“Look at this, it’s my television: my television, the most beautiful in the world! » says Yuri, arms outstretched towards the street (we have chosen to transcribe his way of speaking identically).
“Here, I see everything: the lovers, the alcoholics, the drug addicts… The fights there, the people holding their hands there, the people walking, the races: everything! » he continues, between two sips of coffee.
Four months since Yuri arrived in Bordeaux, stage of a long journey of exile. With a few things on his back, the man has been roaming the European regions for years. In the Gironde capital, he discovered a passion: building models of buildings and monuments, with coffee stirrers, matches, and lots of recycled materials.
Golden fingers and silver hands
His works, the fruit of two to three days of work, are above all to “give people pleasure”. Curious or amazed: there are many of them marking time along the Victor-Hugo course.
“Hey Yuri!” » says a passer-by, “you'll go get your coffee at the bar next door, it's paid for” says another.
The whole neighborhood knows him, from the storekeepers at the adjoining Carrefour to the local homeless people, from the next-door neighbors to the dead-ends of the Saint-Éloi parish.
Spiderman hat screwed on his head, face protruding, the man moves, cuts, calculates and takes a step back. Glue, a few instruments, a pen to trace your cardboard templates. Any plans? None. “I need to try it to see if it works well like that,” he says, while trying to insert a rounded window on the facade of his construction.
In his hands, one model chases another. Its buildings grow and rise with an inexhaustible creative frenzy. There are successes, trials and along the way a few failures.
Vilnius-Bordeaux-Lhasa
His past, his life before, Yuri only reveals snatches of it. When asked if he still has a link with his family: “nowhere, no one anymore. » And continues: “I come from Soviet Lithuania, I was also in Vladivostok before. » A father from Vilnius, a mother from Moscow, a youth who merges with the twilight of the Soviet empire. As a kid, he dreamed of becoming a firefighter. But school repels him, the benches, the notebooks “that don’t make you study life”.
At the end of adolescence, the time comes for compulsory military service, first in the artillery then in the army. Before leaving for the army, he fell in love with a first love that he hoped to find again on his return. Three years later, at the end of his service, his beloved left… with someone else. From the USSR, he keeps some memories: “School was free, for everyone, free house, free food… A bit of diktat too, but life less difficult. »
Exile came. Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Portugal… And then France. First Nice, then Cannes. In the South, he works as a mover and gardener, experiencing hardship and scams. His age? “40, 42 years” No memory of dates, or even the year he left Russia.
“Stay positive”
“Building a model helps you stay positive, not thinking: stay focused! ”, and he really needs it. The street, the tarmac, he knows: its miseries and its bumps in existence, which zigzag between intoxication and sadness. For him, no drugs or alcohol. A little cigarette here, a little coffee there, no more, no less.
“I've never seen him drink, it's rare,” emphasizes Sébastien, a social volunteer who comes to see him during his health patrols. Even the police can't believe it! “They see me, not drunk, me as a model, they think I’m crazy” he confides, hilarious.
Under downpours and the wind blowing, the roadway lives to the rhythm of sirens and the incessant sweep of cars. Yuri pauses to roll a cigarette. Despite the bad weather, his joviality remains intact and his gaze remains as lively as ever. Only his hands, shivering in the December cold, betray the harshness of the winter days. He spends his nights with one eye open on his bundle and his latest creation to protect against theft.
“fun”
In Bordeaux, he meets a person who has the gift of alleviating his loneliness. Oleg, a “lonely comrade on the street”, originally from Odessa, Ukraine. “Spassiba”, thank you, for a refill of coffee then words, jokes, laughter, in Russian. The two fellows hit each other, as if thumbing their noses at the conflict raging at the other end of the continent. “No war here, he’s a good Ukrainian, not an extremist” argues Yuri. His friend helps him, brings him shoes or tobacco.
Around his achievements, Yuri met many people who brought him spontaneous generosity. Because for him, “money is not asked for, it is earned!” “. Mickaël, a resident of the building in front of which he is installed, obtained a model of the Château de Monte-Cristo, the emblematic residence of Alexandre Dumas.
Yeshi Phuntsuk, owner of a restaurant in the heart of the Saint-Michel district, was curious about Yuri's constructions. “I insisted every time I passed him that he build a model: he ended up saying yes! » From a photo of Yumbu Lhakhang“the first palace of Tibet”, the artist produced a work. In exchange, he gets a little over a hundred euros which allows him to meet his needs.
Cours Victor-Hugo, Yuri is already working on a new construction: “a Chinese temple” with its curved hips, its golden tiles and its blood-red facade. And after? “A tank, want to change! » he slips mischievously. For the unfortunate model maker from old Bordeaux, all that is missing is a workshop sheltered from bad weather.
