a steel three-story skeleton of columns and I-beams
would be installed on it.
On the night of January 5, 2014, Tolya and Pasha lift the first column with a mobile crane and pass it through
the window of the second floor. Inside Zheka, uncle Serezha, Misha and the other male-builders take it and,
having tied it with ropes, gently lower it down through the floors with the butt on the platform. The first of
the five fortification columns are installed. There is welding work ahead: around the base of the column, a
special load distribution pyramid is assembled and scalded at the seams. The next task is to do the
defectological checks, acts of compliance with technology. Only a certified welder can weld fortifications
respecting GOST standards (a set of technical standards maintained by the Euro-Asian Council for
Standardization, Metrology and Certification (EASC)) 5264-80 and 9467-75.
January 8, 2014, Tolya, Pasha, Uncle Seryozha, Misha, Volodya, Anton and other guys lift and hold ropes in
their hands and curse as the first beam, a 30-centimeter unloading ceiling I-beam, is pulled and installed in
a four-meter well between the columns. What remains is to figure out how to throw the beam onto the shelves
and under the ceiling with the knowledge that the weight of the beam is about 300 kilograms. In the courtyard,
there are another 48 meters of I-beams waiting for their turn; Zheka is cutting steel with a gas cutter
listening to the NoGGano “Insure” (НоГГано «Застрахуй») track.
Zheka at the moment of installing an I-beam on a shelf. The Mama Ro's ridge (the three-story columns of
two welded channels) is ready. It remains only as a means to unload the ceiling with transverse beams.
You need to be eight to pass Zheka one I-beam. Then, the strapping, the transition from the floor above
and the beam pulling under the ceiling to the shelf. Tolya is in the center of the photo, Anton is on the
right. In the photo above: Zheka cuts an I-beam with a gas cutter.
By mid-January 2014, Tolya develops pyrophobia: in order to bring four cylinders with oxygen and acetylene for
a gas cutter from the warehouse in Mytishchi, he and Pasha carefully degrease the Rover's interior with gauze
rags - God forbid they jerk around from any contact with oil. Shortly before Tolya brought a whole trunk of
five-liter oil bottles on the Rover (Valery Fedorovich decided to expel moisture from the pine saw cuts by
heating them in a 100-liter barrel with vegetable oil). In the courtyard of Mama Ro, Tolya and Pasha unload
the Rover, prudently bringing the cylinders to a separate floor.
In the basement of the mansion there are three pines sawed in two on the sawmill, round cuts with tree rings,
and sanded branches folded to dry. Valery Fedorovich accepted the offer of Anton to work on the “Pine” studio.
“I think it was before the New Year, on December 26, 2013, Valery Fedorovich and Tolya went 350 kilometers
into the forest and returned with two trailers loaded with pine. “I will never forget the face of Valery
Fedorovich when we walked around the forest and chose pines for the studio. I could not understand which of
one us was younger: strong and energetic, he had time to participate in all processes. And then he would find
me and oh-so fervently pushing his shoulder, ask something conspiratorially just like a child! And he was so
happy about everything,” recalls Anton.
Valery Fedorovich agrees to work again with the guys. The purpose was to take a little curved space
for Mama Ro from a pine forest. Nothing more than an evolution of last year's work on the "Moscow"
studio. Only this time it’s more challenging.
Valery Fedorovich believes that each type of wood transfers its energy to the product. The guys
believe that Valery Fedorovich's pine chairs are similar to the “Van Gogh chairs”.
Valery Fedorovich would preserve the natural pattern of pine branches for book stands.
Five tons of timber arrive in Moscow. Valery Fedorovich, Tolya and Anton
rent a trailer and bring pine trees from Novgorod on the Rover. Top photo: drawings by Valery Fedorovich.
Future pine furniture.
On the morning of January 23, 2014, under the windows of Mama Ro there are four granite boulders. Next to them
is the canvas boaster
A tool used by sculptors for stone cutting. Professional masters use from 10 and more scarps in their
work.
. Valery Fedorovich goes out into the courtyard and watches with interest Uncle Sasha’s almost
ritual-like preparation for work. On the eve of the night, Volodya and Anton brought and loaded the boulders
with a manipulator and Volodya asked his father to come in to look at the amount of work to see if he could
help with the manufacturing of a megalithic bed
Megaliths are structures from stone blocks of the Neolithic era, collected by the ancient peoples of the
North: from England (Stonehenge) to Russia (Karelian labyrinths).
for the “Stone” studio. Uncle Sasha arrives and, for the first time, meets Anton and Valery Fedorovich.
The ready to work set of boasters promotes an unconditional willingness to help the friends of his son.
All of the boasters in Uncle Sasha's set are made of the cemented carbide alloy
Wear-resistant alloy made up of 90% tungsten carbide, used in work with hard materials.
by his own order. He studied to be a metallurgist but for the last thirty years he has been working as
an engraving artist. Stone is his real passion. Just like in the case of the geologist, Valery Fyodorovich.
While Uncle Sasha cuts off the excess from the granite boulders, in a half split-up, outside in the cold, Mama
Ro begins to form a friendship between two master titans who create the “Pine” and “Stone” studios.
Stone edits. Uncle Sasha transfers the already started hole for the lamp to the other side of the
boulder. The melting temperature of granite is “only 1300 degrees,” and the guys working with the
gas-cutter are just in the right moment: “Take it easy, so that it doesn't get blown away,” says
Uncle Sasha, meaning that the temperature of the acetylene and oxygen flame is twice as high and
will melt the stone almost instantly.
Uncle Sasha adores prehistoric petroglyphs. He takes “for experiment” one of the stone slabs for a
rock painting in the Stone studio. The result will decorate the interior on a par with the
“megalithic bed”; the boulders bed.
Uncle Sasha after working with a stone.
The weight of one stone is a quarter of a ton. Young friends come to help realize in life the "sketch" of
the future bed of boulders. There is a two-month work ahead before the prepared boulders find themselves
on the second floor. In the bottom photo: Anton on a snow-white featherbed.
For the first time, Egor Ognerubov comes to Chistye Prudy on January 30, 2014. Some guys specialized in
assembling watches from Soviet indicator lamps, and after some persuasion agreed to share the contact of their
electronic engineer with Volodya. And they were recommended to Volodya through a contextual advertising
agency. Egor enters the managers’ room and without taking off his backpack, holding his back to the wall,
demonstrates his contactless radio sensor to the guys: he places a cobblestone on the table for the “Stone”
studio and turns it into a switch. All you need to do is hold your palm up. There are plenty of
radio-electronic ideas in the golden head of Egor.
The end of January 2014. The fortification reaches the third floor and one of the columns fits exactly through
the wall of the future shower room in the “Pine” studio. Nadia is just completing work on the 3D model of the
pine crowns and begins to think out loud what to do with the column
Имеется ввиду одна из трехэтажных колонн усиления особняка, прошедшая точно по границе душевой в
студии
“Сосновая” (отмечена голубым).
Initially the shower partitions were planned to entirely of glass, but the reinforcement plan of the
mansion makes need for its own adjustments. Nadia is the first 3D modeler working on the project and helps the
guys visualize the “Stone”, “Pine”, “Bauhaus” and “Melnikov” studios. A year ago, one of the participants
during the mosaic assembly laid out a “Tom Sawyer” type of post which included an invitation to join the
process and Nadia was the one stranger who responded.
February 7, 2014, 40 kilometers away from Moscow, Volodya is trying to fall asleep in a sleeping bag on a
dilapidated foam sofa: "The face freezes, the body burns". The wooden window barely holds the heat. As always,
in the suburbs, the February frosts are stronger than in Moscow. Outside through the window we can hear
barking dogs and the creaking of the Kratovo pines laden with snow. We hear the noise of a train. The village
of Kratovo lies about an hour’s drive from Moscow: the Kazansky Railway Station, a train, a platform with the
same name passes. Here Volodya and Kostya rented a carpentry workshop and set about creating furniture for the
future Bauhaus studio. Volodya spends the night in the workshop.
On the subject of the second after the start of the work: “the day was the beginning of my long-dotted
journey, Moscow - the workshop in Kratovo - Moscow. I traveled this way exactly 120 times, and its total
length was 4,800 kilometers... every time the train lazily left from under the tall rooftops of the Kazansky
Station, my heart inexplicably trembled. 40 kilometers beyond Moscow seemed to me almost like a flight to the
Moon "- recalls Volodya.
Another master of woodworking accepts the invitation to work together again: Kostya starts making designer
furniture for the Bauhaus studio. Working moments.
Colleagues call Kostya Grechka (buckwheat in Russian) for his fiery red hair color. In Mama Ro,
everyone uses the diminutive “Kostik” due to his sensitivity in work. In the photo: testing of
thermochromic paint on the steps for the Bauhaus studio. In the photo above: Kostya and Volodya,
focus group.
Kostya grinds ash on a thickness planner. Unlike the Pine studio, the furniture for the Bauhaus
studio is trimmed with a “precision fit” that is, with zero gaps. With this method, furniture can be
assembled without the use of glue or screws.
The beauty of the ash pattern and its high durability become the main criteria for choosing it for
the Bauhaus studio furniture.
"The surface of Jupiter" or the future table for a "chess pair", a furniture installation for
playing chess. Kostya will also make chess with his own hands.
Kostya polishing the "chess pair".
“Chess pair” is ready.
The next day, on February 8, 2014, Kostya passes the un-planed board through the planer
A carpenter's tool used to remove (plan) excess thickness and level the surface of wood.
. The dusty, uniform in color material goes under the shaft and it comes back, as Volodya says, as "the
surface of Jupiter": the knife shows a florid pattern of the ash wood. His "cosmic beauty" isn’t the only
feature. At the very beginning, when Volodya draws the strict, minimalistic sketches of future furniture,
Kostya proposes using an ash tree because of its high strength and elasticity: even the ancients made cudgels,
bows, and spears; even their own cosmogony was made from it since, in Scandinavian culture, the World Tree was
considered to be an Ash tree. From time to time Kostya gets the drills stuck in it.
February 21, 2014, in Kratovo, Kostya and Volodya leave the workshop and cross the railway tracks. It's
getting dark. The icy crust crunches under their feet. A stray dog starts following the guys. Shurik the
Welder lives somewhere on the other side of the railway tracks to whom Kostya wants to introduce Volodya. The
road turns right and stretches along the tracks. Volodya guesses that the derivative from Sasha - “Shurik” -
paired with the nickname “Welder” in everyday life, is like “minimizing his real talents”: for everyone who is
familiar with Shurik knows that he is almost a legend, a poet with a welding electrode instead of a feather.
Volodya and Kostya are approaching Shurik's house and the barking behind the fence makes the stray dog take
flight.
Shurik meets the guys with bread and salt: right from the doorway to the table. On the table there are mantis
with elks (a type of dumpling); Shurik loves to hunt. Kostya eats mantis with a good appetite and plays with
Honda, a snow-white husky. The name of the second dog is Baton, a skewbald Eskimo dog. They drove the stray
dog away. After the dinner they take a tour of the house. Volodya likes the corbel consoles
A cantilever structure is an element in architecture and interior that projects perpendicularly to the
plane of the facade or wall and does not have additional supports.
on the balcony
which has two structural channels. Like the whole house, Shurik invented and assembled it with his own hands. The conversation goes down
into the workshop. Shurik shows the guys his ideas and the idea of the Bauhaus studio gradually acquires
graceful metal structures. Shurik knows how to make anything from metal.
Shurik dispels Volodya's doubts about the strength of the console tabletop, which he welded to the
reinforcement column in Mama Ro a minute ago.
The result of the meeting with Shurik would be the appearance of complex metal structures in the
Bauhaus studio. Shurik would show Volodya his self-built house with a cantilever metal balcony.
Shurik is a master millimeter and accurately determines by eye if he made a millimeter deviation
during welding.
Shurik's house stands on the opposite side of the railway from Kostya's workshop. An artel is formed in
Kratovo working on the Bauhaus studio. In the photo above: Kostya and Honda. At Shurik’s.
The third construction is gaining momentum. More and more people appear in a
small managers room and more and more often the workspace spills out onto the back door and into the smoking
room. Dima considers the smoking room a place of power: here he likes to discuss the layout of the Mama Ro
magazine. “Here - Dima remembers - all the most interesting conversations take place” - being 187 centimeters
tall and doing laborious layouts in the managers room, the spacious stairwells serve Dima well: Dima hangs on
the railing, Dima sits on the wall, Dima jumps through the flight of stairs. Furthermore, he always finds a
companion. The conversation flows easily, extends beyond the mansion and spreads over Chistye Prudy. It is at
this moment, Dima meets Alikhan for the first time. Alikhan comes out of the managers room to the back door
and says: “Hello”.
Until March 21, 2014, Alikhan is almost invisibly present at the construction
site. He puts the cameras on time-lapse mode and shoots the work of Pasha, Zheka, Misha, uncle Serezha and the
other guys. Throughout all this time, Alikhan acts as the “video eye” impartially framing everything for the
film. Alikhan isn’t there but his camera lens is. Until one day Sonya appears in Mama Ro together with the
beginning of spring. Nastya was looking for an assistant and Volodya recalled the artist Sonya whom he knew
from university. Sonya begins to work with the guys for the first time, and Alikhan’s “video eye” loses its
impartiality forever.
Alikhan makes a video about the construction. Sonya appears in Mama Ro on March 21, 2014. Alikhan's music
video is no longer a video about the construction.
The mansion's reinforcement work has been completed and the granite bed is being prepared to be raised to
the second floor. In the top photo: Sonya brings the rooftop tea tradition to Mama Ro. Author of the
photo: Alikhan.
March 24, 2014, Alikhan and Sonya drink tea on the roof of the Mama Ro mansion and watch the fuss in the yard.
Down below, a truck crane has just arrived right under the windows of the “Stone” studio and is starting
preparations to lift the boulders to the second floor. Tolya and Pasha have already taken out the window so
that the arrow, a tool on the machine, with the boulder could pass inside. Uncle Sasha and Anton tie the
stones with straps. Tolya runs downstairs and begins to worry that 250 kilograms of granite will slip over
someone's head. Alikhan grabs the camera and runs to shoot it.
The next day, March 25, 2014, Anton and Uncle Sasha try to turn the boulders
over to their spots in the studio and are not able to. One of the guys comes in and hands them a piece of a
gas pipe (if you can't turn it over, you can try to roll it). "It’ll flatten it" – Anton was convinced.
“Nonsense!” – and indeed, Uncle Sasha and the guys lift the boulder with six hands, Anton puts the pipe under
it and the stone begins to roll. “A strange feeling – Anton recalls – something like a chicken egg that cannot
be squeezed in a fist or light bulbs in a neck of a jar on which you can stand.” Uncle Sasha finds another
piece of scrap metal as it’s more convenient to roll the boulder with two.
Apostle Uncle Sasha the next day after placing the
boulders on the second floor.
March 27, 2014 Anton invites Egor Egorychev to look at the space of the “Pine” studio. Egor works with Volodya
and makes calculations of the metal structures for the “Bauhaus” studio. Nadia just finished the drawings of
the second unit and now they need a strength calculation (a ton of glass floor from triplex
Impact-resistant tempered optical glass made of three layers, glued with a film, withstands the weight
of several people at the same time.
will be laid on
the mezzanine). Egor looks at the mezzanine
drawings and specifies the areas where support is needed and concludes: "You can set the UAZ,
it will hold it”. The next day, Egor, Lesha’s partner, sends through the calculation: for a three-meter beam
with a cross section of 100x100x3mm and a total load of 500 kg per meter; additionally, there is a deflection
of 1.56 cm. Just according with the building code: 2.1 cm. So, Egor was right. Tolya and Pasha begin to weld
the mezzanine.
On April 1, 2014, there was a panic at the construction site: all the water
leaked out of the barely finished shower room in the “Pine” studio. “Uncle Serezha worked: he carefully laid
down the layers of waterproofing, rechecked everything and, not without pride, called me to approve the work:
you can check, he said – I did it as if it was for myself! We poured in four centimeters of water in
accordance to the technology and left for lunch. We returned an hour later and there was no water...” -
recalls Tolya. Uncle Serezha runs off somewhere cursing frightfully. Tolya on all fours starts to look for a
leak. If the water leaked to the floor below, there would be a scandal. In this same moment, happy uncle
Serezha comes back. It turned out that Misha thought that there was a flood in the shower and he
conscientiously collected all the water with a vacuum cleaner. Uncle Serezha's waterproofing is well
done.
It would take time to learn to understand Uncle Seryozha's rapid-talking. Uncle
Seryozha is from Donbass and communicates with a characteristic intonation. When the construction team learns to
understand his speech, Uncle Seryozha's jokes will spread among everyone.
On April 6, 2014, in St. Petersburg, Galya finishes and sends Anton the last file of the light books
The internal name of the engraved and illuminated book cases made for the Stone and Pine studios.
for the “Stone” and “Pine” studios after two months of monotonous work. “Nastya Timofeeva hates the
vector work
Vector mapping is a way of displaying graphics using program code, necessary, for example, for engraving
light books (the laser moves using the code).
and in December 2013, she politely sent me off with this idea to her friend Galya” - Anton and Galya get
acquainted; Galya makes a test file; Anton takes him to the laser cutting place and by February 20, 2013, he
collects a folder of 41 scans for the future light books
To create light books, each cover is scanned separately, then vectorised, and engraved on a plexiglas
book case.
for Galya. “Maybe, only a year later, for the first time, we would chat about the life in St. Petersburg
and Moscow, about this and that, as is usually the case, Galya works in a Spartan way: without words, simply
for the result. Consequently, everything is always on time.”
April 17, 2014, Anton sends to Galya a graphic file with the Sumerian cuneiform
as a test vector. A message is encrypted in the file. Somewhere within it was a joke that instead of copying
the incomprehensible-to-anyone cuneiform, "it’s better to learn Sumerian" and to encrypt something in it in
the “Stone” studio. Anton recalls Nastya's talent for languages and suggests her to find more information
about the Ancient Sumerians, is it possible to write in cuneiform, for example, the Brodsky's poem “Under a
sprawling elm”? Nastya gets into it and after a while brings the phonetic translation of the poem. Then Anton
remembers the longer “San Pietro” and Nastya translates again, and the two encrypted messages appear in the
studio's lamps.
April 24, 2014, in St. Petersburg, Nastya Timofeeva finishes the watercolor version
This refers to the color version of the Mama Ro logo created by Nastya Timofeeva in 2014 for the opening
day of six new studios.
of the Mama Ro planet and begins preparing for her first trip to Moscow. For the last five months,
Nastya has been working on the illustrations for the magazine that’s being made by Dima, and Anton suggests
her to come to create rock art for the “Stone” studio: “Nastya has a polyglot-like talent in painting, she can
draw and paint in completely different styles”. Nastya sends a file, downloads a ticket to Moscow and finds
out that Anton reserved everything backwards – the train is from Moscow to Petersburg. Three days later, on
April 27, 2014, Nastya is finally in Moscow, and has met with the guys for the first time.
Having finished the rock painting for the Stone studio, Nastya Timofeeva would return to Moscow in
two weeks but this time to help with the painting for the Melnikov studio. In the photo: working on
sketches during the second trip.
Nastya working on the rock art for the Stone studio.
The painting will be based on the prehistoric drawings of the
Lascaux and Altamira caves.
Nastya Timofeeva is in Moscow for the first time and meets the guys after
a little less than a year of work on the Internet. From left to right: Anton, Nastya Timofeeva, Volodya,
Sonya, Nastya. In the photo above: Galya in her workshop in St. Petersburg.
April 28, 2014, in Kratovo, Shurik finishes the work on the frame of the cantilever stairs for the “Bauhaus”
studio. Egor Egorychev, Volodya and Lesha come to see the result. The weight of the structure turned out to be
only 200 kilograms. It’s the victory of the applied approach over a theoretical: at the very beginning, when
Egor and Lesha did the design calculations, Shurik looked at the drawing and replaced all the vertical pillars
with a light diagonal, he suggested to weld a stair stringer
The diagonal bearing element of the staircase was welded into a rigid frame according to Sasha Sergeev's
plan to obtain solid cantilever steps (protruding from the wall plane) in the Bauhaus studio.
– “we need to do it this way”. Egor thoughtfully looks at the drawing. With this option, all the
cantilever steps turn into levers that work on twisting and breaking a bridgeboard. However, neither the
profile nor the thickness of its wall would not allow this. Egor comes up with a verdict: we can do this.
Shurik has been working with metal for over thirty years.
Five days later, on May 3, 2014, there is a fuss again near the main entrance of
Mama Ro. Shurik and Volodya brought the frame of the cantilevered staircase from Kratovo and the builders
didn’t know how to lift it to the second floor: “We won’t be able to swing it around, the width of the flight
of stairs is not enough”. “Won’t swing it around,” - Shurik echoes them knowing that on every team there is a
lover of impossible missions. “We will swing it around, and we will get it inside”, Uncle Serezha grunts in
response. “Should we bet on it?” - Shurik bets for a bottle of good whiskey and after twenty minutes he begins
to weld the frame of the staircase in the future “Bauhaus” studio. Uncle Serezha is able to do the
impossible.
Misha Starish comes to the construction as a master of finishing works, but turns out to be a jack
of all trades, including a talented gardener.
Stair stringer (a diagonal inside a rigid frame at the base of a cantilever staircase) is the
original solution proposed by Shurik for the Bauhaus studio.
The main entrance with a pre-revolutionary stucco molding is the only
passage through which Uncle Seryozha (in a green T-shirt) manages to lift Shurik's stairs to the Bauhaus
studio. The bet for a bottle of whiskey. In the photo above: Shurik proceeds to install the stairs.
May 12, 2014, in Kratovo, Volodya sweeps his finger along the corner of a wooden
armchair of the “Bauhaus” studio and immediately withdraws his hand as blood runs out from the pad of his
finger. Kostya invited Volodya to check whether the edges were sharp enough. Volodya, from his own experience,
becomes convinced of Kostya’s argument that it really is necessary to remove a flat face even if it’s a
millimeter one. The density of ash wood is such that it can be used to cut the blades. Perfectionism and
passion for strict lines give way to experience: Kostya removes a millimeter face edge.
May 20, 2014, Tolya arrives at the construction site before everyone else and sees the following: Misha transplants grapes with his one elbow in the ground in the yard. The day before the neighbor from the first floor asked Tolya to help her plant seedlings. “Grapes are a weed, just dig it in and it will take root,” she said. “The next day, at sunrise, Misha came and dug everything back out. He carefully laid it out, cut and carefully placed every sprout back in a different place. He was silent and focused. It looked like a meditation and his face expressed some kind of peace - says Tolya - I asked him why he was doing this, and he, embarrassed by my attention, kept silent and then smiled somewhere to the side and replied: because these are grapes...”- in Transnistria, where Misha is from, they love grapes and know how to take care of them.
Sonya at Chistye Prudy. Alikhan’s photo. With the arrival of spring around the
Mama Ro mansion, the walking season around the city begins. Alikhan finally disappears from the dusty chaos of
the construction site.
May 22, 2014, Sonya with a cup of tea returns to the managers room, opens a
photo with Valery Fedorovich, and uncle Sasha with her phone, removes the saturation, frames it and posts it
on the social network saying: “One of the most interesting conversations in my life”. The conversation of two
master titans, who politely accepted young Sonya to their group, takes place slowly over tea in a sunny
smoking room. They talk about everything: geological exploration, sculpture, painting and cinema,
specifically, Andrei Tarkovsky and Michalis Kakoyanis films. The interlocutors hadn’t watched one of these
films, but the conversation was dear to Sonya: “We were talking about these films but it was like we were in
the film itself. And we drank tea”.
Valery Fedorovich, uncle Sasha and Sonya quickly become friends. Despite the
difference in age, two elderly craftsmen eternally covered with a whitish layer of dust and youthfully in love
with their work, easily get along with the younger generation. Everyone at the construction site notices their
inexhaustible energy. Volodya, who watches with interest the emerging friendship, ironically says that when he
was a kid the mother would throw out his father's flowers “not because they were fading, but because they were
annoying” – that is, Uncle Sasha worked with his bare hands with uranium ore. “Yes, they are both, in fact,
uranium elders” - laughs Volodya. One time, geologist Valery Fedorovich engaged in the exploration of uranium
deposits, and metallurgist Uncle Sasha - in the alloys made from raw uranium.
“One of the most interesting conversations in my life,” Sonia uploads a
photo of Valery Fedorovich and Uncle Sasha in the smoking room. Both masters are the people of the
Renaissance, combining several professions. They gradually gain the glory of "construction titans" among
the young.
Sonya in the smoking room. "Smoking room" is a conventional name, as a
smoke break takes all possible forms, from literal to fascinating conversations over a mug of tea. In the
photo above: “uranium elders” as Volodya calls Valery Fedorovich and Uncle Sasha at work.
May 28, 2014, Nastya Timofeeva arrives again in Moscow. Egor Egorychev, Volodya
and Anton conduct a tour of the old Arbat. The theme of the tour: “Soviet and alien technologies on the Old
Arbat. From Melnikov’s House to the Foreign Ministry Building”. Nastya came to Moscow to help Volodya realize
the painting of the Melnikova studio, and Egor agreed to introduce Nastya to the topic. The friends come to
the foot of the Foreign Ministry and talk about the famous Smolensk incident where the disappearance of the
skyscraper in 1952 was replaced with an extraterrestrial replica with a spire on the site of the freshly built
Foreign Ministry building
After the war and up to Stalin's decree in 1952, the skyscraper of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs
was built according to a project that didn’t involve a spire.
and followed by the mysterious death of Joseph Stalin. Nastya attentively listens to the guys.
The guys prepared a surprise for Nastya. According to the plan on one of the
side streets Egor should suddenly say goodbye and leave the tour. The friends slowly move towards the Melnikov
house. Nastya doesn’t yet know about Egor’s friendship with the descendants of the architect. At the wall of
Tsoi, Egor suddenly receives a call coming from Volodya’s pocket. Unfortunately, Egor has to leave
immediately. Nastya, Volodya and Anton say goodbye to Egor who disappears into Arbat’s side streets. Egor
proceeds with what he had planned: he runs around the block from the opposite side, jumps over the fence into
the backyard of the Melnikov house and hides behind the gate just before the guys arrive.
It is difficult for Nastya Timofeeva to believe that the guys are
telling her the pure truth, but a trip to Melnikov's house makes an indelible impression on her.
Egor Egorychev gives Nastya a tour of Melnikov's house.
Nastya in the Holy of Holies: Konstantin Melnikov's workshop on the third floor.
After going to Melnikov's house, Nastya begins work on the studio of the same name. The history of
the unique house will be the basis of the project.
Egor Egorychev tells Nastya about the flight of Melnikov's house to the Moon and, with the permission of
Ekaterina Karinskaya, granddaughter of Konstantin Melnikov, shows the preserved drawings of the rocket
house.
The friends come to the gate from the Krivoarbatsky Lane and talk about the
secret status of the house and developments of the space by Konstantin Melnikov and Sergey Korolev. Egor is
behind the gate. According to the plan, he must show himself at the very end of the story and invite Nastya on
a tour of the house. Suddenly, Nastya interrupts the story and suggests that they try to knock on the door and
see if they can meet the descendants of the architect. Volodya and Anton, having looked at each other, approve
Nastya's “good idea” and watch with pleasure as she knocks on the gate of Melnikov’s house and finds Egor
behind it.
June 1, 2014, Egor Ognerubov arrives at Chistye Prudy to introduce Misha to the work going on in the “Stone”
and “Pine” studios. On this day, it’s Misha Kurlov’s first time at the construction site. While Egor is
finishing the program for light books
This refers to the program to control the LED strips that change the colors inside the light books in
the Pine studio.
, Pasha calls Misha from Ukraine to help with the soldering of LEDs. Nobody assumes yet that there is a
whole month of work still to do. Misha meets Egor and the rest of the guys, investigates the matter and goes
to lunch with everyone. At this moment, Volodya and Nastya Timofeeva break away from the painting of the
Melnikov studio and take a smoke break. Anton and Volodya introduce Nastya to Egor. Egor, being shy of new
people, covers his shyness by being in a hurry for business.
Egor Ognerubov, whose surname could be translated from Russian as the “flame cutter”, explains to the guys the
origin of his last name by slash-and-burn agriculture which his ancestor was engaged in in ancient times (when
they cut down the forest, a flame cutter would come to replace the woodcutter and “cut down” the remaining
stumps and perches by means of fire). Modern Egor is a specialist in radio electronics, but he speaks with
enthusiasm about the leaves turning yellow in the trees after a process of irradiation of the forest edge with
tropospheric radio waves. Two years ago, somewhere in the deaf Russian forests, Egor served as a liaison in
the army forces: with two army fellows at KAMAZ truck equipped with a tropospheric radio station.
After the light books, Egor starts working on the stairs in the Bauhaus studio. The idea is to create
touch lighting so that the steps are illuminated at the moment of contact, each separately.
A mobile station of tropospheric radio communication where Yegor served in
the army. In the photo above: Private signalman-radio electronics operator Ognerubov aboard the Mi-8
during military exercises.
Egor first meets Kostya while working on electronics for the Bauhaus studio in Kratovo.
June 2, 2014, Anton, Volodya and Nastya Timofeeva go to Kratovo on Rover. Alikhan jumps in to take a ride with
the guys but suddenly he falls asleep on the way. The guys are so passionate about their conversation that
they forget about Alikhan right up to the Moscow Ring Road. And Alikhan is having a dream. He is Tintin who
got into the '80 Olympics in Moscow and Egor Ognerubov is an evil genius radio electronics engineer who
decided to enslave the whole world. If he doesn’t stop him, just as the Olympic Bear flies up on the balloons
over Moscow, immediately the rockets from all mines, submarines and trains in the USSR will rush to the USA.
Like the Trojan horse, Egor hid a cunning radio device inside the bear to deceive the Soviet Electronic
Warfare
Electronic Warfare (EW) means are used by the armed forces to create radio interference on the lines of
communication, control, guidance and navigation of a potential enemy.
forces and hack the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense!
On May 12, 2012, after several unsuccessful attempts to attract an investor, Tolya, Anton and Volodya, put
aside the completed presentation and start the Mama Ro project on their own. They rent a small space at
Spiridonovskaya, buy plaster, tools and start the very first construction in Mama Ro’s history. Just like
Yulia at the very beginning, and then in Maly Ivanovsky, with their own hands. The guys have almost no money,
they have to scrape and borrow. Dima Trusov, Aydar, Zlata, Yulia and Lena help out. The project only needs to
define a studio format which will be born in the construction process.
May 20, 2012, 2:09AM, immediately after the demolition of the walls. The next day, it would be decided
to leave everything as it is: two spacious studios instead of rooms. At that moment, all subsequent Mama
Ro studios were born.
May 27, 2012, there is a festive table set in the space of the future Studio 1: stacked bags of plaster laid
over each other. There is a navy-style pasta (Russian dish made of cooked pasta mixed with stuffing made of
stewed ground meat), a rice salad with onions, shrimp and eggs, bread and three different ice cream flavors on
the "table". Volodya’s mom, Nadejda Alekseevna, doesn’t allow the comrades to die of hunger. The guys go out
for Coke and forget to buy disposable cutlery, so they will have to improvise with a grinder’s key. It’s
Volodya's birthday.
Masha comes to the guys every day after work to help with the construction work and to feed them. On right
photo:
Volodya is twenty-four, but his parents are still setting the festive table. The birthday boy's mother
prepared and brought food to the construction site. Using the bags of plaster as a table. A tool instead of
cutlery.
The end of June. Sun rays creep along the newly laid, varnished floor of solid pine. Having climbed onto the
window sill, Ro jumps into the space of the future Studio 1. There is a pleasant coolness inside and a summer
afternoon outside. Ro finds a cut-off bottom of a plastic bottle, kneads a viscous white paste in it and
proceeds to do slow and crazy work: a careful chiseling out of the joints in a large wall of glass blocks.
After lunch, Alina comes in through the door and takes the baton from Ro. The day is drawing to a close. Masha
comes from work and sets a dinner for the guys right there on the floor. It’s the first meal of the day. Ro,
Alina, Anton, Volodya and Tolya take a break from work and gather at the “table”. Eating from a floor that is
laid with your own hands seems much tastier. Days are running by fast. Yulia, Masha, Roxana, Zlata, Alina,
sometimes together, or replace each other, appear, support, and help friends. The struggle for the result
acquires a special meaning.
Роксана, Маша, Tolya и Юля за праздничным столом. Праздничным – потому что девчонки умеют с
легкой руки
навести на стройке уют.
Маша и Роксана. Участие девчонок во всех процессах, от закупок стройматериалов до покраски
окон
вдохновляет ребят на строительные подвиги.
Алина объясняет свое участие в утомительных, монотонных процессах стройки “отдыхом” после
увольнения из
рекламного агентства.
The support of Yulia, Masha, Zlata, Alina, Roxana holds a lot of meaning for the friends. As Anton recalls,
“They worked like hell from morning ‘till night, from bell to bell, non-stop and without days off... and all
the work is difficult, in the morning you have to work on your body, otherwise it’s not possible to turn the
arm or leg, it hurts everywhere…the second week, everyone felt it at the same time. I weighed 76 kg before the
construction work, after it - 67! And the guys lost 10 kg each. Well, this five-year plan fit into 60 days was
only possible because the girls saved the men. They would feed us, and since we had no money left at the end,
they would then come and help. And we don’t even ask them for help, somehow we do it all by ourselves. At that
time, I absolutely admired this sensitivity to our needs, and for the first time I realized what heroism is;
when a soul is able to lift and grind everything in its path in spite of any fatigue. With the support of the
girls, we felt like real heroes.”
July 19, 2012. A little over two months into construction, the first two studios of "Mama Ro at
Patriarch's Ponds" are open. In addition to the invited friends, the guys themselves, as well as Alina (in
the chair), Masha (behind the bar on the right) and Vartan (next to Masha) take part in the photo session.
July 17, 2012, Volodya, Yulia and Anton come to the studios before anyone else. Vartan, who responded to
Volodya’s request to help take photos of the studio, comes next. The interior shooting is scheduled for the
evening. The cleaning and preparation begin. It’s a warm July rain outside. Shooting is the final step in the
construction process, the moment of alienation of the work from the author. In a few hours, the very first two
studios of the project will begin an independent life. Two days later and 69 days from the start of
construction, on July 19, 2012, the Mama Ro project opens its doors for the first time for guests.
Picnic at the base of the Kremlin Nabatnaya Tower, immediately after the opening. One of the achievements as a
result of the construction site: the guys lost an average of nine kilograms each in two months without any
money in their pockets. In the photo: Yulia, Anton, Volodya.
On the night of July 24, 2012, Alikhan arrives at Kazansky Railway Station at the high-speed train
Vladikavkaz-Moscow. There are poems and songs in a green suitcase. House Keys, Zippo, Lucky Strike. Alikhan
spent about two years in his small homeland, walking to Massive Attack and Skreamin’ Jay Hawkins across the
foothills of Caucasus, tearing wild flowers and scratching a wind song with a pencil until one day he found
himself on the steps of the train leaving for the plains. The moon has risen. Night came on Earth. Alikhan
lowered the flap putting his face to the stars, lit a cigarette and scooped up a handful of new ideas from the
Universe. The train delivered all its rhythms, squeaked loudly and Alikhan found himself in a Moscow night.
Alikhan calls his friends. He needs to find a place for the night. Anton is on duty at Mama Ro and is occupied
with postponed businesses. Studio 1 is empty tonight. The comrades meet at the Patriarch Pond and walk 84
squares
Here is not the figure of speech, but the figure of the pond itself: the Patriarch Pond in Moscow is
really square in shape.
around the shore, talking life about this and that. It will take another year before their
communication can continue again, but for now Anton leaves Alikhan in the studio and runs off on the last
train in the metro.
Night on Earth. Alikhan over Nazran on the eve of his return to Moscow.
August 5, 2013, Anton Voltman and Nastya Paskute come to Mama Ro at Spiridonovka. Volodya and Anton complete
the cleaning in Studio 2. The three of them alternate in pairs to do the cleaning themselves in the newly
opened studios and today it was their turn. After finishing with the cleaning, the friends gather together and
go from Spiridonovka to the Boulevard Ring, take Yulia with them and head off towards Arbat.
The starting point for Volodya’s friendship with Anton Voltman and Nastya Paskute, as well as with the guys,
was the workshop. Here, even before the start of construction of the first studios, the friends didn’t manage
to build a shower room for a long time. In addition, In the spring of 2012, Volodya rents a room in
Milyutinsky Lane to spend the nights here, unexpectedly, his neighbor, living in the communal apartments,
turns out to be Nastya Paskute. Volodya knows Nastya from school.
The technique of perpendicular walls to create an optical illusion will subsequently be applied by Anton
Voltman in the "Suprematist" studio. Photo: Anton in his room in Bobrov Lane.
The guys become friends and Nastya introduces Volodya to Anton Voltman. One evening, Volodya recalls, when
entering the house on Milyutinsky, “there was an incredibly loud and very infectious laugh in the building...
after a moment I see a funny picture: Nastya looks apologetically at me and then at some curly red-haired and
very skinny guy holding a garbage bag. Considering its size, it was a little less by weight than the guy
himself... Nastya says: Volodya, this is Anton, Anton this is Volodya, my neighbour. The red-haired dude nods
in my direction and, having slightly stumbled, very ridiculously jumps down the stairs hugging a bag... being
already downstairs he fell down but jumped up cheerfully assuring us that he was ok and disappeared in the
doorway...”. It turned out that Anton had deliberately escaped from the party in order to come and help Nastya
take out the construction debris.
Anton Voltman lives in the neighboring Bobrov Lane that is perpendicular to Milyutinsky and the guys become
friends. It turns out that Anton and Volodya are united by a common passion in art: in his room in Bobrov
Lane, Anton creates large abstract panels on the walls in the spirit of the Russian avant-garde. Volodya’s
favorite since childhood El Lissitzky and also Tatlin, Malevich, Kandinsky, Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara
Stepanova, Konstantin Melnikov in Architecture and Dziga Vertov in Cinematography… In stormy discussions, the
friends even start thinking about creating the podcast “Evening Art Talks with Voltman and Nizovtsev ". And
after a while, Volodya learns that Anton is friends with a guy named Egor Egorychev who is writing a book
about the Melnikov’s house
The “The House of the Melnikovs: Konstantin and Victor” book, author Egorychev Egor. The publication is
supported by the “Moscow that doesn’t exist” project, 2012.
. Anton promises to introduce Volodya to Egor eventually.
The interest in meeting Egor Egorychev was thanks to his work. Egor finishes writing a book about
Melnikov's house and with the permission of Konstantin Melnikov's granddaughter, Ekaterina Karinskaya,
conducts tours around the house for friends
Friends come up to Arbat where they are met by a tall thin guy with short hair. He’s in a black t-shirt and
jeans, as everyone will note and remember, and looks kind of similar to the young Tsoi. He firmly shakes
everyone's hand, presents his companion Zhenya and, after lighting a cigarette, invites them into the
labyrinth of Arbat lanes. The guys finally get to know Egor.
On August 13, 2012 Anton Voltman introduces the guys to Egor Egorychev.
The house of the architect Konstantin Melnikov on Krivoarbatsky Lane is a monument of avant-garde architecture
of the early 20th century. To get to this house, in August 2012, is not easy as there is a legal dispute
between the descendants of the architect and the state. In the eyes of his friends, Egor seems almost like
Stalker (a popular Russian character in Russian cinematography) in a world full of the avant-garde. He
approaches the dilapidated gate, opens it, and lets them into the courtyard. Ekaterina Viktorovna comes out of
the house towards them and greets everyone. She is the granddaughter of Konstantin Melnikov. Egor helps her
and supports her in conflict with the authorities. After a short introduction, Ekaterina Viktorovna invites
everyone to the house so that Egor can give them a tour and make some tea.
Two years later, the history of the Konstantin Melnikov’s house in Krivoarbastkiy lane will form the
basis of the Melnikov studio in Mama Ro with the approval of the architect's granddaughter Ekaterina
Karinskaya.
The house of the architect Konstantin Melnikov impresses the guys' imagination through the elegance of
its design and innovative solutions that were unexpected for that time. In the photo: during summer,
the living room of the house turns into a terrace.
Слева направо: Zhenya Stakhanova, Егор Егорычев, Anton Kozlov и Nastya Paskute на открытой
террасе на
крыше.
Ascent to the roof with the help of a ladder is the final part of the tour around Melnikov's house.
Anton Voltman and Volodya.
Melnikov's house consists of two cylinders cut into each other: the first one consists of two floors and the
second one of three. It takes some time to walk through it but the way Egor tells the story of the house, as
well as his excitement about it, stops time outside the house and launches them into a special, big world
where they freely embrace and travel between eras.
The waste-free production, invented by Melnikov, is the process where not a single construction waste truck
was taken out of the house and construction site. There are no additional supporting walls or columns inside
the cylinders. According to the architect's design, the floors, in nine-meter round spans, were assembled in
the form of a membrane from boards which are set on their ends. There are cozy warming details in the
architecture such as, an octagonal window on the west wall which was left by Melnikov due to a slanting beam
that penetrated inside the future living room. There is a huge folding window of two and a half meters in
height turns the living room into a covered terrace in summer. A heater that heats the house through a system
of air ducts hidden within the walls is installed in the foundation of the old building preserved by the
architect who lives in the basement. And from a bird’s eye view, the shape of the house forms an infinity sign
(or a solar eclipse). All these elements together give them a sense of the time, a relativeness, after
visiting the house built in 1929. Thus, begins their friendship with Egor and Zhenya.
By introducing Egor Egorychev, Anton Voltman opens the longest series of meetings and acquaintances to the
project. Thanks to the interior design agency it was subsequently created in Mama Ro.
Four months later since August 2012, before the construction of the next studios for Mama Ro. Everything is
done for the first time and takes time including paperwork, contracts with agencies, and registration in
reservation systems. List: to learn to sell two freshly built studios, to advertise in the devilish interfaces
of Yandex Direct and Google AdWords, to resolve failures: with guests, with services, with agents, and even
with gangsters. The latter, as it turned out, also rent studios. And the main objective is to pay back the
debts to the people who believed in the project: Dima, Aydar, Zlata, Yulia, and Lena. When all of this would
be in the past, the next step is to find a place for new studios.
The place that Tolya and Anton found in mid-November 2012 driving around with a pack of agency offers on the
side streets of Moscow. It was a former apartment building built in 1896 at the corner of Ogorodnaya Sloboda
and Gusyatnikov lane, near Chistye Prudy. It was built in the nineteenth century! During the 20th century, as
in other parts of the USSR, there existed communal apartments (an apartment shared between several unknown
people or families). At the beginning of the 21st century there were many communal apartments that were in
awful states. Leaking roofs, rotten floors, exposed walls under crumbling plaster shingles. And three-meter
tall ceilings. The friends meet the property agent, climb the wide flights of stairs to the third floor and
roam enchantedly under the pre-revolutionary stucco molding that has been preserved in some places. This place
is something they couldn’t have even dreamed of.
The toponym "Chistye Prudy" (“Clean Ponds”), applied to this part of historical Moscow, does not officially
exist. However, this name following the example of “Mama Ro at Patriarch's Ponds” is included in the name of the
new Mama Ro, and later in the internal folklore of the project. It is also interesting to notice that there is
only one pond at the Patriarch's as well as at Chistye Prudy.
A week later, it turns out that the place has been sold. A certain merchant bought the queue and made an
advance payment for the first month. That was something that the friends couldn’t do as they were collecting
the required amount all week. In short, they didn’t make it in time. The planet will take another 31
revolutions around its axis before the unoccupied mansion of the 19th century somewhere in Moscow suddenly
returns to the friends. During this time, the guys ride around the city, visit new places, choose and draw
layouts, and get agreements on loans. Until one day, it turns out, that the certain merchant doesn’t pay the
rent.
January 13, 2013, the mansion in Gusyatnikov lane. This is the start of the second construction. It’s winter.
It’s cold and it’s snowing. Tolya, with a perforator, lies on the edge of the roof with his feet resting
against the base of the almost completely disassembled (by him) chimney. There is a demolition of emergency
furnaces currently going on. Downstairs we see someone's car and next to it a building of three floors. The
mortar in the pipe is old and the bricks can be removed with a kick. If you accidentally walk out on such a
surface, in this case, even a fence at the edge of the slope will not help, as someone took it off for an
unknown reason. “It's time to get down” - Tolya decides to make a safety harness, when suddenly someone passes
a hand under his back. Pasha, looking out of the dormer window, grabbed Tolya by the belt. Pasha's height
(under two meters) and the scope of his arms are just long enough to secure Tolya as he finishes with the
chimney.
Pasha at a characteristic moment of interaction with Tolya. Installation of the air conditioners.
On right photo: One of many Mama Ro's sketches for the upcoming restoration of the mansion's front.
It’s hard not to notice Pasha at the construction site. Pasha is the tallest one among the workers, who on
January 3, 2013 were brought by a foreman recommended by Zlata, to the construction site at Gusyatnikov. In
fact, the acquaintance begins at the very beginning of the construction at two o’clock in the morning. A
10-ton MAZ car loaded with foam blocks just arrived in the yard. Tolya has to wake up the hard workers to go
unload the car. There are no conveniences at the construction site, the guys are sleeping right on the floor
close to the heater. It’s frosty outside.
“And so,” Tolya recalls, “you go up, open the door and you see this picture: it's dark, everyone is more or
less settled down, sleeping. And only Pasha, with his height, when pulls the blanket up to his head – his legs
become exposed. And when he pulls it down – vice versa. The poor fellow isn’t sleeping. But there is nothing
to do, get up, guys, - you say - the MAZ has come! Let’s go to unload... and there is silence in response! And
only the cheerful voice of Pasha in the dark: ‘Well, hello to you, dear’”. Ironically as the construction goes
on, Tolya would repeatedly pay attention and appreciate his permanent involvement in all processes and would
become a good companion to Pasha.
Volodya on the roof of the mansion in the first month of construction in January. The slow,
painstaking renovation of the building starts from top to bottom. In the first year, the guys only
rent the third floor.
Before restoration. Mama Ro’s facade in the first year of operation.
Mama Ro’s front after restoration. 2017.
Back door. Before renovation in 2013 and a year and a half later.
One of the many Mama Ro sketches for the renovation of the main entrance, and the look after its
renovation in 2017.
One can easily guess the influence of the Art Nouveau style in the elements of the decor of the
mansion. It was built in 1896 as a typical apartment building. One of the Mama Ro’s options for
renovating the front door was to restore it back to the historical look. The photo on the right
shows the front entrance after its renovation.
January is coming to an end. The construction of the six new studios is in full swing. Volodya, Tolya, Anton,
in pairs, clean and take turns in settling guests in the first two studios. It’s the low season, winter, and,
in particular, the hardest selling month of the year which makes the friends fight for each and every client.
Either way, the project results in 100% occupancy for January as the studios are built with enthusiasm and
love, and guests pay back with their positive reviews. The ideas that hang in the air stayed in their memory
was left in the studio by the guys during the first construction. The inspiration from the visit of the
Melnikov House and meeting the talented workers: all these give a birth to a new leitmotif to the development
of the Mama Ro studio format. Next.
The internal name of the multimedia center and dock stations is in the 3rd-8th studios.
at the behest of the heart.
This is how he would respond to the request of Yulia to realize their idea: "This is the real work - for the
heart." It would take some time to convince Valery Fedorovich to take payment for the work done. A wood
master, a geologist and a poet, he believes that working with wood is not a craft but a way to bring the warm,
tactile sensations of interaction with natural material to the world’s big cities. Anton asks Yulia to
introduce them to Valery Fedorovich who teaches children sculptural carving in an orphanage where Julia works
as a volunteer. And already on February 14, 2013, somewhere in the snowy woods in the Mikhnevo village near
Moscow, Valery Fedorovich, Yulia and Anton, after eating boiled pearl barley, cut a dry pine using a
two-handed saw.
Start of work on the log bridges. Valery Fedorovich approaches the process without unnecessary preludes, “If we
need to do it, then we take a saw and go into the forest.”
Valery Fyodorovich explains that the brick of 1896, revealed and sandblasted
Sandblasting is a method of cleaning the surface of paint, old plaster, etc. by supplying a jet of air
with sand under high pressure.
in the new studios, was like swinging the pendulum back to the 20th century. Since people
who live in cities gradually evade interaction with nature, they now unconsciously seek to get it back: if not
a crust of Borodinsky bread
A variety of rye bread with caraway seeds that is widespread in Russia.
, the texture of the baked clay in the picturesque cracks on the old brick, then the brick reminds one
of the clay utensils in an ancient dwelling. Hence the global trend of people in large cities creating lofts
in former factories.
The search does not last long; Valery Fedorovich calls the forest his second home and easily navigates it.
They found what they were looking for, sharpened it with a saw, and a dead pine tree crashed into the frosty
snow. There are several months of handmade work ahead.
The idea of the log bridge also came from the same source: the delight of the combination of two natural
textures, wood and baked clay, originates from the workshop in Maliy Ivanovsky lane where even before the
project was born, Anton and Volodya, having purchased a pine timber for the rack, invented the second level in
their workshop with a non-cylindrical log
A log that hasn’t undergone factory processing with a milling cutter in order to obtain the same
diameter along the entire length.
.
Later on, after meeting Valery Fedorovich, for Anton, this line would result in the creation of the “Moscow”
studio and then the “Pine” studio, so Volodya’s acquaintance with Anton Voltman would one day lead to the
creation of the “Suprematist” and then the “Melnikov” studio. Ideas wait for their masters.
Working on a log bridge together with a bark beetle is part of Valery Fedorovich's aesthetic vision. According
to him, what nature always offers is best. The result: a bizarre pattern “drawn” by a bark beetle that had spent
winter on a dead pine tree, and was left untouched on all the log bridges.
In early February, Anton and Yulia arrive by train in the city of Maloyaroslavets, 120 kilometers from Moscow.
The blue sky, February arrives, and two jackdaws sit on the statue of the hero who fought the war with
Napoleon. Having strayed a little, the friends finally find themselves in front of the gates of the St.
Nicholas Chernoostrovsky monastery. Sister Rafaila meets them and takes them for a small tour of the
monastery; It was only yesterday that they didn’t know each other. For the creation of a Byzantine mosaic,
Volodya had recommended Anton a store with stained glass at the Botanical Garden and here Julia met sister
Rafaila.
It turned out that the nuns who were choosing the glass in the store had already worked out the technology
invented by the guys, and instead of smalt
Deep blue coloured glass prepared by including a cobalt compound, typically cobalt oxide or cobalt
carbonate, in a glass melt. Used for making mosaics.
they were already using colored glass in the mosaic somewhere in the Moscow region. Suddenly, sister Rafaila
stops the guys and whispers to them the story of the mother who had just passed by the temple: the mother had
stopped walking due to cancer, when suddenly, to the surprise of the doctors, the cancer unexpectedly passed
in its final stages.
Zlata helps to assemble the “sea” part of the mosaic and brings friends (in the background: Zlata's
friend Volodya Nikolaev). Despite the participation of workers, the work on the mosaic will turn into
a "Tom Sawyer" project over time. During the next stages of the work there will come friends invited
by friends of friends.
Turdibek, Elaman and Elnura after fixing the first mosaic fragment on the wall.
Reinsurance: Yulia supports a fragment of the mosaic from breaking during its transfer to the wall. The panel was assembled on an elastic cement composition, but every single participant in the process assembled the mosaic for the first time.
The main part of the panel is on the wall! Yulia, Anton, Sharif, (name lost), Elaman, Marsel, Elnura, (name lost), Turdibek.
According to the studio legend, Sharif is the worker who discovered the mosaic under the old plaster.
Assembling process.
Assembling process.
Assembling process.
Assembling process.
Finally, the friends are invited to the workshop and the nuns show them how the mosaics are made with the
stained glass. This technology saves money, but Anton is not sure that it is aesthetically justified, so the
acquaintance with sister Rafaela seems to be a kind of miracle too: they were at the right time and in the
right place, and without starting the complicated expensive process got an opportunity to see how to achieve
their desired results. For this, Anton and Julia have come to the monastery.
The idea to inlay a Byzantine mosaic on brick had also come from a workshop in Maly Ivanovsky. Like the idea
of clearing brick walls from plaster, proposed by Yulia in June 2011. The friends partially beat off the brick
from the plaster and were fascinated by the aesthetics of the fragments of stucco moulding that had survived
under the ceiling: “It would be great to leave it here under the lacquer”. “And also to intersperse it with a
couple of fragments of a torn mosaic, like a relic of a bygone era. Just like the mosaic in Hagia Sophia which
survived under the Ottoman plaster.” The only difference this time would be that the guys would have to
realize the idea themselves.
Turdibek is one of the workers working at the construction, but will go down in the history of the project
primarily as a master of fine jewelry work on mosaics. In the photo above: Yulia in the painstaking process.
The friends return to Moscow, buy a test piece of the stained glass and take it to the glass workshop to try
to reduce the gloss with the help of a sandblasting tool. The sisters' mosaic is perfect except the glossy,
“glassy” glitter that gives off the imitation. In the meantime, as a replacement for the golden smalt, Volodya
has the idea of covering the glass with a metal leaf. The friends make the first test, then take the
sandblasted fragment from the glass workshop and get a fully formed puzzle - a real mosaic: the “golden” smalt
is different only by using the metal leaf, while the sandblasted colored glass is almost identical to the real
smalt by its texture. The friends share the advanced technology with the sisters of St. Nicholas Monastery.
In the beginning of April 2013, two months later, the last fragment of a seven-meter panel takes its place on
the studio wall: Anton, Yulia, Elnura, Elaman, Marcel, Sharif, Turdibek and others gently lift up the plate of
the Byzantine mosaic, slowly as not to break it, turn it over on its’ edge and put it in glue. The two months
of work are over. Turdibek, the only master of fine jewelry on the team, would need about a week to finish
everything, namely, to patch up the crumbling areas and to combine the alternately applied fragments into a
single mosaic panel. At the same time, in the future “Suprematist” studio, Anton Voltman completes the work on
the avant-garde wall composition while Valery Fedorovich finishes the production of a log-TV
The internal name of the projection screen in the Old Moscow studio (formerly “Moscow”). More
information about it in the studio legend.
TV in the interior that would later become the “Moscow” studio.
Comparison of similarities during the mosaic assembly. The mosaic is conceived as "neopastoral" which is a
poetic representation of the Golden Age of Mama Ro, formed in the project during the construction of the first
two studios. The guys "plough" (in the literal pastoral and figurative senses), the girls bring comfort. In the
photos from left to right: Yulia (she’s cooking on the mosaic), Roxana (playing the shepherd's flute), Zlata
(seeing the guys off to the work), Masha (in charge of sea navigation), Volodya, Tolya, Anton are in several
scenes at the same time.
Kostya appears on the threshold of the construction site during its final chords. Tolya turns to Denis and
Denis recommends this woodworker named Kostya. In the process of the construction, one of the workers
accidentally sandblasted the old door revealing the beauty of the wooden texture
When treating wood with an air jet with sand under high pressure, the soft fibers of the wood are
squeezed out, emphasizing the texture of the tree rings.
under the layers of paint. And the friends decided to keep all the doors for the time being removing
from each the paint in exactly the same way. The time comes either to throw them away or to find a master
capable to make a worker's mistake into a work of art.
Kostya agrees to take up the challenge together with his friend. One day, they come up with an idea to use
brass as a decorative element that would complement the texture of the wood and mask any of the flaws such as
the holes from the squeezed out knots from sandblasting and the old tie-ins from the locks. The work starts to
pick up momentum. The woodworker and restorer in great form, Kostya turns out to be a real artist and a
talented actor. "I was amazed by the incredible theatricality of Kostya’s actions... a moving picture in the
French studio: materials flying across the entire room - sparks, smoke - combined with the rays of the sun
cutting diagonals of volume and resting against freshly plastered walls that resemble an ancient temple, and
two titans taming a strange golden beast…," Volodya recalls the work of the guys with brass. Later, when
Volodya would propose Kostya to create the original furniture for the Bauhaus studio, Kostya’s talent to turn
any craft into a show will surprise the friends on many more occasions.
Kostya is a professional carpenter and restorer. In the beginning, he’s in charge of repairing old doors
in new studios, but very quickly becomes the soul of the company (even though it happens at the very end
of the construction).
The second construction is coming to an end. The woodworkers put the studio doors on hinges, Anton throws out
all the unnecessary things in the trash container from the window of the third floor, and Tolya, cursing, runs
to get back everything he needs. Sasha Povzner, Denis' friend, gives Tolya the contact information of
Aidzharkyn for studio cleaning. Throughout the time span of August 2012 to April 2013 the friends still go to
Spiridonovka to clean the first two studios on their own, and Tolya, looking at the thrill with which Anton
and Volodya straighten the wrinkles when making the bed is worried that with the growth of the company and
delegation of duties all this would be neglected. Aidzharkyn first comes to the construction site with his
sister Mahabat and the guys realize that Tolya's fears were not justified. The long work process begins and so
does the new friendship of Aidzharkyn and Makhabat with the guys.
Kostya’s look and artistry remind the guys of the character performed by young Oleg Dahl in the film
"Chronicle of a Dive Bomber". Yevgeni Sobolevski was a gallant pilot, ringleader and merry fellow. In the
gif above: Kostya sings.
April 26, 2013, the six new studios of Mama Ro open their doors. Anton and Tolya shave off their four-month
grown beards. Volodya asks Vartan for his help again with a photo session of the interiors. The studios,
starting from the third to the eighth, receive their unique names (the creation of the Byzantine mosaic
influenced the development of this project). During the construction, the “Studio-Legend” format was born for
the first time in Mama Ro: the thematic studios and their stories - the legend. The initial plan of the mosaic
assumed only the mythologization of the project. Following the mosaic (and more precisely the “Byzantine”
studio), the other studios receive their names as well such as “Chinese”, “French”, “Suprematist”, and
“Moscow”.
Together with two months of work (to manage 10 to 20 people work on the mosaic at the same time requires
managerial and organizational skills) the format of a creative workshop is born for the first time in the
project. Subsequently, this experience will lead to the creation of more complex Mama Ro original studios,
such as “Pine”, “Stone” and “Bauhaus”. Studio 7 only remains as the one without a unique name for the time
being. The friends calculate the serial number through the Coriolis force
Fictitious force (inertia) due to the rotation of the Earth, under the influence of which the air flows
in the Northern Hemisphere spin counterclockwise.
for the Northern Hemisphere and by having drawn a spiral counterclockwise between studios in Moscow.
Twelve and a half square meters. This is the exact size of the first working space after the end of the second
construction project. This seems to be more than enough, as during the first year the work was carried out
either from home or at a table in a cafe, or in the middle of a construction site. On right photo: twelve and
a half square meters. This is the exact size of the first working space after the end of the second
construction project. This seems to be more than enough, as during the first year the work was carried out
either from home or at a table in a cafe, or in the middle of a construction site.
Spring. Chistye Prudy. The very first Mama Ro’s managers’ room is on the third floor. For the time being, the
wooden, freshly painted doors are wide open on April 27, 2013 - it is no longer cold and you can keep them
open even for a whole day. Inside the room are the first guests of the newly opened studios. “They chose the
‘French’ one,” Tolya says, “Nastya, do you need help?” Nastya had already taken the guests to the studio after
having them sign the contract with her. And she replies, echoing from somewhere in the corridor, “No, no, I
want to do it myself, I can manage,” and disappears again in a whirlwind to the “French" studio.
Tolya is familiar with Nastya thanks to his mother’s drama studio where he worked from the age of twelve and
believes that you will not find a more sensitive and involved person. This whole year before the opening of
the new studios Anton has been responding to letters from guests, polishing the booking grid and has been
skeptical about the transfer of duties between them. “In our project, at the first construction site, Tolya
came up with the nicknames of the whole trinity: he is a socialist, Volodya is a capitalist, and I am an
autist. I leave with my head stuck in some process and I don’t see the light until I bring order there. So,
the same happened with Nastya: the system didn’t have time to settle down due to the face that our project
had, not just two, but eight studios. It’s very hard to delegate something imperfect. But everyone understood
that it was time for the team to grow.”
The client is not always right. But the client can always be “non-guilty” as we say in Russia. The matter
obviously depends on the depth and wisdom of the observer. A guest quarreled with someone one minute, couldn’t
find their way to Mama Ro the first time, had a large request or a very heavy suitcase; and there is no dogma
in the world that could help solve these problems, especially since the three project founders are socialist,
autist, and (even!) capitalist. Nastya begins to work with the guys, going into everything easily and
playfully and brings the project a special gift that not only the clients didn’t have, but also the guys
themselves – wisdom.
With the expansion of the project, there is a young star that begins its ascent in Mama Ro’s sky. Nastya joins
the project.
May 23, 2013, Pasha gets behind the wheel of a Rover, sets out and drives off without a rear window: a huge
stump in the trunk smashes the window on the asphalt from acceleration. Tolya found this stump beautiful and
could not pass it by. Pasha continues to work with the guys: they adapted an old seven-seater Rover, bought in
January for the construction and for transfers to the airport. Guests would have to ride with the wind for
some time.
On June 18, 2013, somewhere in the hinterland village, Sasha finalizes sixteen sample letters for Mama Ro in
HTML format, compresses them into a zip-file and sends them thousands of kilometers to Chistye Prudy. Yulia
found Sasha's contact information from someone her friends knew at the Big Cartoon Festival. No one really
knows where Sasha works from but they say that it’s somewhere in Siberia - a hermit programmer living in a
hut. He’s kind, polite, intelligent. The guys first meet Sasha and ask for help with the layout of the typical
HTML-letters for Mama Ro's guests.
The Chistoye village from where Sasha works, at first doesn’t have a strong geographical reference. They say
it’s somewhere in Siberia. Three years later, work on the first full-format Mama Ro website would begin here.
On right photo:
Sasha is a professional musician and part-time programmer.
June 30, 2013, Nastya, Anton and Alikhan go up to the smoking room, taking with them a pack of Hergé’s comics
about Tintin. “The Adventures of Tintin” is Alikhan’s favorite childhood comic book. After the opening of the
new studios it had become mandatory in Mama Ro to say the Mama Ro studio library is a collection of wonderful
books "from Hergé to Abba Dorotheus" due to the fact that the guys collected the books from their own
libraries for first two studios. Thankfully, the courier has finally delivered a batch of comics from Paris
for the English-speaking clients of Mama Ro.
Alikhan finds a way to illustrate Mama Ro's love for books and together with the "Chinese" studio,
integrates Tolya, Pasha, Nastya, Anton and Volodya into comics about Tintin.
Alikhan is looking through the comics one by one with pleasure, the guys are telling him about the new saying,
and Alikhan's imagination immediately begins forming an idea of how to illustrate this. The bright spot
scattered on the table here would form the base. Alikhan is taking the panorama of the “Chinese” studio with
him and disappears again for several months.
Alikhan's appearance is not connected with any work. Alikhan writes poems, plays the guitar and gushes
with ideas. This is what would ultimately lead him to create a panorama with Mama Ro and Tintin. And after
a while it would lead to his grandiose dream about Tintin and Mama Ro.
The comic book about Tintin and Mama Ro, conceived by Alikhan in 2014 based on his own dream, won’t see
the light of day. Only the plot with several illustrations would remain.
July 19, 2013, Volodya, Tolya, Anton, Nastya, Yulia and Pasha approach the Kremlin walls and set up a picnic
under the Nabatnaya Tower. They do it on the same hill as one year ago right after the end of the first
construction. That day Yulia brought cheese, fruit and half a bottle of rum to the studios at Spiridonovka
street, and the guys went to celebrate its opening on Red Square. They spontaneously chose the hill with the
best view of St. Basil's Cathedral. While the FSB (The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation) is
sleeping, the picnic at the base of the Nabatnaya Tower becomes tradition. Mama Ro is now one year old.
July 23, 2013 Dima arrives at 3:40PM (15:40) at Chistye Prudy. The friends bought bikes for Mama Ro and want
to develop their own cycling routes for guests. Yulia doesn’t have time to help with the layout and Anton
decides to ask for help from the founder of the Kompot design studio, the same person who developed the
identity for Coltmedia two years ago, Dima. The negotiation is ahead: the first two Mama Ro studios have been
operating for a year and four days and, since January, they have started making a small profit, but even with
Anton’s personal money it is barely enough to finally cover the costs of the burnt bathhouse. Up to this point
everything was done in a traditional manner with help and mutual assistance of others.
At this moment Zlata comes to the managers room to have some tea. Together the guys take a small tour of Mama
Ro and show Dima the free "French" and "Moscow" studios. In the beginning, when creating the workshops in the
Maly Ivanovsky, Dima managed to make his own contribution by puttying the walls and now, in contrast with the
how he left the studio, he notes a qualitative growth. “Dima’s opinion at this meeting is of great importance
for me,” says Anton, “Dima is talented and still has a designer’s halo around him...”.
The bike route prepared by Dima in the layout will become the basis for a short promotional video. Guests
like Mama Ro, and the guys try to include the most interesting places in historical Moscow in it by
inviting them for a ride.
The friends agree on a rough layout for the future cycling routes and Dima thinks about the price. “I don't
know,” Anton recalls, “why he agreed but I really wanted him to take it. Even if he would ask for an
exorbitant price.” Finally, having agreed on a nominal fee under the unexpected Zlata’s "tha-a-at’s expensive"
remark, Anton and Dima shake hands and the project begins to generate its own graphic design for the first
time. Over time, the relationship with Dima would lead to the beginning of the development of Mama Ro’s own
website.
Having participated in the origins of the project, Dima appears on the threshold of Mama Ro only two years
later. The work on the layout of the bike route begins. As it turns out, at that moment he was only one
month away from the meeting with Alikhan, Milana's songwriter. This would happen six months later.
On September 10, 2013, Tolya, Volodya and Anton come out by the side streets to New Arbat and, heading towards
the Kremlin, discuss the meeting that just took place. The owner of the mansion, having visited Mama Ro
studios incognito, was impressed and wanted to meet the guys. As a result of the meeting, it becomes clear
that starting from the new year they could rent the entire building. The new third construction is now ahead.
September 14, 2013, bits and bytes from North Palmyra come via the fiber optic cable to Chistye Prudy: a
low-res graphic route from the metro to Mama Ro. Before sending the image in high resolution the artist Nastya
Timofeyeva, who drew the picture, asks to transfer the second part of the payment. Payment bits and bytes go
back. Nastya is as old as the guys but the acquaintance begins with the respectful Russian formal tense of
“You” and want to be reinsured with the payment that the work done isn’t done in vain. Again, bits and bytes
come from Petersburg but this time with the high-resolution image which is immediately redirected (either to
Siberia or to the ends of the earth) to Sasha’s hut for the lay-out work. Nastya finishes drawing a route for
the HTML letters.
Nastya, who has never been to Moscow, begins the work (that has already been done before her) from scratch:
the guys got this contact from the previous artist (and Mama Ro guest) who did not have time to complete the
work on the route. As it turned out it was a happy occasion: the first result that comes from St. Petersburg
is perfect. Over time the guys would realize more than one project together with Nastya: Nastya would visit
Moscow for the first time and then later many more times, becoming a good friend with the guys. It would
become an easy matter to take “Sapsan” train for a Sunday party at Mama Ro or Nastya’s exhibition in Saint
Petersburg. But for now, that’s all in the future.
The pre-revolutionary "Postcard", found during the opening of the floors at the beginning of the third
construction, said that at the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a tenement house in the Mama
Ro mansion. Later it was lost again along with its decorative frame where the card had been placed in it.
On November 18, 2013, in the small wing of the second floor, Tolya and Pasha set up headquarters. They stretch
a sheet on top of the Soviet wallpaper of the old communal apartment, set up the projector, shift the tables
and lay out the mansion’s drawings. The small wing is empty; the previous owners have just moved out and the
guys get the opportunity to start earlier. They display the estimate of the upcoming construction. The start
date is December 1, 2013.
Pasha becomes the foreman of the third construction and hires young, talented guys from his native
Luhansk. From left to right: Pasha, Zhenya Marchenkov (aka Bruce Willis, aka Zheka), Tolya.
Tolya and Pasha. Development of documentation for strengthening the floors and ceilings of the
mansion.
Tolya and Zhenya. After the reinforcement stage is over, the lathing installation for the new floors
will begin.
The end of 2013. Anton, Dima and Nastya come out of the cinema, get in the Rover and ride around Moscow
listening to the music of Milana. The third construction has already been underway for a month but Alikhan and
Dima still haven’t met each other due to the fact that while the old partitions are being scrapped, Alikhan
rarely appears at Chistye Prudy. Dima is starting to work on a project magazine, Alikhan, shortly before this,
agrees to come up with a video for Mama Ro about the creation of the new studios. The song “Dance” begins to
play in the salon, it’s Dima's favorite track of Milana: “When I first heard this song in 2010, I asked
myself: What is this passion, what would this performer be like in a live performance, and if I meet him what
would he say to me?" The song is sung by the voice of Alikhan, the author of the text and the founder of the
Milana band.
In 2007, a high school graduate Alikhan Albakov, together with four classmates, conceives the rock group called
Milana. The band quickly becomes popular on social networks. Thanks to the first tracks, the guys find
themselves on the stages of the cult clubs of the capital. In its second year of live performances, Milana gets
contacted by a major music label. But suddenly the group breaks up. Alikhan goes offline and for several years
leaves to his small homeland, leaving a large audience with a discography of twenty tracks... among whose
listeners are Dima and Anton who are not yet familiar with each other. They both like the same Milana songs.
Both first learned about the group through the "Dance" track. The only difference is that Anton, having learned
the name of the singer, was amazed to find that they had known each other from school.
Together with the start of the third construction, Mama Ro’s Rover becomes a mobile dance floor: there is
no personal time left again. They listen to everything here. Most often songs by Milana. Despite the
protests of Alikhan himself.
The poster layout drawn by Alikhan for one of the Milana concerts.
Dima, the descendant of Don Cossacks, refers to himself as a "southern type of people," implying that not
a single emotion "can linger inside." Everything should be wide open. Therefore, trips to the music of
Milana go like this.
On January 2, 2014, Tolya and Pasha pour out the concrete from MAZ car that arrived under the windows of Mama
Ro. The work on the reinforcement of the building begins. Just before the start of construction of the six new
studios, MoszhilNIIproekt (an organization that specializes on the building layouts, reconstructions) examined
the floors of the house and concluded that in Moscow “at the intersection of Gusyatnikov lane and Ogorodnaya
sloboda, there was a fossilized Leviathan skeleton”. For almost 120 years of existence, steel beams in the
ceilings of the mansion took on the shape of a whale’s ribs. Four formwork molds are waiting for their filling
in the basement to become the new reinforced columns.
The concrete M-300 with granite rubble sets for about 40 minutes. During this time, Tolya and Pasha need to
pour it on all in the formwork molds while fixing them on top of it the steel platforms (before they stop
sinking in the solution). The weight of one platform, with the size of thirty by thirty and a thickness of two
centimeters, like a weightlifting plate but instead with weight of fifteen kilograms of pure steel. The most
difficult part is for Pasha: leveling each platform perfectly (a column will rise from it up through the
floors and must stand strictly vertical on the platform).
“The unit for supporting the struts on a reinforced concrete belt”, assembled in the basement of the mansion,
is the base on which Mama Ro stands today, the second foundation that the guys have yet to lay. After all the
work, a steel three-story skeleton of columns and I-beams would be installed on it. On left
photo: Pasha is a professional engineer. At first, he takes over most of the “main” work. Later, the gas
cutter will pass into Zheka’s hands.
On the night of January 5, 2014, Tolya and Pasha lift the first column with a mobile crane and pass it through
the window of the second floor. Inside Zheka, uncle Serezha, Misha and the other male-builders take it and,
having tied it with ropes, gently lower it down through the floors with the butt on the platform. The first of
the five fortification columns are installed. There is welding work ahead: around the base of the column, a
special load distribution pyramid is assembled and scalded at the seams. The next task is to do the
defectological checks, acts of compliance with technology. Only a certified welder can weld fortifications
respecting GOST standards (a set of technical standards maintained by the Euro-Asian Council for
Standardization, Metrology and Certification (EASC)) 5264-80 and 9467-75.
Zheka at the moment of installing an I-beam on a shelf. The Mama Ro's ridge (the three-story columns of two
welded channels) is ready. It remains only as a means to unload the ceiling with transverse beams.
January 8, 2014, Tolya, Pasha, Uncle Seryozha, Misha, Volodya, Anton and other guys lift and hold ropes in
their hands and curse as the first beam, a 30-centimeter unloading ceiling I-beam, is pulled and installed in
a four-meter well between the columns. What remains is to figure out how to throw the beam onto the shelves
and under the ceiling with the knowledge that the weight of the beam is about 300 kilograms. In the courtyard,
there are another 48 meters of I-beams waiting for their turn; Zheka is cutting steel with a gas cutter
listening to the NoGGano “Insure” (НоГГано «Застрахуй») track.
You need to be eight to pass Zheka one I-beam. Then, the strapping, the transition from the floor above and
the beam pulling under the ceiling to the shelf. Tolya is in the center of the photo, Anton is on the right.
In the photo above: Zheka cuts an I-beam with a gas cutter.
By mid-January 2014, Tolya develops pyrophobia: in order to bring four cylinders with oxygen and acetylene for
a gas cutter from the warehouse in Mytishchi, he and Pasha carefully degrease the Rover's interior with gauze
rags - God forbid they jerk around from any contact with oil. Shortly before Tolya brought a whole trunk of
five-liter oil bottles on the Rover (Valery Fedorovich decided to expel moisture from the pine saw cuts by
heating them in a 100-liter barrel with vegetable oil). In the courtyard of Mama Ro, Tolya and Pasha unload
the Rover, prudently bringing the cylinders to a separate floor.
Valery Fedorovich agrees to work again with the guys. The purpose was to take a little curved space
for Mama Ro from a pine forest. Nothing more than an evolution of last year's work on the "Moscow"
studio. Only this time it’s more challenging.
Valery Fedorovich believes that each type of wood transfers its energy to the product. The guys
believe that Valery Fedorovich's pine chairs are similar to the “Van Gogh chairs”.
Valery Fedorovich would preserve the natural pattern of pine branches for book stands.
In the basement of the mansion there are three pines sawed in two on the sawmill, round cuts with tree rings,
and sanded branches folded to dry. Valery Fedorovich accepted the offer of Anton to work on the “Pine” studio.
“I think it was before the New Year, on December 26, 2013, Valery Fedorovich and Tolya went 350 kilometers
into the forest and returned with two trailers loaded with pine. “I will never forget the face of Valery
Fedorovich when we walked around the forest and chose pines for the studio. I could not understand which of
one us was younger: strong and energetic, he had time to participate in all processes. And then he would find
me and oh-so fervently pushing his shoulder, ask something conspiratorially just like a child! And he was so
happy about everything,” recalls Anton.
Five tons of timber arrive in Moscow. Valery Fedorovich, Tolya and Anton rent a trailer and bring pine trees
from Novgorod on the Rover. Top photo: drawings by Valery Fedorovich. Future pine furniture.
On the morning of January 23, 2014, under the windows of Mama Ro there are four granite boulders. Next to them
is the canvas boaster
A tool used by sculptors for stone cutting. Professional masters use from 10 and more scarps in their
work.
. Valery Fedorovich goes out into the courtyard and watches with interest Uncle Sasha’s almost
ritual-like preparation for work. On the eve of the night, Volodya and Anton brought and loaded the boulders
with a manipulator and Volodya asked his father to come in to look at the amount of work to see if he could
help with the manufacturing of a megalithic bed
Megaliths are structures from stone blocks of the Neolithic era, collected by the ancient peoples of the
North: from England (Stonehenge) to Russia (Karelian labyrinths).
for the “Stone” studio. Uncle Sasha arrives and, for the first time, meets Anton and Valery Fedorovich.
The ready to work set of boasters promotes an unconditional willingness to help the friends of his son.
Stone edits. Uncle Sasha transfers the already started hole for the lamp to the other side of the
boulder. The melting temperature of granite is “only 1300 degrees,” and the guys working with the
gas-cutter are just in the right moment: “Take it easy, so that it doesn't get blown away,” says
Uncle Sasha, meaning that the temperature of the acetylene and oxygen flame is twice as high and
will melt the stone almost instantly.
Uncle Sasha adores prehistoric petroglyphs. He takes “for experiment” one of the stone slabs for a
rock painting in the Stone studio. The result will decorate the interior on a par with the
“megalithic bed”; the boulders bed.
Uncle Sasha after working with a stone.
All of the boasters in Uncle Sasha's set are made of the cemented carbide alloy
Wear-resistant alloy made up of 90% tungsten carbide, used in work with hard materials.
by his own order. He studied to be a metallurgist but for the last thirty years he has been working as
an engraving artist. Stone is his real passion. Just like in the case of the geologist, Valery Fyodorovich.
While Uncle Sasha cuts off the excess from the granite boulders, in a half split-up, outside in the cold, Mama
Ro begins to form a friendship between two master titans who create the “Pine” and “Stone” studios.
The weight of one stone is a quarter of a ton. Young friends come to help realize in life the "sketch" of
the future bed of boulders. There is a two-month work ahead before the prepared boulders find themselves
on the second floor. In the bottom photo: Anton on a snow-white featherbed.
For the first time, Egor Ognerubov comes to Chistye Prudy on January 30, 2014. Some guys specialized in
assembling watches from Soviet indicator lamps, and after some persuasion agreed to share the contact of their
electronic engineer with Volodya. And they were recommended to Volodya through a contextual advertising
agency. Egor enters the managers’ room and without taking off his backpack, holding his back to the wall,
demonstrates his contactless radio sensor to the guys: he places a cobblestone on the table for the “Stone”
studio and turns it into a switch. All you need to do is hold your palm up. There are plenty of
radio-electronic ideas in the golden head of Egor.
The end of January 2014. The fortification reaches the third floor and one of the columns fits exactly through
the wall of the future shower room in the “Pine” studio. Nadia is just completing work on the 3D model of the
pine crowns and begins to think out loud what to do with the column
Имеется ввиду одна из трехэтажных колонн усиления особняка, прошедшая точно по границе
душевой в студии
“Сосновая” (отмечена голубым).
Initially the shower partitions were planned to entirely of glass, but the reinforcement plan of the
mansion makes need for its own adjustments. Nadia is the first 3D modeler working on the project and helps the
guys visualize the “Stone”, “Pine”, “Bauhaus” and “Melnikov” studios. A year ago, one of the participants
during the mosaic assembly laid out a “Tom Sawyer” type of post which included an invitation to join the
process and Nadia was the one stranger who responded.
February 7, 2014, 40 kilometers away from Moscow, Volodya is trying to fall asleep in a sleeping bag on a
dilapidated foam sofa: "The face freezes, the body burns". The wooden window barely holds the heat. As always,
in the suburbs, the February frosts are stronger than in Moscow. Outside through the window we can hear
barking dogs and the creaking of the Kratovo pines laden with snow. We hear the noise of a train. The village
of Kratovo lies about an hour’s drive from Moscow: the Kazansky Railway Station, a train, a platform with the
same name passes. Here Volodya and Kostya rented a carpentry workshop and set about creating furniture for the
future Bauhaus studio. Volodya spends the night in the workshop.
Colleagues call Kostya Grechka (buckwheat in Russian) for his fiery red hair color. In Mama Ro,
everyone uses the diminutive “Kostik” due to his sensitivity in work. In the photo: testing of
thermochromic paint on the steps for the Bauhaus studio. In the photo above: Kostya and Volodya, focus
group.
Kostya grinds ash on a thickness planner. Unlike the Pine studio, the furniture for the Bauhaus studio
is trimmed with a “precision fit” that is, with zero gaps. With this method, furniture can be
assembled without the use of glue or screws.
The beauty of the ash pattern and its high durability become the main criteria for choosing it for the
Bauhaus studio furniture.
"The surface of Jupiter" or the future table for a "chess pair", a furniture installation for playing
chess. Kostya will also make chess with his own hands.
Kostya polishing the "chess pair".
“Chess pair” is ready.
On the subject of the second after the start of the work: “the day was the beginning of my long-dotted
journey, Moscow - the workshop in Kratovo - Moscow. I traveled this way exactly 120 times, and its total
length was 4,800 kilometers... every time the train lazily left from under the tall rooftops of the Kazansky
Station, my heart inexplicably trembled. 40 kilometers beyond Moscow seemed to me almost like a flight to the
Moon "- recalls Volodya.
The next day, on February 8, 2014, Kostya passes the un-planed board through the planer
A carpenter's tool used to remove (plan) excess thickness and level the surface of wood.
. The dusty, uniform in color material goes under the shaft and it comes back, as Volodya says, as "the
surface of Jupiter": the knife shows a florid pattern of the ash wood. His "cosmic beauty" isn’t the only
feature. At the very beginning, when Volodya draws the strict, minimalistic sketches of future furniture,
Kostya proposes using an ash tree because of its high strength and elasticity: even the ancients made cudgels,
bows, and spears; even their own cosmogony was made from it since, in Scandinavian culture, the World Tree was
considered to be an Ash tree. From time to time Kostya gets the drills stuck in it.
Еще один мэтр работы с деревом принимает приглашение вновь поработать вместе – Костя приступает к
изготовлению авторской мебели для студии “Баухаус”. Рабочие моменты. На фото справа: За огненно-рыжий
цвет волос коллеги по цеху называют Костю Гречкой. В Mother Ро закрепится уменьшительно-ласкательное
“Костик” – за чуткость в работе. На фото: тестирование термохромной краски на ступенях для “Баухауса”.
February 21, 2014, in Kratovo, Kostya and Volodya leave the workshop and cross the railway tracks. It's
getting dark. The icy crust crunches under their feet. A stray dog starts following the guys. Shurik the
Welder lives somewhere on the other side of the railway tracks to whom Kostya wants to introduce Volodya. The
road turns right and stretches along the tracks. Volodya guesses that the derivative from Sasha - “Shurik” -
paired with the nickname “Welder” in everyday life, is like “minimizing his real talents”: for everyone who is
familiar with Shurik knows that he is almost a legend, a poet with a welding electrode instead of a feather.
Volodya and Kostya are approaching Shurik's house and the barking behind the fence makes the stray dog take
flight.
Shurik's house stands on the opposite side of the railway from Kostya's workshop. An artel is formed in
Kratovo working on the Bauhaus studio. In the right photo: Kostya and Honda. At Shurik’s.
Shurik meets the guys with bread and salt: right from the doorway to the table. On the table there are mantis
with elks (a type of dumpling); Shurik loves to hunt. Kostya eats mantis with a good appetite and plays with
Honda, a snow-white husky. The name of the second dog is Baton, a skewbald Eskimo dog. They drove the stray
dog away. After the dinner they take a tour of the house. Volodya likes the corbel consoles
A cantilever structure is an element in architecture and interior that projects perpendicularly to the
plane of the facade or wall and does not have additional supports.
on the balcony
which has two structural channels. Like the whole house, Shurik invented and assembled it with his own hands. The conversation goes down
into the workshop. Shurik shows the guys his ideas and the idea of the Bauhaus studio gradually acquires
graceful metal structures. Shurik knows how to make anything from metal.
Shurik dispels Volodya's doubts about the strength of the console tabletop, which he welded to the
reinforcement column in Mama Ro a minute ago.
The result of the meeting with Shurik would be the appearance of complex metal structures in the
Bauhaus studio. Shurik would show Volodya his self-built house with a cantilever metal balcony.
Shurik is a master millimeter and accurately determines by eye if he made a millimeter deviation
during welding.
The third construction is gaining momentum. More and more people appear in a
small managers room and more and more often the workspace spills out onto the back door and into the smoking
room. Dima considers the smoking room a place of power: here he likes to discuss the layout of the Mama Ro
magazine. “Here - Dima remembers - all the most interesting conversations take place” - being 187 centimeters
tall and doing laborious layouts in the managers room, the spacious stairwells serve Dima well: Dima hangs on
the railing, Dima sits on the wall, Dima jumps through the flight of stairs. Furthermore, he always finds a
companion. The conversation flows easily, extends beyond the mansion and spreads over Chistye Prudy. It is at
this moment, Dima meets Alikhan for the first time. Alikhan comes out of the managers room to the back door
and says: “Hello”.
The mansion's reinforcement work has been completed and the granite bed is being prepared to be raised to the
second floor. In the top photo: Sonya brings the rooftop tea tradition to Mama Ro. Author of the photo:
Alikhan.
Until March 21, 2014, Alikhan is almost invisibly present at the construction
site. He puts the cameras on time-lapse mode and shoots the work of Pasha, Zheka, Misha, uncle Serezha and the
other guys. Throughout all this time, Alikhan acts as the “video eye” impartially framing everything for the
film. Alikhan isn’t there but his camera lens is. Until one day Sonya appears in Mama Ro together with the
beginning of spring. Nastya was looking for an assistant and Volodya recalled the artist Sonya whom he knew
from university. Sonya begins to work with the guys for the first time, and Alikhan’s “video eye” loses its
impartiality forever.
Alikhan makes a video about the construction. Sonya appears in Mama Ro on March 21, 2014. Alikhan's music
video is no longer a video about the construction. In the right photo: Sonya brings the rooftop tea tradition
to Mama Ro. Author of the photo: Alikhan.
March 24, 2014, Alikhan and Sonya drink tea on the roof of the Mama Ro mansion and watch the fuss in the yard.
Down below, a truck crane has just arrived right under the windows of the “Stone” studio and is starting
preparations to lift the boulders to the second floor. Tolya and Pasha have already taken out the window so
that the arrow, a tool on the machine, with the boulder could pass inside. Uncle Sasha and Anton tie the
stones with straps. Tolya runs downstairs and begins to worry that 250 kilograms of granite will slip over
someone's head. Alikhan grabs the camera and runs to shoot it.
The next day, March 25, 2014, Anton and Uncle Sasha try to turn the boulders
over to their spots in the studio and are not able to. One of the guys comes in and hands them a piece of a
gas pipe (if you can't turn it over, you can try to roll it). "It’ll flatten it" – Anton was convinced.
“Nonsense!” – and indeed, Uncle Sasha and the guys lift the boulder with six hands, Anton puts the pipe under
it and the stone begins to roll. “A strange feeling – Anton recalls – something like a chicken egg that cannot
be squeezed in a fist or light bulbs in a neck of a jar on which you can stand.” Uncle Sasha finds another
piece of scrap metal as it’s more convenient to roll the boulder with two.
Apostle Uncle Sasha the next day after placing the
boulders on the second floor.
March 27, 2014 Anton invites Egor Egorychev to look at the space of the “Pine” studio. Egor works with Volodya
and makes calculations of the metal structures for the “Bauhaus” studio. Nadia just finished the drawings of
the second unit and now they need a strength calculation (a ton of glass floor from triplex
Impact-resistant tempered optical glass made of three layers, glued with a film, withstands the weight
of several people at the same time.
will be laid on
the mezzanine). Egor looks at the mezzanine drawings and specifies the areas where support is needed and concludes: "You can set the UAZ,
it will hold it”. The next day, Egor, Lesha’s partner, sends through the calculation: for a three-meter beam
with a cross section of 100x100x3mm and a total load of 500 kg per meter; additionally, there is a deflection
of 1.56 cm. Just according with the building code: 2.1 cm. So, Egor was right. Tolya and Pasha begin to weld
the mezzanine.
On April 1, 2014, there was a panic at the construction site: all the water
leaked out of the barely finished shower room in the “Pine” studio. “Uncle Serezha worked: he carefully laid
down the layers of waterproofing, rechecked everything and, not without pride, called me to approve the work:
you can check, he said – I did it as if it was for myself! We poured in four centimeters of water in
accordance to the technology and left for lunch. We returned an hour later and there was no water...” -
recalls Tolya. Uncle Serezha runs off somewhere cursing frightfully. Tolya on all fours starts to look for a
leak. If the water leaked to the floor below, there would be a scandal. In this same moment, happy uncle
Serezha comes back. It turned out that Misha thought that there was a flood in the shower and he
conscientiously collected all the water with a vacuum cleaner. Uncle Serezha's waterproofing is well
done.
It would take time to learn to understand Uncle Seryozha's rapid-talking. Uncle
Seryozha is from Donbass and communicates with a characteristic intonation. When the construction team learns to
understand his speech, Uncle Seryozha's jokes will spread among everyone.
On April 6, 2014, in St. Petersburg, Galya finishes and sends Anton the last file of the light books
The internal name of the engraved and illuminated book cases made for the Stone and Pine studios.
for the “Stone” and “Pine” studios after two months of monotonous work. “Nastya Timofeeva hates the
vector work
Vector mapping is a way of displaying graphics using program code, necessary, for example, for engraving
light books (the laser moves using the code).
and in December 2013, she politely sent me off with this idea to her friend Galya” - Anton and Galya get
acquainted; Galya makes a test file; Anton takes him to the laser cutting place and by February 20, 2013, he
collects a folder of 41 scans for the future light books
To create light books, each cover is scanned separately, then vectorised, and engraved on a plexiglas
book case.
for Galya. “Maybe, only a year later, for the first time, we would chat about the life in St. Petersburg
and Moscow, about this and that, as is usually the case, Galya works in a Spartan way: without words, simply
for the result. Consequently, everything is always on time.”
April 17, 2014, Anton sends to Galya a graphic file with the Sumerian cuneiform
as a test vector. A message is encrypted in the file. Somewhere within it was a joke that instead of copying
the incomprehensible-to-anyone cuneiform, "it’s better to learn Sumerian" and to encrypt something in it in
the “Stone” studio. Anton recalls Nastya's talent for languages and suggests her to find more information
about the Ancient Sumerians, is it possible to write in cuneiform, for example, the Brodsky's poem “Under a
sprawling elm”? Nastya gets into it and after a while brings the phonetic translation of the poem. Then Anton
remembers the longer “San Pietro” and Nastya translates again, and the two encrypted messages appear in the
studio's lamps.
Nastya Timofeeva is in Moscow for the first time and meets the guys after a little less than a year of
work on the Internet. From left to right: Anton, Nastya Timofeeva, Volodya, Sonya, Nastya.
April 24, 2014, in St. Petersburg, Nastya Timofeeva finishes the watercolor version
This refers to the color version of the Mama Ro logo created by Nastya Timofeeva in 2014 for the opening
day of six new studios.
of the Mama Ro planet and begins preparing for her first trip to Moscow. For the last five months,
Nastya has been working on the illustrations for the magazine that’s being made by Dima, and Anton suggests
her to come to create rock art for the “Stone” studio: “Nastya has a polyglot-like talent in painting, she can
draw and paint in completely different styles”. Nastya sends a file, downloads a ticket to Moscow and finds
out that Anton reserved everything backwards – the train is from Moscow to Petersburg. Three days later, on
April 27, 2014, Nastya is finally in Moscow, and has met with the guys for the first time.
Having finished the rock painting for the Stone studio, Nastya Timofeeva would return to Moscow in
two weeks but this time to help with the painting for the Melnikov studio. In the photo: working on
sketches during the second trip.
Nastya working on the rock art for the Stone studio.
The painting will be based on the prehistoric drawings of the
Lascaux and Altamira caves.
April 28, 2014, in Kratovo, Shurik finishes the work on the frame of the cantilever stairs for the “Bauhaus”
studio. Egor Egorychev, Volodya and Lesha come to see the result. The weight of the structure turned out to be
only 200 kilograms. It’s the victory of the applied approach over a theoretical: at the very beginning, when
Egor and Lesha did the design calculations, Shurik looked at the drawing and replaced all the vertical pillars
with a light diagonal, he suggested to weld a stair stringer
The diagonal bearing element of the staircase was welded into a rigid frame according to Sasha Sergeev's
plan to obtain solid cantilever steps (protruding from the wall plane) in the Bauhaus studio.
– “we need to do it this way”. Egor thoughtfully looks at the drawing. With this option, all the
cantilever steps turn into levers that work on twisting and breaking a bridgeboard. However, neither the
profile nor the thickness of its wall would not allow this. Egor comes up with a verdict: we can do this.
Shurik has been working with metal for over thirty years.
Stair stringer (a diagonal inside a rigid frame at the base of a cantilever staircase) is the
original solution proposed by Shurik for the Bauhaus studio.
Five days later, on May 3, 2014, there is a fuss again near the main entrance of
Mama Ro. Shurik and Volodya brought the frame of the cantilevered staircase from Kratovo and the builders
didn’t know how to lift it to the second floor: “We won’t be able to swing it around, the width of the flight
of stairs is not enough”. “Won’t swing it around,” - Shurik echoes them knowing that on every team there is a
lover of impossible missions. “We will swing it around, and we will get it inside”, Uncle Serezha grunts in
response. “Should we bet on it?” - Shurik bets for a bottle of good whiskey and after twenty minutes he begins
to weld the frame of the staircase in the future “Bauhaus” studio. Uncle Serezha is able to do the
impossible.
The main entrance with a pre-revolutionary stucco molding is the only passage through which Uncle Seryozha
(in a green T-shirt) manages to lift Shurik's stairs to the Bauhaus studio. The bet for a bottle of
whiskey.
May 12, 2014, in Kratovo, Volodya sweeps his finger along the corner of a wooden
armchair of the “Bauhaus” studio and immediately withdraws his hand as blood runs out from the pad of his
finger. Kostya invited Volodya to check whether the edges were sharp enough. Volodya, from his own experience,
becomes convinced of Kostya’s argument that it really is necessary to remove a flat face even if it’s a
millimeter one. The density of ash wood is such that it can be used to cut the blades. Perfectionism and
passion for strict lines give way to experience: Kostya removes a millimeter face edge.
Misha Starish comes to the construction as a master of finishing works, but turns out to be a jack
of all trades, including a talented gardener.
May 20, 2014, Tolya arrives at the construction site before everyone else and sees the following: Misha transplants grapes with his one elbow in the ground in the yard. The day before the neighbor from the first floor asked Tolya to help her plant seedlings. “Grapes are a weed, just dig it in and it will take root,” she said. “The next day, at sunrise, Misha came and dug everything back out. He carefully laid it out, cut and carefully placed every sprout back in a different place. He was silent and focused. It looked like a meditation and his face expressed some kind of peace - says Tolya - I asked him why he was doing this, and he, embarrassed by my attention, kept silent and then smiled somewhere to the side and replied: because these are grapes...”- in Transnistria, where Misha is from, they love grapes and know how to take care of them.
Sonya at Chistye Prudy. Alikhan’s photo. With the arrival of spring around the
Mama Ro mansion, the walking season around the city begins. Alikhan finally disappears from the dusty chaos of
the construction site.
May 22, 2014, Sonya with a cup of tea returns to the managers room, opens a
photo with Valery Fedorovich, and uncle Sasha with her phone, removes the saturation, frames it and posts it
on the social network saying: “One of the most interesting conversations in my life”. The conversation of two
master titans, who politely accepted young Sonya to their group, takes place slowly over tea in a sunny
smoking room. They talk about everything: geological exploration, sculpture, painting and cinema,
specifically, Andrei Tarkovsky and Michalis Kakoyanis films. The interlocutors hadn’t watched one of these
films, but the conversation was dear to Sonya: “We were talking about these films but it was like we were in
the film itself. And we drank tea”.
“One of the most interesting conversations in my life,” Sonia uploads a
photo of Valery Fedorovich and Uncle Sasha in the smoking room. Both masters are the people of the
Renaissance, combining several professions. They gradually gain the glory of "construction titans" among
the young.
Valery Fedorovich, uncle Sasha and Sonya quickly become friends. Despite the
difference in age, two elderly craftsmen eternally covered with a whitish layer of dust and youthfully in love
with their work, easily get along with the younger generation. Everyone at the construction site notices their
inexhaustible energy. Volodya, who watches with interest the emerging friendship, ironically says that when he
was a kid the mother would throw out his father's flowers “not because they were fading, but because they were
annoying” – that is, Uncle Sasha worked with his bare hands with uranium ore. “Yes, they are both, in fact,
uranium elders” - laughs Volodya. One time, geologist Valery Fedorovich engaged in the exploration of uranium
deposits, and metallurgist Uncle Sasha - in the alloys made from raw uranium.
Sonya in the smoking room. "Smoking room" is a conventional name, as a
smoke break takes all possible forms, from literal to fascinating conversations over a mug of tea. In the
photo above: “uranium elders” as Volodya calls Valery Fedorovich and Uncle Sasha at work.
May 28, 2014, Nastya Timofeeva arrives again in Moscow. Egor Egorychev, Volodya
and Anton conduct a tour of the old Arbat. The theme of the tour: “Soviet and alien technologies on the Old
Arbat. From Melnikov’s House to the Foreign Ministry Building”. Nastya came to Moscow to help Volodya realize
the painting of the Melnikova studio, and Egor agreed to introduce Nastya to the topic. The friends come to
the foot of the Foreign Ministry and talk about the famous Smolensk incident where the disappearance of the
skyscraper in 1952 was replaced with an extraterrestrial replica with a spire on the site of the freshly built
Foreign Ministry building
After the war and up to Stalin's decree in 1952, the skyscraper of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs
was built according to a project that didn’t involve a spire.
and followed by the mysterious death of Joseph Stalin. Nastya attentively listens to the guys.
The guys prepared a surprise for Nastya. According to the plan on one of the
side streets Egor should suddenly say goodbye and leave the tour. The friends slowly move towards the Melnikov
house. Nastya doesn’t yet know about Egor’s friendship with the descendants of the architect. At the wall of
Tsoi, Egor suddenly receives a call coming from Volodya’s pocket. Unfortunately, Egor has to leave
immediately. Nastya, Volodya and Anton say goodbye to Egor who disappears into Arbat’s side streets. Egor
proceeds with what he had planned: he runs around the block from the opposite side, jumps over the fence into
the backyard of the Melnikov house and hides behind the gate just before the guys arrive.
It is difficult for Nastya Timofeeva to believe that the guys are telling her the pure truth, but a
trip to Melnikov's house makes an indelible impression on her.
Egor Egorychev gives Nastya a tour of Melnikov's house.
Nastya in the Holy of Holies: Konstantin Melnikov's workshop on the third floor.
After going to Melnikov's house, Nastya begins work on the studio of the same name. The history of
the unique house will be the basis of the project.
The friends come to the gate from the Krivoarbatsky Lane and talk about the
secret status of the house and developments of the space by Konstantin Melnikov and Sergey Korolev. Egor is
behind the gate. According to the plan, he must show himself at the very end of the story and invite Nastya on
a tour of the house. Suddenly, Nastya interrupts the story and suggests that they try to knock on the door and
see if they can meet the descendants of the architect. Volodya and Anton, having looked at each other, approve
Nastya's “good idea” and watch with pleasure as she knocks on the gate of Melnikov’s house and finds Egor
behind it.
Егор Егорычев рассказывает Насте о полете дома Мельникова на Луну и, с разрешения Екатерины
Каринской,
внучки Константина Мельникова, показывает сохранившиеся чертежи дома-ракеты.
June 1, 2014, Egor Ognerubov arrives at Chistye Prudy to introduce Misha to the work going on in the “Stone”
and “Pine” studios. On this day, it’s Misha Kurlov’s first time at the construction site. While Egor is
finishing the program for light books
This refers to the program to control the LED strips that change the colors inside the light books in
the Pine studio.
, Pasha calls Misha from Ukraine to help with the soldering of LEDs. Nobody assumes yet that there is a
whole month of work still to do. Misha meets Egor and the rest of the guys, investigates the matter and goes
to lunch with everyone. At this moment, Volodya and Nastya Timofeeva break away from the painting of the
Melnikov studio and take a smoke break. Anton and Volodya introduce Nastya to Egor. Egor, being shy of new
people, covers his shyness by being in a hurry for business.
After the light books, Egor starts working on the stairs in the Bauhaus studio. The idea is to create touch
lighting so that the steps are illuminated at the moment of contact, each separately. In right photo: Egor
first meets Kostya while working on electronics for the Bauhaus studio in Kratovo.
Egor Ognerubov, whose surname could be translated from Russian as the “flame cutter”, explains to the guys the
origin of his last name by slash-and-burn agriculture which his ancestor was engaged in in ancient times (when
they cut down the forest, a flame cutter would come to replace the woodcutter and “cut down” the remaining
stumps and perches by means of fire). Modern Egor is a specialist in radio electronics, but he speaks with
enthusiasm about the leaves turning yellow in the trees after a process of irradiation of the forest edge with
tropospheric radio waves. Two years ago, somewhere in the deaf Russian forests, Egor served as a liaison in
the army forces: with two army fellows at KAMAZ truck equipped with a tropospheric radio station.
A mobile station of tropospheric radio communication where Yegor served in
the army. In the photo above: Private signalman-radio electronics operator Ognerubov aboard the Mi-8
during military exercises.
June 2, 2014, Anton, Volodya and Nastya Timofeeva go to Kratovo on Rover. Alikhan jumps in to take a ride with
the guys but suddenly he falls asleep on the way. The guys are so passionate about their conversation that
they forget about Alikhan right up to the Moscow Ring Road. And Alikhan is having a dream. He is Tintin who
got into the '80 Olympics in Moscow and Egor Ognerubov is an evil genius radio electronics engineer who
decided to enslave the whole world. If he doesn’t stop him, just as the Olympic Bear flies up on the balloons
over Moscow, immediately the rockets from all mines, submarines and trains in the USSR will rush to the USA.
Like the Trojan horse, Egor hid a cunning radio device inside the bear to deceive the Soviet Electronic
Warfare
Electronic Warfare (EW) means are used by the armed forces to create radio interference on the lines of
communication, control, guidance and navigation of a potential enemy.
forces and hack the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense!
So, from the previous paragraph, we learn that Alikhan fell asleep. Being on the last row of the Rover and
suspecting nothing, he travels with the guys to Kratovo. He has a dream: having stuffed the Olympic bear with
cunning radio equipment, Egor Ognerubov is going to arrange a nuclear apocalypse. The world is in danger
again. Will Alikhan-Tintin manage to neutralize the Olympic bear and save everyone from the evil genius Egor
Ognerubov? While the history of the Mama Ro project goes on as usual, these questions can only be answered by
plunging into Alikhan’s sleep together with him.
Alikhan-Tintin rushes into the Luzhniki stunned by a standing ovation. The Olympic Bear, stuffed with radio
equipment, is carried into the stadium. But where does one look for Egor in such a large crowd? By intuition,
penetrating the dream, Alikhan-Tintin understands that the key lies in the microphone of Lev Leshchenko who
enters the stage when the bear takes off, and once the closing song of the games is finished, he turns off his
microphone and, unwittingly, releases the entire nuclear arsenal. He must at all costs get this microphone!
Alikhan-Tintin is faster than the wind and at the front of the stage, and with amazement, discovers that
Valery Fedorovich is going to perform “Goodbye, our gentle Misha” instead of Lev Leschenko. And along with him
Sonya accompanies him on the backing vocals.
Alikhan-Tintin starts a fight with Valery Fedorovich Leshchenko and easily gets the microphone. What remains
now is to catch Ognerubov. Alikhan-Tintin rushes to the edge of the stage but unexpectedly receives a heavy
stab in the back. Behind him, Sonya jumps off the stage. She is an Amazon assigned by Egor to protect Valery
Fedorovich. Alikhan-Tintin cannot believe his eyes, even in his wildest of nightmares he couldn’t imagine that
he would have to fight Sonya. At this moment, one and a half thousand acrobatic dancers run out onto the
stadium stage and their fight merges with the on-going show. Sonya fights flawlessly and bows, collecting the
ovation from the stands, but Alikhan-Tintin fights her back no worse, until both of them fall unconscious from
exhaustion. When he awoke, Alikhan-Tintin grabs the microphone and runs off in search of Ognerubov.
Egor Ognerubov anticipates an apocalypse on the edge of the Olympic flame bowl. Finally, Alikhan-Tintin
notices a sinister silhouette against the background of a flame and rushes towards him. At the same moment,
Misha Starish suddenly appears among the spectators and pours hard, unripe grapes at his feet. Followed by
Nadia who launches Archicad and one by one removes the stands from under his feet. From somewhere, Anton pulls
his oily, greasy-smeared fingers and Volodya, snatching a board without a face edge, strives to chop someone
into pieces. Behind them, Egor Egorychev appears and sings in a deafening falsetto “The House of Melnikov”,
and metal Tolya and Pasha, advancing like guards on the clock, cross I-beams on the way. And Nastya sprinkles
the steps with Sumerian cuneiform as if it was salt from a bucket.
Rolling and climbing, Alikhan-Tintin overcomes more and more obstacles. Finally, arriving at the foot of the
bowl, two monsters meet him: one was uncle Serezha crossed with a rooster and the second was Dima crossed with
a spider crawling sideways on the wall. Flicking and whistling threateningly, both get closer and closer.
Alikhan-Tintin turns to flight in horror and, having slipped on cuneiform, rolls down from the podium head
over heels. At the same time, Sonya comes to life in the arena, at first thoughtfully and seriously watching
Alikhan's misadventures, unexpectedly rolls with laughter loudly and playfully. Never in her life had she seen
anything more ridiculous.
Finally, Alikhan-Tintin is at the top of the bowl with the Olympic flame. Egor Ognerubov, turned his back on
him, watches as they prepare an Olympic bear in the arena. “Give me the microphone, Alikhan! The future is
inevitable...” - says Ognerubov, and from his words Alikhan-Tintin understands that the devilish invention in
the bear will work regardless as it, having flown far enough away, loses contact with the microphone anyway.
“Surrender, Ognerubov, it's over!” - Alikhan-Tintin interrupts him, rushes to meet him and immediately bounces
off being blinded by a bright flash. They aren’t alone in the bowl! This is Shurik the Welder who creates the
Olympic flame through thermite a welding process. “It’s a pity, it’s a pity. And I was hoping that we would
watch the apocalypse salute together” - sighs Egor snatching the microphone from the blinded Alikhan-Tintin
and shoves him off the edge of the bowl.
In exactly two and a half seconds Alikhan-Tintin reaches the foot of the stadium. This is enough time for the
blue sporty 1957’s Chevrolet Corvette SS to arrive to catch him. Alikhan lands right in the seat of the sports
car. Amazon Sonya suddenly comes to his aid! “We urgently need to get back upstairs. He took the microphone!”
– cries the blind Alikhan-Tintin and suddenly feels that something weighty appears in his hand. The
microphone! All this time he was pursuing Ognerubov, having mistakenly confused Sonya’s microphone with the
real one snatched from Valery Fedorovich. But why didn’t she give it to Ognerubov? “Ha-ha, are we on-air now?”
- Alikhan-Tintin is excited about turning up the volume on the radio tape recorder and at the same time the
Olympic bear soars above the stadium under the noise of “We are the Moscow beat”.
Olympus
The stadium rejoices. Egor, realizing that the Amazon had betrayed him, blows out the Olympic flame in fury.
“He was bluffing that the microphone is not necessary: the bear is actually activated if it flies off a
hundred meters away but the launch of the nuclear missiles will start only if it is in the radius between
Luzhniki and Frunzenskaya, which is, in this moment, where the Ministry of Defense is. So, without a
microphone, Ognerubov can only pray for the direction of the wind to guide his missiles. And that we don’t
move a muscle for fear of setting of the missiles. That is, dead.” – Sonya, starting her pursuit, drives to
the Luzhnetsky Bridge. Fortunately, the Olympic Bear flies in the direction of Sparrow Hills. Sight returns to
Alikhan-Tintin: he sees through the veil that Olympus rises on the horizon instead of Sparrow Hills. And they,
following the bear, rush along the Luzhnetsky bridge directly over there.
Alikhan-Tintin and the Amazon Sonya enter the foothills of Olympus. Trees, streams and birds here seem frozen
in anticipation of something. Alikhan-Tintin asks Sonya to drive the car closer so he can jump and neutralize
the Olympic bear. At this moment a thin sound is heard over the slope as if somebody was playing a pipe.
Alikhan-Tintin turns around and sees that towards them, from the thicket, the woodworker, Kostya, with goat
legs, a beard and horns comes at them. He is either the devil himself or the ancient Greek Pan. Alongside him
there is a whole herd of roe deer and goats. “Firebirds won't surrender just like that,” says Sonya, and just
as soon as Pan Kostya manages to bring the flute to his lips, she squeezes the pedal.
"Hold on" - shouts Sonya, trying to get away from the chase. Pan Kostya with the roe deer and goats jump after
him overtaking the Corvette. Alikhan-Tintin notices an oak grove on the right. Sonya flies into it, and they
manage to get away. The Olympic bear hovers in the sky swaying over the tops of the trees. Now he is out of
reach. Alikhan thinks on a new plan and gets suddenly lost in reverie. It seems that he is no longer
Alikhan-Tintin who is saving the world, he isn’t in a sports car and Sonya is not the Amazon who has just
saved his life. He just has to descend and dissolve into this charming song. Alikhan-Tintin takes the
microphone, stands at the door, but an unexpectedly strong jerk pushes him back into the chair. “Fasten
yourself!” Sonya shouts while fastening his seatbelt and the Corvette takes off out of a grove filled with
singing pandas.
“What was it?” - Alikhan-Tintin and Sonya land in a glade with a giant oak tree in the center. "You almost
returned the microphone to Ognerubov, giving in to their song." “Whose?” Alikhan-Tintin turns back. But there
is no one there. Sonya takes over again and goes after the Olympic bear and for the first time Alikhan-Tintin
notices that the oak in the glade is not just gigantic but of colossal size capable of reaching the top of the
bowels of the universe. And behind it, someone comes down who is equally great. Alikhan-Tintin peers into the
silhouette and realizes that this is the giant Valery Fedorovich. He is an ancient titan.
Valery Fedorovich approaches the Corvette. His eyes are covered in flames and Sonia realizes that their only
protection here is the oak itself. This titan is its keeper. Looking terrifying, Valery Fedorovich goes around
the tree and Sonya drives the Corvette in a circle using the crown as a shield. Unwittingly, Alikhan-Tintin
observes Valery Fedorovich in horror and tries to wake up marveling at Sonya's coolness. “Look what Ognerubov
has done,” says Sonya, watching Valery Fedorovich who finally, grabbing the base of the oak, begins shaking
the earth trying to pull it out of the ground. "This titan is ready to shake the universe itself and all for
what ..." - Sonia says and suddenly without finishing the phrase, bursts out laughing: unable to unroot the
world tree, the giant Valery Fedorovich grunts earnestly.
Valery Fedorovich turns to the laugh that has spread over the atmosphere of Olympus and meets his eyes with
Sonya’s. “Well, that’s enough, Valery Fedorovich” - Alikhan-Tintin seems to be hearing. “All the stars in
their orbits are gone - look what you have done!” says Sonya, bursting into laughter even more from the
expression on Valery Fyodorovich’s face; it seems that from a certain revelation his eyes suddenly filled with
depth. With relief, the titan throws down the remnants of fire from his eyelids, gently straightens the shaken
tree and, after a deep exhalation, he suddenly bursts into Homeric laughter. So much so that Amazon Sonya
rushes to get the car out of the glade as quickly as possible due to the fact that the stream is spilling over
and stones begin rolling dangerously because of Valery Fedorovich’s laugh.
The Olympic bear is almost at the top. The Corvette's power is low and has barely enough energy to continue
the pursuit so Sonya stops. Alikhan-Tintin jumps out of the car, quickly climbs along the rocky spurs of
Olympus and finds the bear hovering right above a small clearing where everything was calm. Suddenly, a gust
of wind knocks him down. On the left, Nastya Timofeeva sits on a folding chair in a flowing dress and with a
ribbon in her hair, frozen like a Greek statue. And she draws something in her sketchbook. With a wave of her
pencil she magically stopped the flight of the Olympic Bear. But who is she? Is she a Goddess? “Without a
microphone, Ognerubov can only pray to the direction of the wind...” Alikhan-Tintin suddenly recalls Sonya’s
words and, leaving behind any doubts, rushes to the bear. Nastya draws the direction of the wind.
Alikhan-Tintin barely manages to arrive in time, a hurricane squall rips and carries the Olympic bear into the
abyss. Falling and rising under the onslaught of the storm, Alikhan-Tintin hurries back to Sonya. “Timofeeva
directed the bear towards Frunzenskaya. If we let it go, the world is finished!” Alikhan-Tintin shouts and
Sonya turns the car around. Down at the base, Pan Kostya is already waiting with a horde of roe deer and
goats. “It's so good when the only way to solve a problem is to go through it,” exclaims Sonya and hits the
pedal to the floor. The corvette takes off with a roar and unexpectedly soars into the sky: the giant, Valery
Fyodorovich, dragged and set a Big Springboard in their way. “Wow, wow, wow!” Alikhan-Tintin shouts, happily
saying goodbye to Pan Kostya who remained somewhere below. “What a beautiful city!” – the Amazon admires the
rising panorama of Moscow.
Andreyevsky Bridge
Having flown through the foothills of Olympus, the Corvette lands at the Moscow Palace of Pioneers and rushes
in hot pursuit again. The Olympic Bear is halfway to the Ministry of Defense. Alikhan-Tintin climbs on the
back of his seat and tries to grab the bear by the paw. But the squall comes down knocking him down. The bear
is pulled down towards the river. “There is a bridge; it will fly right over it!” - Alikhan-Tintin notices
ahead the Andreevsky Bridge. "This is our last chance, the wind is driving the bear too quickly out of the
microphone's range of operation," Sonya shouts, turning to the bridge and suddenly the asphalt begins to fall
into the river: Zheka in a Bruce Willis’s t-shirt appears out of nowhere and cuts the bridge beams with a
giant gas cutter.
The Olympic Bear approaches the bridge break. “Another springboard! Do not stop, accelerate more and jump into
the river!” shouts Alikhan-Tintin, climbing again on the back of his seat, and Sonya realizes that he is going
to jump on the Olympic Bear. The corvette bellows hysterically. Sonya looks at Alikhan who is preparing to
jump. He has a microphone in his hand. “I will succeed, succeed,” Alikhan whispers without noticing how
everything around him begins to tremble: something huge rises from the gap of the bridge ahead. Sonya turns
and sees the eyes covered in flame. A second titan! He is Uncle Sasha lifting a giant blue boulder from the
bottom of the river. Sonya understands that they don’t have time. Uncle Sasha throws the boulder.
“Alikhan!” Sonya screams and, escaping from behind the wheel, pushes Alikhan-Tintin from the side of the car.
At the same time, the giant boulder, having broken the bonnet, with a roar stops the acceleration of the
sports car, and the twisted Corvette, tumbling, flies into the river. Alikhan-Titin, unable to really
understand what happened, flies a few meters to the side and lands on the tail-end platform of the Moscow-Ufa
speed train passing along the neighboring bridge. “It's all over” - flashes in Alikhan-Tintin’s head as the
train quickly disappears into the tunnel. The Olympic Bear floats above the destroyed bridge. Sonya is
unconscious somewhere below between the burning tires. A microphone rolls past her.
The microphone rolls into the gap of the bridge and someone's hand is there just in time to catch it.
Alikhan-Titin, having run out of the tunnel, knows that he is late: the Olympic bear is over the Ministry of
Defense. The air is calm. Ognerubov is on the bridge. He has a microphone in his hand. Now he will turn it off
and the devilish invention in the bear will activate the nuclear missiles. Suddenly, Alikhan-Titin notices
Sonya: having given him a sign, she carefully sneaks up to Egor from behind. “No one can stop me!” - Egor
raises the microphone, putting his finger on the switch, and at the same time a whirlwind passes through his
hand. “Yes, yes, yes!” Shouts Alikhan. Sonya got the microphone! “Even you” - and Egor, removing from his
second pocket the real microphone, clicks the switch off button.
An unprecedented silence falls over Moscow. “What have you done!” Sonya shouts, not having having manage to
get Ognerubov the second time. It seems to Alikhan-Tintin that everything around is frozen in anticipation of
what will happen next. “Actually, nothing,” Egor suddenly replies. And he clicks the button again. “I was just
joking!” - and again. There is a pause. However, nothing happens. Standing a hundred meters away from him,
Alikhan-Tintin hears a starched shirt crunch on Yegor. “Damn you to hell, will you work or not!”, Egor finally
gets annoyed, pointing the microphone right at the Ministry of Defense, clicks it again and suddenly the music
starts playing from the speakers all over Moscow.
The warning systems one after another start working throughout the USSR. Instead of howling sirens the track
"Dance" is launched everywhere: above cities, villages, fields, forests, mountains and rivers, in trains and
on ships, in airplanes and submarines, in mines underground and on even the space station in orbit. Egor, very
pleased with the work of his invention, stands proudly on the precipice of the Andreyevsky Bridge as if in the
middle of a stage. On the other bank, furious applause thunders over the Luzhniki Stadium and thousands of
spectators rush to the streets. Everyone cuddles and sings songs, cries and throws each other up into the air.
Immediately, leaving their homes, the remaining residents of the city join them. All of Moscow is filled with
triumph. “As if they had just finished watching an ancient Greek tragedy,” Alikhan thinks. And suddenly he
realizes that this is what it is.
“A glorious battle, Alikhan” - a voice suddenly comes from somewhere. Alikhan turns around and sees that a
silhouette approaches him on the railway tracks from the tunnel. “You are right, the world has just watched a
most real tragedy. But you yourself are not fully aware of how great it is. Look at these people, jubilant as
children, abandoned their homes, having forgotten about everything except one feeling: to live! Our games are
three thousand years old, but this is something the world hasn’t seen for a very long time”- a familiar voice
sounds, and suddenly Alikhan discerns that it is Nastya Timofeeva in the silhouette. Well, of course! How
could he not immediately guess? She is Pythia. “So, you all knew from the beginning? The finale was outlined?”
Alikhan exclaims. "Yes! And no”- and Pythia Nastya, coming out of the tunnel, pulls out her sketchbook to him.
Alikhan opens it and finds inside a comic book about Tintin and the Olympic Bear.
Moscow
Incredible things happen in Moscow. The sun, descending over the horizon, flooded the city with some kind of
special golden light. Booming voices and glee is everywhere. No sounds of transport passing. People go to the
embankments, carrying with them musical instruments, lay tables right on the roadway, in the alleys and on the
foothills of Olympus. Slanting beams of light penetrate the space, and the birds, happily chirping, travel
through them between the trees. The river is splashing quietly. Finally, the first song is heard and all the
instruments joyfully echoe it. “None of this is there,” says Nastya, while Alikhan looks through the comics.
"As there is no Amazon Sonya, who saved your life twice today," she adds, and the comic unfolds itself on the
page where Tintin, having sped up his blue Corvette, jumps and neutralizes the Olympic bear.
Suddenly there is laughter some distance from the precipice of the bridge. Alikhan turns in its direction and
sees Sonya surrounded by flowers. The titan Valery Fyodorovich descended from the foothills of Olympus,
holding a tiny eight-petalled dryad in his palm. As soon as Sonya accepted his gift, the bridge beneath her
cracked open from the flowers that grew around her her. Next to the bridge is an astonished titan Uncle Sasha
watching the power of flowers over the stone. “She is not an Amazon, is she?” Alikhan asks looking at Sonya.
“Neither am I Pythia, Alikhan. We are all masks. But each of us has our own idea,” Nastya answers and Alikhan
sees how titan Uncle Sasha goes under water for a moment and picks up the battered Corvette from the bottom of
the river. “No longer an Amazon, Alikhan,” Pythia suddenly adds, looking at Sonya. “The titans accept her into
their world. They will give her the name Eurydice.”
“But why does this story not exist in the actual comic?” - Alikhan again sketches the sketchbook and suddenly
notices that the tiny dryad that Sonya placed on the blue boulder has grown into a tree of incredible
proportions. And it continues to grow. “This is an ancient game, Alikhan. The second and main part of the
Olympic Games is history now. In them the beauty of the body came first and then the beauty of the spirit was
affirmed. But somehow we managed to break the thread of the story and open it, having all gathered in one
dream, it’s a mystery even to Pythia. The prophecy has come true,” says Nastya, and Alikhan sees that one of
the branches of the tree stretches beside them. “We have been invited, Alikhan. Come, you will see everything
for yourself,” and, having straightened out her dress, Nastya steps over to the branch and soars up over
Moscow. And Alikhan follows her.
Stepping from branch to branch with ease, Nastya climbs higher and Alikhan, trying to keep up, barely manages
to look around. “Long ago, before the names and the beginning of time, a stone rolled down from one great
mountain surrounded by water. And then another. And then another again. The stones rolled one after another as
if by someone's invisible will, forming more and more islands in different parts of the world. The first
islands! Then a prophecy hovered over the water...”- says Pythia and, suddenly stopping, slowly glances around
the space. Alikhan jumps over to her and for the first time notices that here, on other branches, are Egor
Ognerubov, Nastya, Dima, Tolya, Volodya, Anton, Kostya, Egor Egorichev and everyone else are already there.
And among them is Sonya. “The branch on which two or more sit, there will be a right
space!” says Nastya.
Pythia’s dress waves in the wind. An upward gust of wing runs along the foliage reaching the top of the giant
crown. Alikhan looks above him and sees that the tree is infinite: there a multitude of people up there
sitting, admiring the sunset. During their ascent the tree managed to cover and absorb all of Moscow. “And
this oak tree growing from stone is the path to this space, Alikhan. Here the song easily travels from the
earth to the sky and back. Like this wind,” says Pythia, and at this same moment, Sonya rushes past them
jumping from branch to branch. “How cool, how cool it is, Alikhan! Look, what a miracle! Let’s run together!
”- and, not leaving him a choice, accompanied by the laughs of Pythia and the guys, Sonya takes Alikhan along
with her.
“We will live here! Together! How great it is, how wonderful! ”- Sonya finally takes a seat on a picturesque
branch at the very edge of the crown, and, cheerfully dangling her legs, invites Alikhan over to her. Alikhan
sitting down watches in amazement Sonya’s transformation: the recent formidable Amazon and now an
enthusiastic, carefree child. “Look how beautiful, look!” - down there, as if frozen, Moscow sparkles in the
rays of the setting sun. “It’s astonishingly beautiful, Sonya!” - suddenly a voice from above calls to her.
This is Egor Ognerubov, sitting right above them. There is a quiet smile on his face. “Well, let’s stay here
to live. Yes! Yes! ”- echoing the guys: Tolya, Volodya, Anton, Dima and Kostya. “We have always lived here!” –
replies Pythia.
The branch under Sonya and Alikhan continues to grow out: it becomes so real to Alikhan that once people would
hollow out boats of such branches. “This is exactly it - Pythia reads his thoughts -“the tree is the essence
of the boat,” the ancients said. When the green crown rose above the first island, they made a boat from it
and discovered many new worlds on it; other uninhabited islands. Thus, the boat became a symbol that glued
together the fragile human world”, explains Nastya while the huge branch trembles underneath them: the titans
approached the tree and Valery and grabbing the very base of the branch, made two notches near Sonya and
Alikhan. “Soon you will wake up, Alikhan. They are here to complete the ceremony”- Alikhan hears the words of
Pythia Nastya in his head as if she had really spoken.
“Huh?” Alikhan asks, watching the masterly movement of the chisel in the titan’s hand: Valery Fedorovich
carefully grabs the branch under him and Sonya, sculpts something from it. “The Titans want to present their
gift. This is our reward for the game,” says Pythia. "Reward? But we lost!” Alikhan replies to her. “Bloody
hell, just look at this! Strike me down if Fedorych isn’t sculpting a new Corvette there!”- suddenly exclaims
Tolya, looking at what is happening around Alikhan and Sonya. All turn to them and indeed, familiar outlines
appear under Valery Fedorovich’s chisel. “The insight of Pythia is powerless in front of the prophecy, Alikhan
- Nastya answers.” Once upon a time the ancients said: there is no Olympus without an Olympian. And today it
belongs to Moscow.”
"A wooden one? Ha-ha-ha, oh well!” Sonya laughs, recognizing the Corvette under the titan's chisel. “Ah,
Fedoritch, what a bastard! Not bad!” Kostya cries out. His eye shine with delight. “Well, since the branch is
the essence of the boat, then the boat is the essence of the Corvette,” Egor says. “Uh, the tree is the
essence of the boat!” corrects Anton. “Yes, no difference, all one! A wooden Corvette is the essence of boot!
And also of boyt and of surfboat”- Dima fools around. “Ha ha ha. Aerostatic boot, apparently. Am I right?
Millennial... ugh," laughs Volodya, trying to find the right name. "Millennial Finist!" - Anton picks up.
“Haha. Yes, it is a gift of magic wood. And it’s inside that dryad, Sonya,” replies Pythia. “Strike it down to
the ground and a faithful horse will appear to save the world from Egor Ognerubov,” Dima picks up. "Then it's
clearly going to be a falcon this time!" Egor bores. “Well, thank you, Egor, for not another bear,” laughs
Nastya. “How cool, wow, wow! I will paint it”- Sonya pulls the hand of Alikhan.
The millennial finist is ready. Valery Fedorovich removes the last chamfers from the sides and, pulling out
the metal tip of the chisel, solemnly sticks it into the bridge between the Corvette and the branch. “It looks
like it's time to cut the rope. Uh-uh, wood cutter!” Dima cries out with inspiration. “Well, who will get this
honor, brothers?” Kostya asks. “Honey, don’t you want to do it?” Nastya then addresses to Volodya. “No, it's
better if Tolya did it! Tolya, you are our captain - you have to let it down into the water,” answers Volodya.
“That is, to the air,” corrects Egor Egorychev. “Yes, Tolya, for sure, come on!” there is a roar of approval,
and the guys grabbing the cutter, all together hand it to Tolya. “Ah, and we definitely will not fall?” Sonya
ask surprisingly. “Yes, don’t be chicken, Sonya! Today we saved the world and you’re talking about us
falling...” Tolya laughs and cuts the jumper…
“Oh, look what kind of flower I have,” Sonya suddenly cries out. Nastya approaches her, "Wow! This is a dryad.
I wonder where it comes from as we don’t have such flowers here.” “Guys, let's go! The sun will set!” Nastya
Timofeeva calls out to everyone. “Well, you are doing it great!” Alikhan suddenly hears. It is Egor Ognerubov,
who turns to him, nodding somewhere below. They are on the Andreevsky bridge halfway to the Sparrow Hills.
Alikhan finally comes to his senses and finds a microphone in his hand. “Guys, let's go!” - the guys call
again, and Sonya, inserting a flower by her ear, together with Nastya catch up with everyone. “Cool, Alikhan,
very cool. Do not stop! ”- and turning, Egor runs away after him. Alikhan picks up the microphone and,
twisting in his hand, realizes that this is a statuette of stone: beautiful, with blue flickering
streaks-handmade.
The sun has touched the horizon. The swallows are high in the sky. The playing of a guitar is heard somewhere.
"Aaalikhan,” Sonya's voice is heard over the slope, “catch up with us!" Alikhan responds to her but the
contour of Sparrow Hills, for a minute, seems steeper than usual to him. To the right, in the direction of the
sunset, two gigantic silhouettes go down the river. “This is Valery Fedorovich and Uncle Sasha, ancient titans
and keepers of the universe,” thinks Alikhan, looking after them for a long time until they finally disappear
over the horizon. There are claps in the evening sky and the whole of Moscow is overtaken in multicolored
flashes. Alikhan watches a terrific salute and, suddenly, he becomes unusually sad. He just remembered
something he forgot... It was at that moment he realized he was sleeping.
Play
CONTINUATION OF THE FIRST PART
Alikhan wakes up in the back seat of the old Rover with his eyes wet in tears. A music plays in the car.
Anton, Volodya and Nastya laugh. Outside the window in the headlights float the shipbuilding pines. A dream!
It was only a dream! “Wake up, Alikhan. We are already in Kratovo”- Nastya says to him. Not Pythia anymore?
“Probably on the way they listened again to Milana,” a thundering Luzhniki flashes in his head. The phone
rings. “Where are you?!” his father is already searching for him. “Dad, I'm fine. We went to Kratovo with the
guys. I will be back soon,” Alikhan makes a whirring sound. And for a second, he listens to absolute silence.
“To Krakow?! What the hell are you doing in Krakow!” a furious cry comes out of the telephone and the Rover
explodes with laughter. Alikhan tries his best not to forget his dream.
The next day after the trip with the guys to Kratovo Alikhan would write a song. However, he would lose the
text and forget the words.
The third construction comes to an end. There is a fuss in the manager’s room. On one of the monitors in the
editing program, there is a video file dated June 3, 2014: the day after the guys’ trip to Kratovo. Dancing on
the edge of a metal console, Shurik demonstrates the welding reliability to Volodya who is filming him.
Meanwhile, Volodya, having finished his affairs at the construction site, enters the room and sends Alikhan
the remaining video files from his phone. On the opposite side, behind the next monitor, Dima and Anton work
on the layout. Nastya runs through the room with a bunch of curtains. Having download the files, Alikhan opens
the editing program again, and Volodya's shooting is uploaded into its terabyte video archive.
On the timeline, the construction time goes by almost as fast as the time on the construction site below:
while the beginning of the demolition plays on the January time-lapse
Frame-by-frame shoot of slowly flowing phenomena at equal intervals of time, allowing to see “compressed
time”, was used by Alikhan to shoot a video about the construction.
summer sun has already rotated outside the window above Chistye Prudy, and the pillars of bright light stay on
the construction site longer than just January. Anton, Alikhan and Nastya go on the Rover to Kurkino instead
of Ikea to watch the mists on the Skhodnya river. Alikhan and Sergey shoot a salutary video over the Sparrow
Hills to make it look like Alikhan’s dream. Kostya calls out, “Volodyaaa,” at the corner of Myasnitskaya
street, and the pick-up truck below him takes off as the traffic lights change. Volodya would talk to him the
next morning, sleeping somewhere on a park bench in the company of two scooters. What did Kostya do in the
back of this pick-up truck? Whose was this pick-up truck? And the scooters? Kostya planned to spend the night
at the construction site and continue to work in the morning on the hexagon table
Hexagonal table in a shape of hexagon which is a figure that allowed three people to be seated optimally
in the small space of the new Mama Ro administrator office.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final
stages of the construction coming to an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started
with a small renovation work, the project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are
passionate about their work. In the photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation
of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Sonya and Dima work alongside Alikhan and become the first listeners of
his dream. Sonya laughs for a long time. In the photo above: a casual passer-by looks at the construction
site to see what is happening here. Alikhan films it. In the top photo: sunrise in Kratovo.
A summer evening behind-the-scenes route around the suburban Moscow River, Anton and Volodya bring from
Kratovo the welded shelves made by Shurik for the “Avia” studio. They put the shelves half sticking out of the
Hyundai Porter (another car the guys used) hoping that they wouldn’t fell out on the road. In the future
"Stone" studio, Tolya and Pasha study the strength of the materials as they wonder how to weld a pyramid for
four boulders in a way that they do not burst under their weight. Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov are on the
mezzanine, as if they were in a coachman’s seat, smoking a cigarette. That day, the pines and smart glass
Electrochromic glass that changes its optical properties (transparent / opaque) when an electric voltage
is applied.
were installed in the future “Pine” studio. Uncle Sasha and Valery Fedorovich work on petroglyphs for the
“Stone” one. Zheka, with a multimeter in Bruce Willis's shirt, of course, listens to NoGGano. Egor Ognerubov
is working on a laptop because the light-books didn’t work again. And Sonya, Sonya! She’s at work at the
monitor together with Egor Egorovich and Nastya Timofeeva painting the "Melnikov" studio. In the managers’
room. On the roof. On the stairs. In the courtyard.
June 18, 2014 is an interesting day for the guys. “A stranger arrived, sat down
in our Rover and drove away in an unknown direction,” said Tolya. “Did it hurt?” someone asks. “Yes, it was as
if we lost a close friend,” that day the guys ran out of money, and in order to be able to complete the
construction, they had to sell the car. It seemed that at the same time Anton had decided to make the Rover
into a model for a talisman in the "Pine" studio and he found it! Somewhere in London, it was the same color,
and ordered by mail. Indeed, they went to hell and back with that Rover— it was a legend!
While Rover is serving the guys, every second trip to Ikea passes through the nearby Skhodnya River. The
sun sets and fog rises here in the evenings. In the photo: Nastya descending to the river.
Farewell photo: in order to complete the construction, the Rover has to be
sold. In the photo above: Anton is driving the Rover. In the top photo: Anton, Nastya and Alikhan at the
Skhodnya river.
Alikhan finishes the timeline, starts the render, and runs off to the smoking room. Volodya sits down with
Dima and Anton and recommends how to correct the “Melnikov” and “Bauhaus” studios as Dima prepares the studio
billboards for the opening. Behind the guys there is a freshly printed first edition "Mama Ro" magazine.
Nastya passes by again with Tolya and Pasha as they are setting up a new managers’ room on the floor below.
These are last days of work on the third floor. It says it is August 7, 2014 in the open doors behind the
window. It is ten days before the opening of the new studios.
On August 17, 2014, after nine months of construction, six new Mama Ro studios open their doors to guests.
“Jazz”, “Stone”, “Pine”, “Bauhaus”, “Melnikov” and “Avia”
Without taking into account the earlier mentioned (p. 2.28) principle of numbering accordingly the Coriolis force the neighborhood of
studios No. 14 “Avia” (on the right) and No. 9 “Jazz” (on the left) looks absurd.
are being booked according to the Coriolis force, starting with the ninth studio, “Jazz”, and right under
eighth studio is "Moscow" and ending with the next to "Jazz" but the fourteenth in a row - "Avia". The
presentation and video screening are scheduled at 7PM. Then an exhibition of Nastya Timofeeva’s sketches,
“Plunge into Mama Ro”. Free bar and live music. Free admission.
Aidzharkyn, Anton and Nastya on the opening day against the background of Nastya Timofeeva's "Get
into Mama Ro" exhibition.
Volodya gives a welcoming speech at the grand opening.
The title slide of the presentation is the start of the very first construction of Mama Ro on May 12, 2012.
After the presentation is over and Alikhan's video is shown, the
guests go view the studios. The most attractive turns out to be the Jazz one.
Kira helps the guys as a bartender.
Along with the opening of the new studios, Sasha Marusheva (on the right) comes to work at Mama Ro.
Masha Bochkareva (in the center) comes to the opening as a guest. After a while the guys will work
together. Other project participants in the photo from left to right: Kostya, Dima, Nastya, Egor
Ognerubov.
"Plunge into Mama Ro" is an exhibition of sketches of Nastya Timofeeva's impressions about the
project. She took them with her from St. Petersburg on the occasion of the opening. On the way back
Nastya would take away the magazine designed by Dima.
Kostya and Nastya against the background of Nastya's sketch of Kostya.
Nastya and introductory text with Nastya's portrait to Nastya's exhibition.
While Kostya flies into a rage in the bar of the Jazz studio, its author, Tolya Smirnov, finds the
correct position and realizes that the construction has finally been completed. Two opposite sides
of the studio.
Meanwhile, under the windows of the Jazz studio. Misha, Pasha, Zheka, Uncle Seryozha and others.
While more and more new guests continue to come, the informal part of the
event under the windows of Mama Ro attracts Egor Ognerubov (on the left in the photo) and other guys who
cannot find a place for themselves at the official celebrations. In the photo above: a presentation of the
new studios.
There is some fuss in the old managers’ room on the third floor. Volodya rehearses his speech. Tolya is trying
on his pants. Anton and Alikhan export a file: a video will follow Volodya’s performance. Dima, acting as
stylist, helped the guys with buying clothes the day before. Finally, the first guests arrive. Volodya goes
out to the audience, and Anton and Alikhan try to speed up the export of the video file with the swear words.
The bundles of the Mama Ro magazine, carefully arranged by Dima and Nastya, are at the entrance, and begin to
slowly melt away. The opened studios no longer belong to their creators.
The video about the construction, shot and edited by Alikhan, would be greeted with inspiration by the
audience gathered at the opening of the new Mama Ro.
After the end of the presentation “Jazz,” the only studio with chamber lighting and (according to Tolya’s
plan) with its own bar, collects the light. Kostya, settling with Kira at the bar counter, generously pours
drinks to everyone. Alikhan and Serezha laugh at Kostya. Egor Ognerubov accompanies Nastya Timofeeva
everywhere with two glasses saying, "This is my page!" Nastya laughs while getting acquainted with Anton's
grandmother. Meanwhile, in the courtyard of Mama Ro, another event is born extemporaneously: having taken the
table top out of the old managers room, Tolya, Zheka, Misha, and Uncle Serezha, adapted it on the saw-buck and
prepared an open-air banquet. The evening comes.
Nastya Timofeeva for the third time comes to the guys in Moscow, but this time for the opening. She brings
with her an exhibition of sketches-impressions made during her participation in the construction.
About three hundred people come to the opening. By the end of the event, only one pile of the small Mama Ro
magazine edition designed by Dima remains. In a couple of weeks, only the electronic version will remain.
Alikhan wakes up in the back seat of the old Rover with his eyes wet in tears. A music plays in the car.
Anton, Volodya and Nastya laugh. Outside the window in the headlights float the shipbuilding pines. A dream!
It was only a dream! “Wake up, Alikhan. We are already in Kratovo”- Nastya says to him. Not Pythia anymore?
“Probably on the way they listened again to Milana,” a thundering Luzhniki flashes in his head. The phone
rings. “Where are you?!” his father is already searching for him. “Dad, I'm fine. We went to Kratovo with the
guys. I will be back soon,” Alikhan makes a whirring sound. And for a second, he listens to absolute silence.
“To Krakow?! What the hell are you doing in Krakow!” a furious cry comes out of the telephone and the Rover
explodes with laughter. Alikhan tries his best not to forget his dream.
The next day after the trip with the guys to Kratovo Alikhan would write a song. However, he would lose the text
and forget the words.
The third construction comes to an end. There is a fuss in the manager’s room. On one of the monitors in the
editing program, there is a video file dated June 3, 2014: the day after the guys’ trip to Kratovo. Dancing on
the edge of a metal console, Shurik demonstrates the welding reliability to Volodya who is filming him.
Meanwhile, Volodya, having finished his affairs at the construction site, enters the room and sends Alikhan
the remaining video files from his phone. On the opposite side, behind the next monitor, Dima and Anton work
on the layout. Nastya runs through the room with a bunch of curtains. Having download the files, Alikhan opens
the editing program again, and Volodya's shooting is uploaded into its terabyte video archive.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work. In the
photo: Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov during the installation of smart glass in the Pine studio.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
Alikhan's selection of frames for the video is one of the final stages of the construction coming to
an end. It’s also the moment of retrospection: having started with a small renovation work, the
project turned out to be a meeting place for people who are passionate about their work.
On the timeline, the construction time goes by almost as fast as the time on the construction site below:
while the beginning of the demolition plays on the January time-lapse
Frame-by-frame shoot of slowly flowing phenomena at equal intervals of time, allowing to see “compressed
time”, was used by Alikhan to shoot a video about the construction.
summer sun has already rotated outside the window above Chistye Prudy, and the pillars of bright light stay on
the construction site longer than just January. Anton, Alikhan and Nastya go on the Rover to Kurkino instead
of Ikea to watch the mists on the Skhodnya river. Alikhan and Sergey shoot a salutary video over the Sparrow
Hills to make it look like Alikhan’s dream. Kostya calls out, “Volodyaaa,” at the corner of Myasnitskaya
street, and the pick-up truck below him takes off as the traffic lights change. Volodya would talk to him the
next morning, sleeping somewhere on a park bench in the company of two scooters. What did Kostya do in the
back of this pick-up truck? Whose was this pick-up truck? And the scooters? Kostya planned to spend the night
at the construction site and continue to work in the morning on the hexagon table
Hexagonal table in a shape of hexagon which is a figure that allowed three people to be seated optimally
in the small space of the new Mama Ro administrator office.
Sonya and Dima work alongside Alikhan and become the first listeners of his dream. Sonya laughs for a long
time. In the photo above: a casual passer-by looks at the construction site to see what is happening here.
Alikhan films it. In the top right photo: sunrise in Kratovo.
A summer evening behind-the-scenes route around the suburban Moscow River, Anton and Volodya bring from
Kratovo the welded shelves made by Shurik for the “Avia” studio. They put the shelves half sticking out of the
Hyundai Porter (another car the guys used) hoping that they wouldn’t fell out on the road. In the future
"Stone" studio, Tolya and Pasha study the strength of the materials as they wonder how to weld a pyramid for
four boulders in a way that they do not burst under their weight. Uncle Seryozha and Misha Kurlov are on the
mezzanine, as if they were in a coachman’s seat, smoking a cigarette. That day, the pines and smart glass
Electrochromic glass that changes its optical properties (transparent / opaque) when an electric voltage
is applied.
were installed in the future “Pine” studio. Uncle Sasha and Valery Fedorovich work on petroglyphs for the
“Stone” one. Zheka, with a multimeter in Bruce Willis's shirt, of course, listens to NoGGano. Egor Ognerubov
is working on a laptop because the light-books didn’t work again. And Sonya, Sonya! She’s at work at the
monitor together with Egor Egorovich and Nastya Timofeeva painting the "Melnikov" studio. In the managers’
room. On the roof. On the stairs. In the courtyard.
While Rover is serving the guys, every second trip to Ikea passes through the nearby Skhodnya River.
The sun sets and fog rises here in the evenings. In the photo: Nastya descending to the river.
June 18, 2014 is an interesting day for the guys. “A stranger arrived, sat down
in our Rover and drove away in an unknown direction,” said Tolya. “Did it hurt?” someone asks. “Yes, it was as
if we lost a close friend,” that day the guys ran out of money, and in order to be able to complete the
construction, they had to sell the car. It seemed that at the same time Anton had decided to make the Rover
into a model for a talisman in the "Pine" studio and he found it! Somewhere in London, it was the same color,
and ordered by mail. Indeed, they went to hell and back with that Rover— it was a legend!
While Rover is serving the guys, every second trip to Ikea passes through the nearby Skhodnya River. The
sun sets and fog rises here in the evenings. In the photo: Nastya descending to the river.
Alikhan finishes the timeline, starts the render, and runs off to the smoking room. Volodya sits down with
Dima and Anton and recommends how to correct the “Melnikov” and “Bauhaus” studios as Dima prepares the studio
billboards for the opening. Behind the guys there is a freshly printed first edition "Mama Ro" magazine.
Nastya passes by again with Tolya and Pasha as they are setting up a new managers’ room on the floor below.
These are last days of work on the third floor. It says it is August 7, 2014 in the open doors behind the
window. It is ten days before the opening of the new studios.
Aidzharkyn, Anton and Nastya on the opening day against the background of Nastya Timofeeva's "Get
into Mama Ro" exhibition.
Volodya gives a welcoming speech at the grand opening.
The title slide of the presentation is the start of the very first construction of Mama Ro on May 12, 2012.
After the presentation is over and Alikhan's video is shown, the guests go view the studios. The
most attractive turns out to be the Jazz one.
Kira helps the guys as a bartender.
Along with the opening of the new studios, Sasha Marusheva (on the right) comes to work at Mama Ro.
Masha Bochkareva (in the center) comes to the opening as a guest. After a while the guys will work
together. Other project participants in the photo from left to right: Kostya, Dima, Nastya, Egor
Ognerubov.
"Plunge into Mama Ro" is an exhibition of sketches of Nastya Timofeeva's impressions about the
project. She took them with her from St. Petersburg on the occasion of the opening. On the way back
Nastya would take away the magazine designed by Dima.
Kostya and Nastya against the background of Nastya's sketch of Kostya.
Nastya and introductory text with Nastya's portrait to Nastya's exhibition.
While Kostya flies into a rage in the bar of the Jazz studio, its author, Tolya Smirnov, finds the
correct position and realizes that the construction has finally been completed. Two opposite sides
of the studio.
Meanwhile, under the windows of the Jazz studio. Misha, Pasha, Zheka, Uncle Seryozha and others.
On August 17, 2014, after nine months of construction, six new Mama Ro studios open their doors to guests.
“Jazz”, “Stone”, “Pine”, “Bauhaus”, “Melnikov” and “Avia”
Упомянутый выше (п. 2.28 ) принцип
нумерации по “силе
Кориолиса”, без учета которого соседство студий №14 “Авиа” (справа) и №9 “Джаз” (слева)
выглядит
абсурдно.
are being booked according to the Coriolis force, starting with the ninth studio, “Jazz”, and right
under eighth studio is "Moscow" and ending with the next to "Jazz" but the fourteenth in a row - "Avia". The
presentation and video screening are scheduled at 7PM. Then an exhibition of Nastya Timofeeva’s sketches,
“Plunge into Mama Ro”. Free bar and live music. Free admission.
While more and more new guests continue to come, the informal part of the event under the windows of Mama Ro
attracts Egor Ognerubov (on the left in the photo) and other guys who cannot find a place for themselves at
the official celebrations. In the right photo: a presentation of the new studios.
There is some fuss in the old managers’ room on the third floor. Volodya rehearses his speech. Tolya is trying
on his pants. Anton and Alikhan export a file: a video will follow Volodya’s performance. Dima, acting as
stylist, helped the guys with buying clothes the day before. Finally, the first guests arrive. Volodya goes
out to the audience, and Anton and Alikhan try to speed up the export of the video file with the swear words.
The bundles of the Mama Ro magazine, carefully arranged by Dima and Nastya, are at the entrance, and begin to
slowly melt away. The opened studios no longer belong to their creators.
The video about the construction, shot and edited by Alikhan, would be greeted with inspiration by the audience
gathered at the opening of the new Mama Ro.
After the end of the presentation “Jazz,” the only studio with chamber lighting and (according to Tolya’s
plan) with its own bar, collects the light. Kostya, settling with Kira at the bar counter, generously pours
drinks to everyone. Alikhan and Serezha laugh at Kostya. Egor Ognerubov accompanies Nastya Timofeeva
everywhere with two glasses saying, "This is my page!" Nastya laughs while getting acquainted with Anton's
grandmother. Meanwhile, in the courtyard of Mama Ro, another event is born extemporaneously: having taken the
table top out of the old managers room, Tolya, Zheka, Misha, and Uncle Serezha, adapted it on the saw-buck and
prepared an open-air banquet. The evening comes.
Nastya Timofeeva for the third time comes to the guys in Moscow, but this time for the opening. She brings
with her an exhibition of sketches-impressions made during her participation in the construction.
About three hundred people come to the opening. By the end of the event, only one pile of the small Mama Ro
magazine edition designed by Dima remains. In a couple of weeks, only the electronic version will remain.
ama Ro grows. After going through three constructions, the project has created fourteen unique studios. It’s
the direct result of work from designers, engineers, builders, wood and stone masters, and artists.
Consequently, the guests are not in debt to provide demand: in September 2014, the updated Mama Ro receives
bookings for almost the maximum load: 99.3%. The three original flagship studios, the format born during the
process of the third construction site, “Pine”, “Jazz” and “Bauhaus”
As an experiment, there was allocated a larger budget than for the others for the creation of the Jazz,
Pine and Bauhaus studios: for solving complex author's ideas and for raising the conversion of the
project as a whole due to the increased demand for original flagship studios.
are in incredible demand and become the engine of the project. In Mama Ro, one now more often hears the
question: “Do you make custom interiors by order?” For the time being, the guy’s answer is, “No”.
On September 22, 2014, five months later, the Putilin couple, Farida and
Alexander, come to Mama Ro again. The guys first met the elderly couple at the end of April 2014, at the
climax of the third construction Farida and Alexander appreciated the guys approach to the Mama Ro’s interiors
so much that they asked if they could create a similar design project for themselves. The guys, realizing that
the construction consumed all their time and energy, agreed with the spouses to return to this conversation
after the construction is over. Until today, they had forgotten about the existence of Farida and Alexander.
In their minds it seemed obvious that, no customer would wait so long.
Thanks to Farida and Alexander, Mama Ro's own interior design agency was created. In the photo above:
Farida and Alexander at home after the work is completed.
Kostya would join the work on the project later. At first the guys thought of buying the vintage
furniture, rather than creating it from scratch. In the photo on the left: full-size sketches of future
furniture, Mama Ro's know-how.
The last two nights before the delivery of the design project pass without sleep. More than one 3D
artist couldn’t handle the work until a strong team in the newly formed interior design agency was
formed.
October 7, 2014, Alikhan sends a letter to Mulinsart, a Belgian company that owns copyright on Erzhe's studio
products: “Hello! My name is Alikhan. I am a graphic designer and I also draw a little <…>. We conceived a
big project. <…> to draw and print in tiny copies the adventures of Tintin at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. We
are aware <…> that Mr. Erzhe insisted that no one should release new books about the adventures of
Tintin. However, we dared to address you as the copyright holders, because we don’t have any commercial
or advertising purposes, only an artistic idea as such...” - Alikhan decided to draw a comic book for
the guests of the project based on his dream in Kratovo and asks Mulinsart to authorize Mama Ro to use
the Tintin brand for non-commercial purposes. A refusal arrives from Brussels.
October 29, 2014, Anya’s first call to Mama Ro. Nastya, again, forms a team of
administrators. Sonya has decided to travel and left Mama Ro in August, and Sasha Marusheva responded to the
announcement instead of her (by coincidence, Anton and Alikhan are familiar with Sasha from school). The
second administrator who was invited by Tolya after opening the new studios didn’t work well with the guys and
has just gone. Anton recalls Anya. Several years ago, they worked together, and by chance, Anya is now in
search of work. Nastya answers the call, invites Anya to an interview, and Mama Ro for the first time in a
long time has formed a kind team of managers and of just friends: Nastya, Sasha, Anya and the men
“I’ve known Anya for some time, since 2011, when she came to work in a small
hotel near Sheremetyevo airport where I worked as an administrator. It was during the time when the bath house
burnt down which marked the beginning of our trio. We became friends, I immediately admitted to Anya that she
had some kind of calm attitude to work out problems. I remember how Anya drove me to the metro on her
right-hand drive Suzuki. The machine was old, I think from 1992. And I received such a volume of technical
information about the car that I stopped understanding everything in the third minute. All that remained was
the experience of Anya stopping right there on Dmitrovskoye highway sorting through the whole car box if the
gear for some reason didn’t stick. By the way, Sasha falls in love with her immensely because of this quality.
And the guys will compose probably a volume of folklore about Anya and any extreme situation. This is what was
missing on our team,” Anton recalls.
Sasha comes to work with the guys and creates the tradition of film photo
chronicles. In the photo: Nastya and Sasha.
The team in the new line-up would exist for several years. The photo was
taken three years later on Nastya's birthday. In the photo above: with the arrival of Anya in October
2014, the formation of the team would be completed.
On December 6, 2014, in the “Bauhaus” studio the preparation of the first design
project presentation for the Putilin couple is underway. The customer, who turned out to be close in spirit
and who became part of Mama Ro during the work, Farida, shared her enthusiasm about their artistic approach of
the concept. Furthermore, an engineer from his university studies, Alexander, liked the technical equipment of
the future interior. The guys decided to create a beautiful presentation for the couple. Farida and Alexander
arrive at Chistye Prudy, go up to “Bauhaus” and the guys turn on the projector; and just as the presentation
ends the Mama Ro interior design agency begins its existence thanks to the Putilin couple.
December 9, 2014, Anton and Nastya go to Ikea. Nastya passes through the
children's department, snatches a goat toy out of one of the big baskets and, laughing, shows Anton: “Ha,
look, this is Marusheva!” The toy looks like Sasha. Anton laughs because it really does. The goat, along with
the rest of the guys, goes to the cashier and the next day it meets Sasha in the managers room as a gift. Time
will pass, and the toy, together with Sasha, will travel all over Europe from Rome to Edinburgh and from
Stockholm to Lisbon, and the tradition of identifying Sasha with a stubborn but kind goat, as well as
subsequent girl trips to Ikea, will grow into a whole animals’ totem at Mama Ro which is based on the number
of employees in the managers room. Including the founding fathers.
Along with the appearance of Sasha’s goat (in Russian “koza”), a
separate “goat” folklore begins to form in the team: from all possible derivatives like “kOza”,
“kozitsa”, “kozlina”, “kozyamba”, etc. to proverbs and phraseological units like “Perish yourself
but rescue your goat” or “Russia is wide, but there is nowhere to retreat - the goat is behind us”.
The day after the trip to Ikea. Meeting day.
The Goat in Italy.
The Goat in Spain.
The Goat in Mauritania.
The Goat in Manchester.
The Goat in Pisa.
When Sasha comes down with a temperature, the Goat, her devoted friend, goes to work instead of her.
The guys give Sasha a toy for the external, as it seems to them, similarity. The Goat becomes Sasha's mascot and it embarks with her on a journey across Europe. In the photo above: the Goat in France and Spain.
January 19, 2015, Anton and Tolya at the lake "Shchepkino Swamp" near Moscow,
together with Valery Fedorovich, cut an ice hole in the middle of the frozen pond. Valery Fedorovich professes
a syncretic mixture of geology: Old Russian paganism, astrology and Vedic religions, and, knowing the guys'
love of winter swimming, invites them to bath in the crater struck by an ancient meteorite at Epiphany. This
night, according to ancestors, Aquarius pours magical Surya and, if you swim at this moment in the reservoir,
which appeared from the fall of this astronomical body, you can quickly move into the coming Age of Aquarius.
Anton and Tolya appreciate Valery Fedorovich’s enthusiasm.
The hole for bathing is almost ready. The chainsaw is choking in icy water and the guys are late in entering
the new era. It is near midnight. Valery Fedorovich worries about another thing as the sky this day is
hopelessly overcast with clouds and the stars won’t be visible. Finally, having built an entire fortress from
ice cubes, Anton and Tolya, warmed by this work, quickly throw off their clothes and jump to the center of the
meteorite crater and swim, unaware of the unbelievable event that transpired: the clouds over the lake
suddenly parted and the starlight spilled from the depths of the cosmos onto the swimmers. The next morning,
at Chistye Prudy, the guys will happily talk about the entry of Mama Ro into a new era and after a while, any
foolish tricks in the project will be explained only with “It is the Tomfoolery Era" that came from that
night.
The day after Mama Ro entered the Age of Aquarius Fool, Tolya's half-brother from
Nambia unexpectedly arrives. Turns out that they grew up together when they were kids until they parted ways.
The guys take Tolyamba to the team.
January 21, 2015, Nastya Timofeeva, in St. Petersburg, finishes the first draft of the Tree of Legends. Anton comes up with the structure of the future site, and daydreams, taking Alikhan’s dream as a basement, over a metaphor that will later unite the studio legends into one image. At the same time, Tolya, in response to requests from guests, wants to create a section for tours on the website. Thus, from November 1, 2014, Nastya devotes her time to working on route from Chistye Prudy to the Kremlin. Everything is drawn from scratch and in the aesthetic, that has been developed over the year, and this requires hard work with the map services and street photos. Anton downloads the sketch, but for the time being the appearance of the Tree of Legends remains in the world of ideas. While the sketch is tested in the layout, Nastya returns to her work on route.
Anton KozlovMama Ro co-founderThe author of Pine & Stone studios. Design, layout, copywriting of the current Mama Ro website.In the chronicles::Act:1.5 1.6 1.7 1.11 1.12 2.1 2.4 2.5 2.18 2.23 2.26 2.27 2.29 2.43 2.45 2.46 2.47 2.48 2.49 2.57 2.59 2.71 2.72 2.73 2.75 2.76 Alikhan’s Dream 2.91 2.92 2.93 2.94 2.97 3.5 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.15 3.21 3.23 3.27 3.35 3.41 3.42 3.43 3.44 3.45 3.51 3.52 3.56 3.57 3.58 3.61 3.62 3.63 3.65 3.66 3.68 3.69Mention:
Volodya NizovtsevMama Ro co-founderThe author of Pine & Stone studios. Design, layout, copywriting of the current Mama Ro website.
Tolya SmirnovMama Ro co-founderThe author of Jazz & Sarai studios. Fundraising. Supervision of all Mama Ro construction projects. Engineering
Nastya NikolaevaMama Ro managing partner. Muse of the projectSupport, project management, staffing, author of the 24th studio titled Theatre.
pring 2011, Yulia finishes the construction work in a rented room on the Vodootvodny channel. Torn wallpaper,
newly plastered walls, a sculpted and dark varnished parquet. A dilapidated window patched by a plane tool.
Everything is done carefully, with her own hands. And a minimum of furniture: a bed, a table, a chair, a
working iMac, and around it all, a pencil box of clean, white, three-meter-long walls stretching to the
ceiling. With a window looking out into spring sky and old-brick Moscow. On the street and around the corner
the Moscow Kremlin is seen across the bridge.
pring 2011, Yulia finishes the construction work in a rented room on the Vodootvodny channel. Torn wallpaper,
newly plastered walls, a sculpted and dark varnished parquet. A dilapidated window patched by a plane tool.
Everything is done carefully, with her own hands. And a minimum of furniture: a bed, a table, a chair, a
working iMac, and around it all, a pencil box of clean, white, three-meter-long walls stretching to the
ceiling. With a window looking out into spring sky and old-brick Moscow. On the street and around the corner
the Moscow Kremlin is seen across the bridge.
n May 12, 2012, after several unsuccessful attempts to attract an investor, Tolya, Anton and Volodya, put
aside the completed presentation and start the Mama Ro project on their own. They rent a small space at
Spiridonovskaya, buy plaster, tools and start the very first construction in Mama Ro’s history. Just like
Yulia at the very beginning, and then in Maly Ivanovsky, with their own hands. The guys have almost no money,
they have to scrape and borrow. Dima Trusov, Aydar, Zlata, Yulia and Lena help out. The project only needs to
define a studio format which will be born in the construction process.
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On May 12, 2012, after several unsuccessful attempts to attract an investor, Tolya, Anton and Volodya, put
aside the completed presentation and start the Mama Ro project on their own. They rent a small space at
Spiridonovskaya, buy plaster, tools and start the very first construction in Mama Ro’s history. Just like
Yulia at the very beginning, and then in Maly Ivanovsky, with their own hands. The guys have almost no money,
they have to scrape and borrow. Dima Trusov, Aydar, Zlata, Yulia and Lena help out. The project only needs to
define a studio format which will be born in the construction process.
Play
ama Ro grows. After going through three constructions, the project has created fourteen unique studios. It’s
the direct result of work from designers, engineers, builders, wood and stone masters, and artists.
Consequently, the guests are not in debt to provide demand: in September 2014, the updated Mama Ro receives
bookings for almost the maximum load: 99.3%. The three original flagship studios, the format born during the
process of the third construction site, “Pine”, “Jazz” and “Bauhaus”
