I. Metshin: “We are happy to provide a place for football stars who will shine at the Kazan Arena”

(KZN.RU, June 29). A public art with the image of Argentine football player Lionel Messi is almost completed in Kazan. The new graffiti appeared on the building next to the hotel, the team of Argentina, led by the legendary football player, will stay. Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan told Russian and foreign journalists about the graffiti and promised that this public-art will not be the last one on the capital of Tatarstan. Graffiti of Neimar and other football stars may appear in the city.

The reason for the creation of a new public art was the World Cup that successfully takes place in Russia, said the Mayor. “We have been preparing for this event by the entire country, headed by our president, our fans. And that football holiday has surpassed all our greatest expectations. We are very glad to see all the guests, both athletes and the fans”, said I. Metshin. The fans, especially the emotional Argentines, already had time to appreciate the public art.

The Kazan experience was also taken by other Russian cities, said the Mayor. “Our initiative was picked up by the rest of the cities that host the championship. We were first. We also were the first to build “Kazan Arena” for the World Cup, and painted graffiti”, said the Mayor. He thanked the artists who are no less famous in their professional sphere for their prompt work than the players themselves today. The work is carried out by representatives of the creative association “Supernova”, headed by Dmitry Kudinov, a graffiti artist.

According to the head of the city well-known Brazilian football player Neimar and other football stars are next to be painted. “God grant, we will meet Neimar in the future. Maybe we'll picture the three of them, and Suarez, and everyone else. And we’ll a sculpture, for example. Kazan is a tourist city. We are happy to provide a place for football stars that will shine at the “Kazan Arena”, we will find both places and occasions to perpetuate such important events”, noted the Mayor.

The graffiti of Ronaldo, which was created last year, now has a phrase in English. “I scored 4 goals, can you beat that, Leo?”. “If Messi scores three goals, then we will make graffiti of him on the building of the Kazan City Hall”, promised I. Metshin.

The Russian team also deserves its graffiti. The Mayor reminded that the first public art that appeared in Kazan portrayed Ruslan Kambolov, a Russian football player of “Rubin”. The head of the city expressed hope that the Russian team will be able to win the next match with Spain and noted that the main thing in the World Cup is the atmosphere that prevails in the city. “Look how our city has changed. Not just in flowers and the roads, but in the atmosphere that reigns thanks to this holiday and our guests, volunteers, fans, friendship. What is going on in the world, and people unite here. It’s amazing”, the Mayor shared his impressions.

The main artist Dmitry Kudinov said that he had to work quite quickly, but noted that this is a normal practice for public art. The team of artists worked until 3 am, and started again at 5 am. "The guys came with us from another project in Yekaterinburg. We have seen only the whole technical side so far, I hope that there will be time and we will be immersed in the atmosphere of what is happening in Kazan”, noted Dmitry.

Since it was necessary to start work urgently, the artists had to improvise a bit. “The materials are very hard to find in Russia, we order the paint. We keep the basic sets in cities where there are our projects. Now we have to adjust, we didn’t have enough time to select something individual”, said Dmitriy. “In general, we tried to equalize the picture on the color scale with Ronaldo. This is a classic approach when there are cold and warm colors. You can show the character of a person due to this. Now we have to work out something in the process, but it's fine. Not everything that is possible on paper can be done on the surface of the wall”.

 The painted Messi and Ronaldo are practically the same in size. According to D. Kudinov, the surface of the building on one of the graffiti is smaller so is the background of the picture. But everything else is the same. Zhanna Belitskaya, the head of the Department of Urban Design, the main artist of the city, added that small artistic elements will be painted on the background of Messi, too.

I. Metshin said that a lot of devoted fans are waiting for the arrival of Messi. “Earlier, Argentina's national team led by the legendary Messi was not very lucky. Let Kazan become a happy city for him. We will be very glad to see him here”, said I. Metshin.