And if You Are in London - 14 July to 14 September 2011

"Gagarin in Britain"  -  London to be exact!

Yuri Gagarin

A statue of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, will be unveiled on the Mall, opposite the statue of Captain Cook and outside the British Council offices headquarters, on Thursday 14 July 2011, to mark the 50th Anniversary of Manned Space Flight.

The statue is a gift from the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) to the British Council.  It will be installed on the Mall for a period of 12 months.  

The British Council will be showing an exhibition in its headquarters on the life of Gagarin and the early Soviet space programme.

Link: http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-gagarin-in-britain.htm

Please note the opening times for Gagarin in Britain are from 4-5pm on Tuesdays and Fridays ONLY. Due to security restrictions at the British Council offices, all visitors must pre-register their visit by emailing us at gagarin@britishcouncil.org
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 14 July to 14 September 2011 at British Council headquarters.
The exhibition showcases some extremely rare space 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 complimented 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 l957; 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 over 80 photographs from the Gagarin family archive and other sources, many never been 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.


Listen to Elena Gagarina, Yuri Gagarin’s elder daughter, in a rare interview with Andrea Rose, who curated the Gagarin in Britain exhibition
Watch an amazing video message from the International Space Station recorded to mark the unveiling of a statue of Yuri Gagarin in the Mall in London


Exhibition AdmissionThe 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


Gagarin in Britain
14 July – 14 September 2011
British Council, 10 Spring Gardens, London SW1A 2BN