Zurab Tsereteli’s futuristic bus stops in Abkhazia. Photo
Zurab Tsereteli’s bus stops in Abkhazia
On 22 April, Georgian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli passed away. His name is well known across the post-Soviet space, but few people realise that he began his artistic career designing bus stops in Abkhazia in the 1960s.
Octopus. Pitsunda
In 1967, construction was nearing completion on a large resort complex in the Abkhazian town of Pitsunda, and the young Zurab Tsereteli was entrusted with “beautifying” the grounds and facades of seven new high-rise guesthouses.
“I didn’t even know where Pitsunda was at the time — I had never been there, not as a student, nor while working at the institute. What kind of ethnography could you expect in a relict grove? Back then, Pitsunda was far from famous,” Tsereteli later recalled.
He created several sculptures and mosaics that decorated the new resort. However, Tsereteli’s most iconic artistic legacy in Abkhazia turned out to be his bus stops — structures that looked more like sets from a sci-fi film.
These nine well-known bus stops, designed in a futuristic style, still stand in place today, although some are partially abandoned. Among specialists, these works are considered some of the finest examples of this unique genre.
Little rooster. Pitsunda
Drawing, it seems, on the fact that Abkhazia lies on the seashore, the young sculptor gave many of the bus stops “marine” forms — a seashell, a wave, a fish, an octopus — and covered them in bright mosaics.
Octopus-2. Pitsunda
Seemingly purely functional objects like bus stops were transformed by Zurab Tsereteli into works of art that still look impressive and futuristic, even by today’s standards.
Seashell. New Athos
Red-mouthed Frog. Exit from Sukhum
Dolphin. Gagra
Wave. Gagra
Hippodrome. Approach to Gagra
Variation on marine fauna. Pitsunda
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Zurab Tsereteli’s bus stops in Abkhazia
