The Darwin Museum and the Zapovedny Lug ("Protected Meadow") community are launching the "Living Roof" social and cultural project. The story of a former garage plot that was given the status of a protected meadow, with its mixed grasses and its red-listed animals, through the efforts of caring Muscovites is told by an exhibition of graffiti and street art objects by the artist Andrey Polyakov.
From May 15 to September 19, 2021 the Darwin Museum and the Protected Meadow community are running the "Living Roof" social and cultural project. It tells how a former garage plot was given the status of a protected meadow, with its mixed grasses and its red-listed animals, through the efforts of Muscovites. The site turned into a green area among apartment buildings, and its new status protected it from felling and improper maintenance.
In the summer of 2021 the roof of the Darwin Museum became a "branch of the protected meadow".
Andrey Polyakov told the story of the site and of the whole variety of its fauna in his works. The artist used KUDO® aerosol paints to create them. The graffiti and the street art objects showed the guests on the roof how many animals live next to us that often go unnoticed yet matter to the urban ecosystem. The works were accompanied by explanatory texts by Timofey Levchenko, an entomologist at the Darwin Museum.
The "Living Roof" program included lectures by professional landscape gardeners, master classes by Andrey Polyakov and a series of summer evenings devoted to graffiti.
Over the summer the project developed and was regularly extended with new works, supported by its sponsors KUDO® and RUSH®. In the future the staff of the Darwin Museum want to turn the renewed space into a whole park, in order to preserve plant and animal species that matter to the district.
