Sharmanka Kinetic Gallery


The Sharmanka Kinetic Gallery is a theatre of kinetic sculpture, where hundreds of carved figures and pieces of old scrap perform an incredible choreography to haunting music and synchronised light, telling the humorous and tragic stories of the human spirit as it struggles against the relentless circles of life and death. Its style has been described as "Heath Robinson meets Hieronymus Bosch". It is a collaboration between sculptor-mechanic Eduard Bersudsky, theatre director Tatyana Jakovskaya, and light and sound designer Sergey Jakovsky. The word "sharmanka" is Russian for hurdy-gurdy or barrel-organ.

History

Sharmanka was founded in St Petersburg in 1989 and based in Glasgow since 1995. It was exhibited at Eretz Israel Museum in Tel-Aviv, Edinburgh Royal Museum, London Theatre Museum, Manchester City Art Gallery, McLellan Galleries, Glasgow, Museum Speelklok, Utrecht, as well as at science and technology museums in Granada, Jerusalem, Switzerland and Copenhagen, performed at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2008, London International Mime Festival in 2002 and 2009.
Commissions include The Millennium Clock for Royal Museum in Edinburgh, "The Flight" for Bloomfield Science Museum, Jerusalem, "St.Mungo-at-the-Tron" in Glasgow, "World of Artist" for Storm P. Museum, Copenhagen etc.
Sharmanka kinetic sculptures are in collections of Glasgow Museums and Museum of Nonconformist Art in St Petersburg, Science Museum in Jerusalem Granada Science Park.
Eduard Bersudsky won "Creative Scotland Award" in 2005.