Mural ‘History’. Astana, 30 Esenberlin Street. Photo from open sources
Artist: Konstantin Zmogov (Zmogk)
The mural combines street-scale monumentality with an intimate atmosphere. The composition of the mural centres on the figure of a seated person, immersed in reading or contemplating a luminous object – an abstract ‘source of knowledge’. The plasticity of the image is based on the intersection of coloured planes, broken contours and fragments. The artist was guided by the principle of constructive image assembly, which brings the work closer to the traditions of Cubism and Futurism, but in a more ‘digital’ version characteristic of 21st-century street art. The mural’s colour scheme, with accents of cool turquoise and blue, semantically creates a sense of inner stillness and concentration, whilst the pink, yellow and orange hues introduce energy, momentum and emotional tension. The contrast between the dark starry background and the light central area enhances the effect of ‘enlightenment’.