Officials in the northern Russian town of Uglich have commissioned the world-renowned sculptor Ernst Neizvestny to build a 6m vodka bottle containing a happy-sad jester as an attraction to boost the tourist trade.
Most of the town's 80,000 annual visitors tend to pass straight through since Uglich, 300km north of Moscow, is the first stop for ships leaving the capital for a cruise along the Volga.
The project, which it is hoped will induce visitors to extend their stopover, is the brainwave of Artur Sazonov, a former deputy mayor who is now vice-governor for the Yaroslavl region in which Uglich is located.
Sazonov justifies his choice with the fact that Uglich was the home of the first vodka factory opened in 1860 by Pyotr Arsenevich Smirnov whose name, in its old Latin-character spelling of "Smirnoff," is now visible in liquor stores the world over.
An earlier Sazonov initiative in Uglich was the creation of a vodka museum presenting 800 different varieties of the national drink.
For his latest project he secured the backing of Smirnov inheritors and the collaboration of Neizvestny who despite his name -- which in Russian means "unknown" -- is an internationally acclaimed artist and lives in New York.
"Vodka is one of the symbols that reflects deepest Russia," Sazonov said. "It represents joy and festivity, it is an inspiration for a lot of creators such as Ernst Neizvestny, and it is also an evil that can cost you everything -- your money and your health," he said.
The sculptor, contacted by letter, said he felt "honored to deal with a subject that is so central for the Russian body and soul," adding that he had a "profound and personal familiarity with the problem."
Neizvestny travelled to Uglich late last month to discuss the site where the monument would be raised and work out some ideas for its form, inspired by the objects on display in the local museum.
Sazonov stressed that the sculpture would not seek to glorify the drink, which authorities see as the root of many of Russia's ills.
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