Gagarin in Britain: Exhibition and Catalogue

Gagarin in Britain: Exhibition
19 July – 23 September 2011
British Council, 10 Spring Gardens, London SW1A 2BN

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight and the installation of the Yuri Gagarin statue on the Mall, the British Council presents Gagarin in Britain, an exhibition on the life of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and the early Soviet space programme, from 19 July to 23 September 2011 at British Council headquarters.

The exhibition showcases items from the Vostok (“East”) manned space programme rarely seen in Britain: the first space suit – SK-1, including the padded inner lining, blue rubberised pressure-suit and outer orange layer; and an ejector seat of the model used by Gagarin when he parachuted out of Vostok 1 at an altitude of 7km. These exhibits are complemented by Soviet posters from the Moscow Museum of Cosmonautics; a film made by Roscosmos showing original footage of the early training programme and the 1961 launch itself; a model of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite in the world, launched in October 1957; an array of space food; and one of the earliest dog space suits, used prior to man’s first spaceflight to test the capacity of living creatures in space. As there are few items from the early Soviet space programme on view in the UK, this is an exceptional opportunity to see some of the earliest space items, which marked the launch of man’s venture into space.
 
Accompanying the artefacts is a photographic exhibition telling the story of Gagarin’s life, featuring at least 80 photographs from the Gagarin family archive and other sources, many never published before. They show the small town of Klushino where Gagarin was born; the devastation brought about by the Nazi occupation; and the tale of a young man of modest beginnings gradually becoming a pilot, then a cosmonaut, then – within an instant of his return to earth – the most famous man on the planet. A special section is devoted to Gagarin’s visit to Britain from 11 to 15 July 1961, with photographs of the extraordinary welcome given to him by the British public, and of his meeting with politicians and people alike.  

Curator: Andrea Rose
Designer: Nick Coombe and Mark Thomson

Admission
The British Council is a working office building, and will be open to the public on Tuesday and Friday afternoons only, from 4.00-5.00pm.  Entry is by registration on a first come first served basis, and members of the public are invited to register at: gagarin@britishcouncil.org.

Catalogue
To accompany the unveiling of the statue and the exhibition, the British Council has published Gagarin in Britain, an extensively illustrated, 160-page catalogue exploring the life of Yuri Gagarin, his visit to Britain in July 1961, and the legacy of the Russian space programme. The catalogue is edited by Andrea Rose, Director of Visual Arts at the British Council. It includes texts by Piers Bizony, biographer of Yuri Gagarin; Dr. Christopher Riley, writer and filmmaker; Vix Southgate, author of Yuri Gagarin: The First Spaceman; and Dr. Svetlana Boym, Curt Hugo Reisinger, Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literatures at Harvard University. Illustrations include technical drawings from the Moscow State Archive for Scientific and Technical Documentation showing the development of the parachute and ejector seat equipment, which have never been published before in the West.  

Priced at £25, the catalogue will be available for purchase from Cornerhouse Publications online at www.cornerhouse.org/books