A UNIQUE theatre in Glasgow is celebrating three anniversaries tonight with music, film previews and an appearance by the Russian visionary artist behind it.

Sculptor-mechanic Eduard Bersudsky and theatre director Tatyana Jakovskaya first opened Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre in St Petersburg in 1990, when the city was still called Leningrad.

Thirty years on, Sharmanka – meaning barrel organ – is marking a quarter-century in Glasgow and two decades since the construction of the millennium clock, a moving sculpture telling the story of the twentieth century on display at the National Museum of Scotland.

Alongside four other master-makers, Bersudsky created the 10-metre tall tower using skills he’d taught himself in the Soviet Union while working in the 1970s and 1980s as a parkie, electrician, metal worker and boiler operator.

In a cramped living space in a shared Leningrad flat, Bersudsky created a set of kinemats or kinetic sculptures from remnants of furniture, wheels from Singer sewing machines and scrapped motors. This original series and more recent works can be seen in motion regularly each week at Trongate 103, home to Sharmanka since the arts centre opened in 2009.

READ MORE: Festival showing marks genius behind greatest female directors

Bersudsky’s kinemats could not have been displayed in the Soviet Union: darkly humorous, satirical and ramshackle, they were ideologically and aesthetically “inappropriate”.

When economic collapse followed the dissolution of the USSR in the 1990s, Bersudsky and Jakovskaya found there was no support for Sharmanka in Russia – just as Glasgow Museums bought some of its exhibits and invited them to present a show at McLellan Galleries.

In 1996 they moved into a gallery and workshop space in the Merchant City, and Bersudsky’s eccentric, one-of-a-kind sculptures have had their home in Glasgow ever since.

“We came here by chance but we stayed here by choice because we loved the city, its atmosphere and creative people,” says Sharmanka manager Sergey Jakovsky. The son of Jakovskay, Sergey has worked with Sharmanka since he was 13.

Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre as it is today is a collaboration between Bersudsky, Jakovskay and Jakovsky, also an international theatre designer technician who studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

“My mother was introduced to Eduard by my uncle,” says Jakovsky. “At the time, all his kinemats used to stand in his living room in his Leningrad flat. My mother thought that, with her experience of theatre, she could find a way to present it even better and expose it to people. It was her concept to theatricalise them, combining them with sound and light.”

Following a long de facto apprenticeship learning the intricacies of Bersudsky’s art machines, the younger man has had the “complete trust” of the now 81-year-old artist for the last decade.

“I learnt a lot about his machines from a mechanic who used to help him,” says Jakovsky. “As I learnt more, Eduard had more and more trust in me.”

Jakovsky says it’s a long-term vision to create proper documentation for the kinemats. When they’re taken out on tour, each takes a day to pack up and another to reassemble.

“Eduard did things in entirely his own way, with no formal mechanical or art education,” he says. “Everything he did was self-taught. They were all old Russian wiring and mechanics, it’s amazing that they worked for as long as they did before I started trying to standardise them.”

Though Jakovsky’s mother and step-father urged him to prioritise his own career, in recent years he’s increased up his involvement with Sharmanka as they’ve eased into retirement.

“It was always very pragmatic and there was no pressure from either of them,” he says. “They said it wouldn’t be easy to run this art organisation and that the worst thing would be if I took it over and began to resent it. But after 30 years I’m still not bored with it. It’s a wonderful coincidence that my natural interest in these things has come into its own with my love for Sharmanka.”

Seeing audiences responding to Bersudsky’s machines and the human stories they depict inspires Jakovsky to “keep going and do what it takes to keep it going”.

Sometimes cheeky, sometimes, like Bersudsky’s tribute to 9/11 unbearably sad, these are ingenious creations you’ll be urging all and sundry to see. Curiously, this world one-off has three-quarters of its visitors come from people outside of Glasgow. And its future in the city is not assured, says Jakovsky.

It would be a hollow irony if Scotland were to lose such a gem due to a situation echoing those which saw Sharmanka flee its original Russian home.

“We love Glasgow but we are in a difficult position, all the arts are – there’s a lot of people in the same boat, especially in this building,” says Jakovsky from the Trongate 103 base. “I have so many ideas for Sharmanka but though we have a fantastic venue here, our biggest struggle at the moment is staying here.”

Triple anniversary party: Tonight, Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre, Trongate 103, Glasgow, 7pm, by invite. Email info@sharmanka.com if interested in attending.

Weekly shows: Promenade, Wednesday 5pm, Thursday 5.30pm, Friday 4pm, Saturday and Sunday 3.30pm; Wheels Of Life, Thursday 7pm, Saturday and Sunday 5pm, £10, £8 concs. Book at www.sharmanka.com