Manyly Holm Art Park.

There is a place in the village of Srednyaya (formerly Manyly) that is marked on maps as Manyly Holm. This is not just a private territory, but a real land art residence where nature and creativity exist in symbiosis. The owners of the estate are Minsk sculptors Polina Pirogova and Vasily Timashov, the creators of the "Echo" workshop.

Their path to working with natural materials began with stone. The noise of the grinder and the dust prompted the search for a secluded place outside the city. The site was found 10 years ago, and since then it has become not only a home, but also a space for experiments. Today, the Manyly Holm area resembles a scene from a myth: in the early morning, in a hazy haze, the art objects here look like spirits of the forest emerging from the thicket.

The transition to working with the vine happened by accident. Polina tried to weave a birdhouse, but the structure was falling apart. Then Vasily suggested making a metal frame. This is how the first joint work was born - the sculpture "Natural Connection" made of blood-red turf, which is still kept in the workshop.

The secret of the popularity of the Echo sculptures lies in their durability. Despite the doubts of customers at the beginning of the journey (2015), time has proved that objects made of vines on a metal frame can withstand more than 10 years. The natural material changes color over time, becomes covered with moss, but looks natural, and the metal is "digested" by nature without harm to the environment. The works of the masters decorate the Sevastopol Park, the Botanical Garden and Oktyabrskaya Street in Minsk, as well as the mythological trail of the Berezinsky Nature Reserve.

The geography of the projects has gone far beyond the borders of Belarus. In 2017, sculptors created an art object on the facade of a building on Oktyabrskaya Street as part of the "Vulica Brazil" festival. Years later, the festival organizer invited them to Brazil. There, on the building of the Cultural Center of the National Bank, their large-scale work "Reliving through the nature" appeared, consisting of 55 parts. The installation of the object resembled the assembly of a complex puzzle and required the help of 20 assistants.

Now Polina and Vasily not only create art objects, but also teach sculpture at the I. O. Akhremchik College of Art, where they once met themselves. They give students the main advice: not to try to please others, but to create something that they like themselves. The main source of inspiration for them is natural forms: cones, cuttings, plants. The family plans to create a sculpture park on its territory: metal tents that will eventually be woven by a vine, turning the site into a green jungle. Another dream is to weave chandeliers from vines and hang them in abandoned farmsteads in Belarus to breathe life into old walls.