Siberian mayor defends penis-shaped ice rink as an efficient use of space

For the second year in a row, the Mayor of Novosibirsk defends the city’s penis-shaped ice rink saying it is simply an efficient use of space.

I never thought I would see so many people happily gliding along the length of a penis-shaped ice rink – not one, but two years in a row. Located in the capital of Siberia, at the centre of the city, the rink was designed back in 2019 for the holiday season and immediately faced backlash after drone images uncovered its phallic shape.

It’s truly hard to unsee the penis shape once you notice it, with many locals having a laugh at the design, claiming it is a “message from the government to its people”. 

The Mayor of Novosibirsk, Anatoly Lokot, defended the shape, claiming that it was the last thing on anyone’s mind when the rink was designed and that he simply wanted to maximise “pleasure” and make it long enough for any sporting event.

 

Justifying its return in 2020, the mayor also mentioned that winter sparks peoples’ imaginations and that the path is the same shape in summer (although you can’t blame people for missing the shape in the heat, there would’ve been some shrinkage).

So with that, we have another wonderful year of people ‘masturskating’ their way through a Siberian winter, all too literally manifesting the comments from Vice Mayor Anna Tereshkova: “real art should arouse people”.  How icy.