The first wax exhibition from St. Petersburg in the capital of Siberia took place almost 10 years ago. She immediately became very popular among residents and visitors of the city. Subsequently, taking into account the growing interest in the exposition, it was decided to create the Novosibirsk Wax Museum, which today is included in the list of the most popular attractions of the city.
About the museum
The Novosibirsk Wax Museum is a branch of the St. Petersburg Museum of the same name with regularly changing exhibits.
The first exposition presented to residents and guests of the Siberian capital was a collection of figures of popular literary characters and film heroes of Soviet and foreign classics.
Wax copies of Volodya Sharapov and Gleb Zhiglov, Muller and Shtirlits, the famous trinity from the "Caucasian Captive" and other Shurik's adventures were among the first to come to Novosibirsk.
Also, visitors could see the famous Frenchwoman Joan of Arc, Batman, a guest from the planet Krypton, better known to earthlings as Superman, and other legendary heroes of this and fictional world.
The most large-scale exposition over the years of the museum’s existence was The Last Supper, created according to the masterpiece of the same name by Leonardo da Vinci.
For a long time the Novosibirsk Wax Museum did not have its own premises, so the exposition was repeatedly moved. There was a time when it was housed in the Art Museum of the city, in the MKP DK Progress and other cultural institutions.
But this summer, the museum moved to a small but cozy room located in the central area of Novosibirsk between the local Public House and the Krasny Prospekt metro station. Address: Red Avenue, 51.
The story of wax
The art of creating figures from wax is quite ancient. Initially, it originated in the East, then became widespread in Rome and Greece, and after that - throughout Europe.
On the territory of Russia, they learned about the possibility of creating figures from wax during the reign of Peter I, who brought a wax copy of his head to his homeland from a foreign trip. The emperor liked the idea of creating wax copies so much that he got excited about the idea of creating a museum in St. Petersburg, the exhibits of which were to be copies of famous people cast from wax. However, he did not manage to fulfill his dream.
It is noteworthy that after the death of Peter, the art of creating wax sculptures was forgotten for as long as 300 years. Only at the end of the 20th century they remembered him, but by that time many knowledge and technologies had been lost. Masters had to start almost from scratch.
How exhibits are created today
It is clear that today wax figures, including exhibits from the Novosibirsk Wax Museum, are created in a completely different way than they were under Peter I and even at the end of the last century, but even today this is a rather complicated and painstaking process.
The creation of each sculpture can take from several months to a year. Moreover, over 40 people from 15 different professions take part in the process: sculptors and postighers, make-up artists and dressers. One of the most difficult procedures is the creation of hairstyles, since each hair is soldered into the wax “skin” separately.
By the way, only visible parts of sculptures are currently made from wax, what is hidden under clothes is molded from plastic. And wax for sculptures is used not quite ordinary: special components are added to it, which allow the figures to maintain their shape in the temperature range from -40 to +40 .
Current exposure
Currently, the Novosibirsk Wax Museum presents 66 sculptures located in several small halls. In the first hall, visitors are greeted by famous politicians from different times. Where, if not here, can Adolf Hitler, Ivan the Terrible and Peter I meet?
Next to them are: the founder of the Soviet Union V.I. Ulyanov-Lenin, the first and last president of the USSR M.S. Gorbachev, the first president of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, the current president of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin and the world-famous communist K. Marx.
In another room you can see people with congenital anomalies and those who, due to their characteristics, have been listed in the Guinness World Records.
Here are the heroes of films about the boy who survived, and about the brotherhood of the ring that saved Middle-earth from the insidious Sauron. This exposition presents Harry Potter with his friends Ron and Hermione, the kind wizard-giant Hagrid and Gandalf with the hobbits.
Kunstkamera
Together with the Novosibirsk Wax Museum, Progress also hosted the Kunstkamera, more precisely, its smaller copy. Currently, exhibits of the Kunstkamera are in the same place as the main exhibition of the museum.
Here you can not only see how the human body is structured, but also learn about the many possible pathologies in its development. The oldest exhibit of the Kunstkamera is over 120 years old (1895).
Placing this room next to the hall, which contains the most famous human anomalies, the organizers of the exhibition seemed to continue the topic.
To look at alcoholic embryos and organs is an amusement for an amateur, therefore, the most impressionable ones do not always dare to enter the Kunstkamera. But taking pictures with the president of the Russian Federation, the first emperor of Russia or with the characters of the Harry Potter saga is always enough for everyone.