Odesa fascinates me because almost every pebble, street or sculpture has its own story. But first, I still decided to write about what every tourist or city resident can see right away. Today there will be two sculptures in one post because they are located next to each other and there is no point in dividing them pointlessly.
I already wrote that in the city garden, which is located in the centre of the city, you can see the sculpture "Odesa Time", and a little further from it you have the opportunity to sit next to the famous Odesan - actor and singer of Jewish origin Leonid Utyosov.
Utyosov loved Odesa very much and considered it the best city on the planet, therefore in his work, you can see quite a large number of songs dedicated to his native city. But this song, in general, became the anthem of Odesa:
An interesting fact is that when you find yourself at the railway station of the city, you can hear this song from the loudspeakers. It is usually turned on when the next train leaves the city. It would seem like a trifle, but you would see the number of people who are crying at that moment.
But something distracted me from the monument itself. It was installed on the day of the celebration of the 206th anniversary of the city - September 2, 2000. Utyosov made a huge contribution to the cultural development of both Odesa and Ukraine (and the USSR as a whole), so the desire to erect a monument to this Odesa man was very logical and correct. The monument was created at the expense of voluntary donations from the townspeople, and the sculptor and artist Oleksandr Tokarev and the architect Glazyrin were engaged in its production.
You can see that next to the artist there is a free place where tourists and guests of the city like to sit, and Utyosov himself is made larger than the actual size. This was done in order to once again emphasize the greatness of this person. First of all, a figurine of an old telephone was installed near the artist, where you could order a song from Utyosov's repertoire. There was a special list of numbers, and when you clicked on the desired composition, it turned on the speakers installed from the outside.
Unfortunately, no one can protect themselves from vandals. They quickly broke the device, after which it was dismantled, and Utyosov himself was left alone without his music. And here I go to another sculpture, which is located opposite the singer's monument. Moreover, I did not think that everything would coincide like this when I started writing this text.
I did not find confirmation of my guesses, but it seems to me that after many years this sculpture was installed in place of that telephone. So, meet the interactive sculpture "Voice of Odesa". Installation date - October 16, 2020.
The sculpture is an old gramophone on a high pedestal. At the same time, it is worth noting that you can look at it for quite a long time because, on all sides of this instrument, various facades of Odesa buildings are engraved with a huge number of small details.
The author of the idea was Andrii Levchenko, an Odesa businessman and philanthropist, who wanted to show the world exactly what his hometown sounds like. Therefore, in addition to the gramophone, you can see a small QR code. After scanning it, you will get to the project site. And then you just need to turn on the player and enjoy the various sounds of the city.
This is like the works of famous Odesans - Utyosov, Zhvanetsky, Oistrakh, Nezhdanova, etc. So are natural sounds - the sound of the sea, the cries of seagulls, the sounds of the railway station. In addition, on the site, you can read more detailed information about each outstanding person who entered this list. Unfortunately, there is no English version, but I think Google Translate can handle these texts.
And the sculptor Viktor Tyblevych brought it all to life and he really tried, I considered all the details for quite a long time. In addition, every time you approach or open a photo, you can see something new for yourself.
