Monumental sculpture as an element of the city’s visual culture: Features of reception (Using Saint Petersburg as an example)
DOI: 10.23951/2312-7899-2026-2-175-195
Monumental sculpture is an important element within the composition of urban semiosis, since its works carry meanings and significations linked to universally significant values. These values ground human existence in culture. The creative method employed by the artist in creating a work influences how the viewer understands the meaning and signification of that artistic work. Each of these methods—namely mimesis, construction, and deconstruction—has its own type of connection between the artistic sign (the sculptural image) and its referent. Thus, in mimesis, this connection is built on the resemblance between the signifier and the signified; in construction, it is determined by the author's artistic code; in deconstruction (perhaps the most difficult method for the viewer to perceive), this connection becomes difficult to discern, as it reaches the maximum degree of conventionality. In the process of reception, the viewer needs to know or understand what type of connection they are dealing with. Full-fledged artistic communication and understanding of the work's meaning and signification are impossible without this knowledge. The author examines the features of denotation (establishment of meaning) and connotation (understanding of signification) in mimesis, construction, and deconstruction using examples of monumental works in Saint Petersburg, such as the sculptural group “The Dioscuri” (which until 1914 stood on the roof of the German Embassy building), the monument “To the Combat and Labor Feats of the Komsomol,” as well as the monuments to Academician Andrei Sakharov and Domenico Trezzini. The article shows that the recipient needs to take into account the context (historical, social, cultural, political) in which a given work was created, so that the recipient can move from determining the meaning of the monumental work to grasping its signification. Changes in these contexts over time affect the perception of monumental sculpture. This means that the signification of works may be transformed, reveal new facets, be modernized, or become “closed” to subsequent generations. The article concludes that the viewer must exercise great receptive activity when perceiving monumental sculpture created through the methods of construction and deconstruction. This is explained by the fact that the creative abilities of the recipient's thinking are activated when establishing the meaning and signification of a work far from mimetic resemblance.
Keywords: city, Saint Petersburg, monumental sculpture, monument, reception, artist, viewer, sign, image, signifier, signified, method, mimesis, construction, deconstruction
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Issue: 2, 2026
Series of issue: Issue 2
Rubric: ARTICLES
Pages: 175 — 195
Downloads: 329