ABC Book

This is the title work of the entire ABC book series (Elifba) — in it Dmitry Fatum created a simple and understandable image of how a native language preserves the memory of generations. Against the backdrop of a typical Tatar landscape, a teacher and students have settled around the alphabet. The teacher's costume references Tatar educators of the XIX century, while the children's clothes are completely modern. A flower of knowledge grows from the book. The vignette at the top of the book page was created based on a traditional Tatar ornament.

Yekaterinburg artist Natalya Pastukhova from got the letter Ү and the word үsterү («grow»). A pair of horses framed by a vignette of flowers based on Tatar embroidery is an allegory of a young family that cultivates their feelings.

«I decided to interpret this word through the image of a horse. Horses are often significant heroes for the Tatar culture, participants in many myths and legends. With the help of horses and floral patterns, I wanted to show that you can grow not only flowers and plants, but also warm feelings in yourself», says the artist.

Illustrator Güzel Garipova got the word Һeнeр («ability»). In her work, she combined a modern skatepark with a traditional Tatar holiday. In her drawing there is a heap of kids, where each child performs tasks typical for competitions at the Sabantuy festival: children walk along an inclined log, climb up to the top of the pillar behind a rooster, fight with bags, run around with a chicken egg in a spoon, engage in national Tatar wrestling kuresh, cut threads blindfolded and dance.

For our project, Güzel worked for the first time in a monumental format, and the illustration for the ABC book is her first work on the mural, finalized by the St. Petersburg graffiti writers Nikita Dusto and Yegor Shen.

Alexey Kislow worked on the letter Ө and the word өй («house»). A family home is the basis of life for all nationalities living in Tatarstan. Alexey depicted a dream of a large and prosperous house where several generations live.The work used the architectural features of the village house, including decor elements and colors typical of the Almetyevsk region.

For the letter Җ and the word җир («earth»), Roman Muratkin depicted a scene from the Tatar rural holiday — Sabantuy. A festive procession led by an accordion player marks the end of field work. Important stages of the agricultural calendar, such as planting or harvesting, often ended with holidays. Despite the fact that they are no longer celebrated everywhere, they still remain an important part of peasant life. Previously, such holidays were ritualized in nature and were distributed throughout the territory of Tatarstan and Russia — they thanked the land and asked to be generous. In his work, Roman also managed to show an important detail of the Almetyevsk landscape — the silhouette of an oil rig in the hills, precisely the type that surround the city itself.

According to the artist, the very object on which the image will be located always plays an important role for him, since the place sets the tone and character. Another criterion is the coloristic interaction of the medium and subject matter. They should complement each other without entering into dissonance with the surrounding space. He also tried to implement these principles while working on «Earth».

The artist Rustam Salemgaraev (Qbic) visualized the letter Ә and the word әkiyat («fairy tale»). He depicted those transformations that happen to a person after the birth of children.

Although Rustam's murals have long been found in Russian cities and around the world (in Turkey, Cyprus, Italy and Ukraine), «Fairy Tale» was the first painting that he made in his native Tatarstan.