Decorated House and GardenAnatoly Mikhailovich Lobanov (b. ca. 1940s-1950s)
Extant
Leshkovo, Moscow Oblast, 143581, Russia
Located in the small community of Leskhovo, some 43 km west of Moscow in Russia.
About the Artist/Site
Although located some 40 kilometers west of Moscow and with environs marked with huge storage and other commercial buildings in its vicinity, the small village of Leshkovo has retained much of its original character. Along the few streets are traditional houses, some of which are still built of wood in a classical Russian style.
One of these wooden properties has a special appearance. Its owner, Anatoly Mikhailovich Lobanov, decorated the main house, the outbuildings, the garden and the fence almost completely with geometrically-cut and colorful pieces of plastic in such forms as circles, polygons and stars, all carefully and symmetrically arranged.
Lobanov, who was born in the 1940s or 1950s, had a job as a mechanic at a plastic factory. In the production of plastic items residual material usually is disposed of at the dump, but Lobanov had the notion to use these colorful scraps, not only to protect the wood from the effects of the sun, but, even more importantly, to embellish his house.
He began his ornamentation in 1972, a project he continued in the following decades.
Although most of the ornamentations have a geometric pattern, some of the decorations depict animals, such as a rooster on a roof or two storks on their nest. A pinnacle on one of the rooftops has two symmetrically placed side views of black horse heads positioned around stylized flowers. Birdhouses are grouped on poles in the garden, decorated with multicolored rosettes. Another attractive creation, less stylized than the other decorations, is a stork, which, attached to a line from a roof to a tree, gives the impression of being in full swing with the delivery of the baby.
Although in Europe some art environments may include plastic items as one of the components, to my knowledge there are no sites which are exclusively decorated with this material. This makes Lobanov's creation rather unique.
Lobanov, who is now retired, occasionally welcomes tourists who visit the site on guided tours. Looking through the fence, it can easily be seen from the road.
~Henk van Es
Map & Site Information
Leshkovo, Moscow Oblast, 143581
ru
Latitude/Longitude: 55.815162 / 37.105156
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