The exhibition “The Cross over Russia” of the hieromonk of the Valaam Monastery Savvatiy will be held at Magnezit Cultural Center in Satka from April 20 to May 18. The photo project is supported by the Sobranie Fund.

There will be more than 100 works on display with all of them grouped into “seven chapters”. Each in its own way tells about vast Russia, its spirituality, the inseparable history of Orthodoxy and the Russian state, about life in different parts of our Fatherland. It took many years of traveling through Russia, including “the years of the power break and the troubled times”, to gather this photo collection. The “cross” mentioned in the title of the project became a very strong, expressive, meaningful and, at the same time, unifying symbol,

“The idea for this project was born several years ago in a joyful atmosphere of hope for the undoubted and coming revival of the special universe that used to be called Russia and was woven through time and space from at least the ninth century”, says Father Savvatiy. “The image of the “Cross” was born from the perception of the history of the Russian state as a kind of god incarnation, where the cross is the most comprehensive and immutable form of the incarnation. When considering the exhibition title “The Cross over Russia”, we are talking not only about the cross that was raised over Russia by Prince Vladimir a thousand years ago, not only and not so much about the numerous crosses and bell towers that once rose over Russia as a special vault connecting the sky and the earth, but also about the cross within the Russian history. The cross over Russia means also Russia on the cross, whose state and historical body is disintegrating before our eyes, but who “is hoping for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century”.

The exhibition follows the design concept of an artwork. It is a cycle of eight photo stories. The approach of the author is explained by the fact that “the number of the future century is eight, and our traditional Russian cross is also octagonal, perhaps that is why our work has naturally formed into eight parts, eight chapters, which we present”.

The opening of the exhibition and a meeting with Father Savvatiy will take place at Magnezit Cultural Center at 6 p.m. on April 20. We invite everyone! 

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The residents and guests of Satka got acquainted with the work of Father Savvatiy for the first time in 2017 when a significant project of “the photo chronicler of monastic life” under the title “Paths of the Holy Mountain. From Athos to Valaam” was exhibited at the Magnezit museum. The next exhibition “Wagon from Childhood” was held two years later. An album book was also published with the support of the Sobranie Fund in November 2017. It captures the spiritual journey of the hieromonk of the Valaam Monastery Savvatiy to Holy Mount Athos in words and photo images.

Photo by Vasily Maksimov