Report 2013 eng by Ncca Arsenal

National Centre for Contemporary Arts Volga region branch Activity report 2013

Issue of the Volga region branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA) For free distribution

Volga region branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts 603082, Nizhny Novgorod, Kremlin, building 6, Arsenal +7 (831) 422 75 55 www.ncca.ru/nnovgorod ncca@art.nnov.ru

TABLE OF CONTENTS

NCCA VOLGA REGION BRANCH: history, statistics, new in 2013, partners

GREATEST HITS: major art projects of 2013

EXHIBITIONS: exhibition projects

FESTIVALS, MUSIC, EDUCATION: educational and entertaining festivals, marathons and holidays; concerts of various music genres of contemporary music; lectures, round tables, master classes; programs for children

Symbolic time of summarizing results and achievements of the year. Pre-New Year fever gives us an opportunity to get a bird's eye view of our activities. It is very useful: first of all, it helps us to get over increased immersion in our own activities and get a full picture of what our colleagues have achieved during the past year. Secondly, it allows us to assess overall integrity of the organism – because museum-exhibition organization residing in a building-monument and interacting with the society through various culture projects is a very complicated organism; and a director ought to look af ter its health, smooth functioning and vivacity. And finally, if we ascend even higher, we will see borders with our “neighbors” – great number of various partners, from embassies and cultural partners to oil companies and organizations for pensioners. These borders are quite transparent and permeable – without participation of partners we would have hardly been able to do so much for almost fif ty thousand viewers. We can positively state: our “bird's flight” is going well, and evidence of that is concluded in this report. Anna Gor Director NCCA Volga region branch

NCCA VOLGA REGION BRANCH

Volga region branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts is the only museum and exhibition centre in Nizhny Novgorod which is aimed to develop contemporary art in broad context of contemporary culture. It was founded in 1997 (originally as the Nizhny Novgorod branch) at the premises of the Kariatida – Nizhny Novgorod centre of contemporary culture. Volga region branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts is a federal state cultural institution, which operates with support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. In 2007 it was granted the status of Volga region branch with sub branches in Samara, Izhevsk and Kirov. NCCA Volga region branch is located in the heart of the city, in the Arsenal historical building (2nd half of the X X century), architectural monument of federal significance. Currently, one third of the building (1 700 square meters) is open to the public, two thirds are under restoration. In 2013 the NCCA Volga region branch welcomed 48 952 visitors. Total number of visitors of the regional branch – 309 453. Among them: Kirov – 11 000, Samara – 294 011, Izhevsk – 4442. Our mission: “Arsenal is the space of artistic communication for development of a man and territory.” Our activities: support of contemporary art and cultural innovations; development of cultural environment of Nizhny Novgorod; improvement of quality of living of the Nizhny Novgorod population: organization of diverse cultural entertainment for people of dif ferent age and interests; investments in human capital of the region: intellectual and creative development of children and youth.

Visitors of the Arsenal in 2013

2% 2% 16%

57% 24%

Adults

Pensioners

Students

Children

Groups eligible for discount admission and visitors of the Free Wednesday program

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NCCA Volga region branch on the Internet – number of visitors / subscribers

Number of media mentions of the NCCA Volga region branch:

5 905 people

261 people

2 306 people

439 people

153 people

Printed media – 310 Online media – 786 T V – 82 Radio – 76 News subscriptions – 1 842

NEW IN 2013

PRIZES AND AWARDS 2013

2013 is the year of systematization and further development of trends set in the previous year. In exhibition activities a new level was reached with the program of own creation projects based on curatorial research and museum collaboration. Walter Benjamin's New Year Tree exhibition is an example of a multigenre research with involvement of a wide range of partners. Thus far, such projects are rarity in Russia. Bestiary art group exhibition, This Workshop Strives to Be Exemplary of the ZIP group and video Mermaids of Antonina Baever were aimed to demonstrate best samples of contemporary art, and that is one of the priority activities. Special events department is working on one of the most perspective areas of our activity – interdisciplinary and synthetic projects. 2013 was marked with experimental theatrical and per formative productions created specifically for the Arsenal: “Me-Ti. Book of Changes” by Vadim Zakharov and Maria Porudominskaya, “Civilization X X” by Judith Depaule, both of which were highly-publicized. Work of the NCCA Volga region branch with target group of audience was taken to a new level in 2013. Classes for children and their parents of the “Arsenal + Family” program were dif ferentiated according to age of participants; the “New Spectator” program was launched. It is intended to create a system of continuous, step-by step process of studying contemporary culture for children of dif ferent age. In collaboration with the Open Doors Foundation methodology of working with blind and visually impaired audience was developed. A project of guided tours for this category of audience was realized, special audio guides were created for the project. Besides, work on preparations of guided tours for other groups with disabilities began in 2013, staf f of the educational department are consistently acquiring knowledge for that. The social program “Free Wednesday” continued to function. Every Wednesday is still a day of free admission to all exhibitions for all categories of public. Special guided tours are organized for disadvantaged social groups; in 2013 the Arsenal welcomed 20 special groups. Traditionally paying great attention to informational and methodological support of exhibitions, we tested a new form in 2013 – a video guide from an exhibition's curator which received positive feedback of the audience. A new format of the Mediateque's work was presented – opportunity for meetings of dif ferent groups at its premises: “Intellectual tea” for youth of national diasporas, “Department of contemporary culture” uniting scientists-humanitarians, “Agafonov's Platform” – an expert club for preserving cultural heritage. In 2013 the NCCA Volga region branch got its own T V almanac “Arsenal of contemporary art. CON-version” which goes on the air monthly on the channel of the Nizhny Novgorod State T V and radio broadcasting company NNT V. It is broadcasted in Nizhny Novgorod and Nizhny Novgorod region, potential audience – 3,5 million of people. Archive of programs can found at www.youtube.com/ArsenalNNCA

The first annual award of The Art Newspaper Russia in nomination Restoration of the Year for restoration of the Arsenal building. The main prize of the All-Russian Contemporary Visual Art INNOVATION-2012 for Marevo opera by Provmyza group.

PARTNERS

PARTNERS 2013

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INFORMATION PARTNERS 2013

GREATEST HITS

WALTER BENJAMIN'S NEW YEAR TREE EXHIBITION

Concept: Pavel Khoroshilov Curators: Anna Gor, Sergey Romashko, Pavel Khoroshilov Author Group: Patrizia Bach, Erdmund Wizisla, Dmitry Gutov and David Rif f, Alexander Ivanov, Sergey Sitar, Olga Chernysheva The project is dedicated to the unique cultural hero – German philosopher Walter Benjamin whose art in the first half of the XX century laid the basis of art theory in new media era. However, it is not Benjamin's philosophical works which became the center of attention, but the “Moscow Diary” – a cycle of private notes taken by the author during his visit to Moscow in 1926–1927. At the preparation stage series of seminars-discussions were held, the main result of which was the exhibition. The exhibition is made up in the “total installation” genre. It presents the “Moscow Diary” central themes – the city, politics, love, etc. – alongside with explanatory materials: archive documents, old photos and film excerpts, museum pieces and works of contemporary artists. While not being a literal illustration of the “Moscow Diary” the exposition represents its location, space and context with intrinsic presence of the author/main character. Walter Benjamin's New Year Tree is an interdisciplinary collective statement, made with participation of a wide circle of partners. It is an example of museum collaboration which, so far, has no analogues in Russian practice. A publication including the exhibition's catalogue and materials of seminars is soon to be printed.

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The exhibitions' architect Sergey Sitar created a structure from small rooms set at angles to each other, connected with stairs and passages, they make an impression of abandoned, huddled together as though to keep warm in cold weather. The structure gleams in darkness of the large hall – in these lights one can distinguish faces of people whom Benjamin met in Moscow, a glass-case, a chest with a powder box and a per fume bottle. Each room tells its own story, but together they tell the great story of the revolution – that reminds of an absolutely new method of writing, characteristic for Benjamin: not a lengthy one-piece narration, but rather a collection of fragments, “flashes ”, among which hides understanding of the time. Diana Machulina Polit.ru, 11 February 2013 Enthusiasts conversant with Benjamins' art, who are also artists, built a whole plywood labyrinth which represents a flatinstallation. It is worth taking a tour of the flat so as to feel atmosphere of Moscow in the 1920s: to see photographs, toys, scenes from The Government Inspector by Meyerhold, fragments of films by Vertov, Pudovkin and Protazanov with Eisenstein, to read the Evening Moscow newspaper and even to listen to Lenins' speech.

Phrases from Benjamins' works are placed in context of psychedelic action of the Muscovites. However, it is not philosophical writings which become the focus of attention, but the “Moscow Diary ” – anti-communist notes with inclusion of private details. Maria Fedotova The Nizhny Novgorod News newspaper, 17 January 2013 Parallel program  “Walter Benjamin as a medium. Between cabbala and capital… in Moscow”, lecture of a philosopher Igor Chubarov.  “Benjamin's optics in contemporary Moscow. Viewpoint of Olga Chernysheva”, exhibition of photographs of contemporary Moscow with comments of publisher Alexander Ivanov and the author.  “Toy museum of Nikolay Bartram and its destiny”, lecture of Alexander Grekov.  “Walter Benjamin and Bertold Brecht: story of one friendship”, lecture of Erdmund Wizisla, director of Berlin's Benjamin and Brecht Archive. Film program “Soviet cinema of the 1920s as viewed by Benjamin”  The Battleship Potemkin (1925), film of Sergey Eisenstein, comments by video artists Sergey Provorov and Galina Myznikova (Provmyza art-group).  The Sixth Part of the World (1926), film by Dziga Vetrov, comments by art historian of bio-filmography department of the National Film Foundation Anastasia Terentieva.  The House on Trubnaya by Boris Barnet, comments by philosopher Igor Kobylin. Dates: 25 December 2012 – 10 March 2013 The project was realized with participation of the Cultural Capital of the Volga region Foundation, Archive of the Berlin Arts Academy, The A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, The Art and Pedagogical Toy Museum of Russian Academy of Education, with support of The Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation, Goethe German Cultural Centre in Moscow, with special contribution by the Robert Bosch Foundation as a part of the Year of Germany in Russia 2012/2013.

Walter Benjamin's New Year Tree Exhibition Fragment of exposition

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IDEOLOGICAL FASHION SHOW INSPIRED BY ME-TI. BOOK OF CHANGES BY BERTOLT BRECHT General concept, script, staging, light: Vadim Zakharov, Maria Porudominskaya Costumes: Vadim Zakharov Composer: Aleksey Sysoev Participants: No-name ensemble (Nizhny Novgorod), percussionist Dmitry Vlasik (Moscow), starring: Dmitry Savrasov (Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod), Igor Besschastnov (Saint-Petersburg), Natalia Pshenichnikova (Moscow-Berlin), speech and vocal training – Natalia Pshenichnikova Curator – Ivetta Vechkhayzer

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The art project of an artist-conceptualist Vadim Zakharov and Maria Porudomskaya was realized as a part of the parallel program to the Walter Benjamin's New Year Tree exhibition, it was shown in Nizhny Novgorod exclusively. The project is presented in an unordinary genre – “fashion show inspired by the book”. The book in question is little-known prose of outstanding German poet, dramaturge, and theatre reformer Bertolt Brecht. This prose was written in the 30s when Brecht had to leave Germany af ter the Nazi came to power. It is no coincidence that he recalls famous ancient Chinese Book of Changes during this crucial period of history and his own life. He lets a philosopher Me-Ti to comment on current events of the time; prototype of Me-Ti was Chinese thinker of the IV century BC, legendary prophet of “universal love” – Mo-Zi. For the Nizhny Novgorod Center of Contemporary Arts Zakharov 's “Ideological fashion show” was another step towards fusion of contemporary art and theatre which began last summer with the Marevo opera by Provmyza duet. The show per fectly rhymed with the Walter Benjamin's New Year Tree exhibition: this ingenious seven-part installation materializes pages of the “Moscow Diary” by the great German philosopher. It begins with the “City” presenting frozen Moscow of the 1926 through the eyes of Benjamin, and ends with the “Politics” where the exhibition's visitor steps on unsteady wooden floor – as unstable as politic situation of that time. Similarly, “Defile ” of Zakharov materializes Brecht's thoughts, voiced by fictional Chinese Mi-En-Leh, Ka-Me, Ni-En, Hi-Eh, To-Dzi or Master Sa which can easily be identified as Lenin, Marx, Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky or Rosa Luxemburg. Artists in fantastical costumes stride along catwalk – they play not the people, but thesises; it is a defile of texts brought to life. Vadim Rutkosvky Snob magazine, 6 March 2013

Dates: 26 – 28 February The project was realized with participation of the Volga Capital of Culture Foundation, with support of the Ministry of Foreign Af fairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, Goethe German Cultural Centre in Moscow, with special contribution by the Robert Bosch Foundation in the frames of the Year of Germany in Russian 2012 / 2013 as a part of parallel program of the Walter Benjamin's New Year Tree exhibition.

Ideological Defile inspired by Me-Ti. Book of Changes by B. Brecht Fragment of the show

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WOMAN IN ACTION FESTIVAL

Curators: Elena Belova, Alisa Savitskaya Participants of the festival The Bestiary exhibition Artists: The Bestiary Group (Ekaterina Valetova, Anastasia Dorozhkina, Ivan Kovalevsky, Andrey Stroganov, Valeriy Pereverzev, Natalia Razbrodina, Denis Chizhov) Civilization X X exhibition-stage per formance Author, director: Judith Depaule Scenographer: Maria Fomina Composer: Nikita Gorokhov Actors: Daria Gladskikh, Artem Feygelman Animators: Anna Tolkacheva, Yulia Ivashkina Mermaids video installation Artist: Antonina Baever Music of a Dif ferent Genre concert Per formers: NoName ensemble Music per formance at the Kariatida award ceremony Curator: Ksenia Anufrieva Composer: Veronica Zatula Per formers: NoName-ensemble Play Artplay exhibition and presentation of the project The project's director: Alina Saprykina Curators: Yaroslav Kovalchuk, Sergey Fadeev

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Resistance of Materials photo project Autor: Alik Yakubovich The Woman in Action annual festival is dedicated to gender practices and “female” initiatives in contemporary culture. A woman-curator, woman-museum director, womanresearcher, woman-organizer – all these functions are represented in contemporary Russian art-scene. The festival consists of two parts: arts management educational and debate platform, and contemporary art of various genres. In 2013 the arts management part is related to art clusters; the theme was presented by Alina Saprykina (Moscow), director of the ARTPLAY center of design and architecture, and winner of the Kariatida-2012 award, and her colleagues. The main artistic projects of the festival are dedicated to gender themes viewed through the prism of history, mythology and folklore. Artists, directors, curators present their fictional histories, countries, civilizations created by women and/or devoted to women. Their authors generate individual mythologies of gender discourse in contemporary art.

The most indicative of that is the work of the French director Judith Depaule – exhibition-per formance Civilization X X. Judith Depaule takes on a role of a scientist. Together with the artist Maria Fomina they construct an ancient civilization of matriarchy based on documentary material and artifacts in the frames of an archaeological exhibition. Guided tour of the exposition challenges ideas and stereotypes traditional for society; it opens up socio-political and cultural mechanisms of domination and submission of one biological gender to the other. A young artist Antonina Baever also turns to reconsideration and transformation of acceptable female roles. In the Mermaids video created specifically for the festival she compares modern sex workers with characters from fairy tales. Themes of myth-making and historical falsifications, going beyond limits of gender discourse, are continued in the Bestiary exhibition project. Curator and of the project's authors Anastasia Dorozhkina brings dif ferent artists together. Integrated space of collective installation with obvious allusion to medieval aesthetic and museum codes discovers our present through traces of the past. The festival's culmination – Kariatida annual award for the best female young art-manager. In 2013 the award included a regional nomination in which a gallery dealer Maria Bogdanova, manager of the Clock-face project Tatyana Gorbunova and art projects' organizer Olga Lukinova won prizes. In the main nomination the award's focus was shif ted towards female solidarity and professional unity. The award's prize fund was played in the game of for feits among the winners. The Kariatida object by Sergey Shutov was awarded to an independent curator Tatyana Volkova, monetary prize of 50 000 rubles was divided between the director of the NCCA Ural branch Alisa Prudnikova and creative tandem of Anna Zaitseva and Ekaterina Inozemtseva. Dates: 30 March – 19 May

Woman in Action Festival Music per formance at the Kariatida award ceremony

Woman in Action Festival The Bestiary exhibition Fragment of the exposition

Woman in Action Festival Civilization X X exhibition-per formance Fragment of the exposition

Woman in Action Festival Mermaids. Antonina Baever Still of the video

Woman in Action Festival Winners of the Kariatida-2013 award (from lef t to right): Tatyana Volkova, Alisa Prudnikova, Anna Zaitseva, Ekaterina Inozemtseva

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INVENTING THE SOUND PROJECT Project-par ticipant of the cultural Olympics Sochi-2014

Curator: Ksenia Anufrieva Inventing the Sound project is dedicated to the leading trend of contemporary audio visual art. Musical instruments resemble art objects. They are transformed in many dif ferent ways; sound and appearance are altered beyond recognition. Completely unexpected objects are used in per formances: scratching balloons against a casing, touching strings with mini-fans… Sound production becomes a per formative action, a musical event in itself, no less important than the sound resulting from it. The project's principal feature is active and creative mastering of this phenomenon in art. We divided it into following sections: Inventing the Sound exhibition, chill out improvisations and concerts of lead European music bands. Inventing the Sound exhibition In the middle of the X X centur y John Cage combined contemporar y art and music in a per formance genre. Looking for a new, unordinary sound, composers and artists use not only resources of traditional orchestra, but also electronic music, as well as completely unexpected objects. Unusual things become involved in sound-making: wrapping materials, fixing hardware, stationery… Searches for new sound present unlimited space for fantasy, where anyone can manifest themselves as an artist. The exhibition is comprised of objects created during five creative workshops which took place in October 2013. The exposition is interactive: it is built on principle “please do touch” – visitors can play any instrument of the exhibition. Inventing the Sound concert program

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Project [t] Composers: Kirill Shirokov, Marina Poleukhina Chill-out improvisation on music boxes, clock-work toys and objects. Contemporary academic music as meditation and catalyst of new thoughts and states. Sketches of the Time. Concert of PHOENIX ensemble (Switzerland) PHOENIX – one of the most significant musical collectives of Switzerland – presented two world premieres of Moscow composers, Alexey Sysoev and Arman Guschan, and music of a Saint-Petersburg composer Vladimir Rannev, in dialogue with the music of their senior colleagues – famous Swiss composers – Beat Furrer, Hanspeter Kyburz and Franz Furrer-Munch.

Living/Nonliving. Concert of string quartet Cantando and accordionist Venedict Peunov (Nizhny Novgorod) The project's feature is interaction not only between dif ferent music genres, but also between music and video: four video artists from dif ferent countries worked on their projects in collaboration with the composers. The authors present their vision of a synthetic artwork today. One-man Orchestra. Concert of Nadar ensemble (Belgium) A vivid show with live instruments, live electronics and video. A part of the project – One-man Orchestra (1900), an epochal video of George Melies, which introduces audience into atmosphere of synthesis of video and audio experiments. Lecture of the composer Stefan Prins. Dates: 27 October – 21 December The project is realized with support of the Flemish Government, Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council of the Embassy of Switzerland as a part of the cultural exchange program Swiss Made in Russia.

Inventing the Sound project One-man Orchestra. Concert of the Nadar ensemble (Belgium)

Inventing the Sound exhibition Fragment of the exposition

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VIII SHIRYAEBO BIENNALE OF CONTEMPORARY ART SCREEN: BET WEEN EUROPE AND ASIA

Curators: Nelya Korzhova, Roman Korzhov Place: Shiryaevo village, Samara Shiryaevo Biennale “Screen: between Europe and Asia” is the largest and most authentic event of contemporary art in the Samara region. It takes place every August of every odd year since 1999. Since 2005 the Biennale includes parallel program which takes place in Samara – international art projects are presented at the largest exhibition venues of the city. In contrast to “big biennales” the characteristic feature of the Shiryaevo biennale is its basis – “art laboratory”, creation of artworks in process of joint discussions. Methodological feature of the biennale is a new way of presentation of “The Nomadic show” art projects which is conducted as an experiment of contemporary art in the traditional Russian village Shiryaevo on the banks of the Volga river; it involves the audience into the artistic process, a spectator becomes an active participant. Experience of the Shiryaevo biennale, which became one of the brands of the Samara region, defines mechanism of contemporary art's development on its territory and attracts international partner resources. Each biennale is dedicated to research of an actualized theme of the year in situation “between Europe and Asia”. Under the theme of 2013 the audience was invited to explore “screen” as the way of communication between cultural strategies of East and West in the era of globalization, which has not been able to erase the dif ference of their positions. It may seem that the general model of living of societies in supermarket networks, internet and human rights was meant to average our dif ferences. But other realities are obvious, when mental characteristic lead people to opposite thought and actions towards the same. In 2013 the biennale included 5 exhibitions, 1 creative laboratory, 1 philosophical seminar, 1 colloquium, 1 round table; 24 artworks were created. The main project: creative laboratory “Screen: between Europe and Asia” and Nomadic show Curator: Nelya Korzhova Artists: Hanns-Michael Rupprechter, Pia Maria Martin, Susanna Messerschmidt, Ann Edholm, Tom Sandqvist, Astrid Nylander, Calle Holck, Gustav Hellberg, Johanna Karlin, Magnus Petersson, Svetlana Heger, Katrin Hornek, Martial Verdier, Gabriel Feracci, Lewden Martin, Joonas Andrus, Billeneeve, Vito Pace, Pier Paolo Patti, Ciro Vitale, Alexander Zaitsev, Michael Lezin, Ivanhoe

Parallel program “Screen/Scape” exhibition Place: Art-Centre Gallery Curators: Jean-Louis Poitevin, Martial Verdier (France) Artists: Sophie Aboulkasem, Ulice Deborne, Alexandrine Boyer, Philippe Fabian, Chan Kai-Yuen, Christophe Galatry, Chang Seo-Young, Gao Jie, Chen Mei-tsen, Ha Taebum, Chong Jae-Kyoo, Jean-Guy Lathuiliere, Maitresse Cindy, Sophie Lecomte, Benedicte Plaige, Salvatore Puglia, Daphna Le Sergent, Jacques Robert, Xavier Lucchesi, Philippe Soussan, Maud Maf fei, Damien Vallero, Oh Jaewoo, Martial Verdier, Olivier Perrot Art exhibition ”Have the wanderers of yesterday become today's backpackers?” Place: Victoria gallery Curator: Martin Schibli (Sweden) Artists: Heath Bunting, Juan Castillo, Oleg Elagin, Klas Eriksson, Calle Holck, Hiwa K, Vladimir Lugotov, Tonka Malekovic, Jesper Nordahl, Raketa, Oliver Ressler, Stefan Rusu, Marinella Senatore, Sunshine Socialist Club, Vladimir Us and Jarek Sadlek, Łukasz Surowiec, Andrey Syaylev, Alexander Verevkin, Artur Żmijewski “Arisen from nowhere” project Place: New Space gallery Curator: Vladimir Potapov Video interview: Vladimir Dubossarsky, Andrey Erofeev, Alekandr Evangely, Valentin Dyakonov, Semyon Fajbisovich, Vitaly Patsyukov, Dmitry Gutov, Francesco Bonami, Egor Koshelev, Vlad Kulkov, Darya Kamyshnikova, Nikola Ovchinnikov “TLG 2.0” exhibition Place: Museum of Modern, branch of Samara Regional Historical - Local Museum named af ter Alabin Curator: Susanna Crispino /Italy/ Artists: Bruno Di Lecce, Giuseppina Esposito, Giulia Giannola, Giuseppe Manigrasso, Vito Pace, Mauro Rescigno, Angelo Ricciardi, Roxy in-the-Box, Nello Teodori, Angelo Volpe Dates: 9 August – 9 September

VIII Shiryaevo Biennale of contemporary art “Screen: between Europe and Asia” Installation of Lewden Marten “The Searchers”

VIII Shiryaevo Biennale of contemporary art “Screen: between Europe and Asia” Interactive per formance of Astrid Nylander “Pillar”

VIII Shiryaevo Biennale of contemporary art “Screen: between Europe and Asia” Installation of Calle Holck “Smile of the Mountain”

VIII Shiryaevo Biennale of contemporary art “Screen: between Europe and Asia” Interactive object of Vito Pace “Social Democracy of the landscape”

VIII Shiryaevo Biennale of contemporary art “Screen: between Europe and Asia” Per formance of Sybille Neeve “Free Your Soul”

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III INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART STREET AS A MUSEUM – MUSEUM AS A STREET

Curators: Nelya Korzhova, Roman Korzhov Street as a Museum – Museum as a Street festival presupposes simultaneous exposure of contemporary art pieces on public bus stops and exhibition halls, the main task of which is to define a border between the field of “culture and art” and street space. The project is intended to introduce an unexpected element into a standard situation – a man waiting for a bus suddenly encounters something which is far from an everyday routine, he reads a message which appeals to memory and experience not utilized in everyday life, it appeals to contemplation, not to consumption. On the other hand, it is important for an artist to express himself in new conditions, outside of traditional exhibition space. The theme of 2013 – “Industrial Cyclone”. Bus stops hosted 30 works of artists from Russia, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Estonia, USA. The exposition summarized the results of the contest in which 54 authors, 201 works took part. The festival's program

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Two posters exhibition at public transport stops in Samara (16 and 14 light boxes). Artists: Janno Bergmann, Henrik Ekesiöö, Klas Eriksson, Clara Gesang-Gottowt, Ciro Vitale, Greta Dimaris, Anton Litvin, Timofeeva and Wroubel art-group, Oleg Koshelets, Martial Verdier, Olivier Perrot, Jean-Louis Poitevin, Provmyza art-group, Vladimir Potapov, Oscar Guermouche, Sergei Katran, Maxim Smirennomudrensky, Eugeny Strelkov, Alexey Iorsh, Valentin Souquet, Vladimir Arkhipov, Zahar Shashin, Ellen Rein, Marina Fomenko, Sergey Balandin, Frol Vesely, Alexey Trubetskov, Alexey Garikovich, Silvano Costanzo, Heike Buelau “Dialogue with the technological reality“ exhibition Curators: Vitaly Patsyukov, Alia Berdigalieva Artists: Dziga Vertov, Fernand Léger, Alexander Macheret, Michael Tsekhanovsky Boris Yurtsev, AES + F, Anna Ermolaeva, Vladislav Efimov, Vladimir Tarasov, Leonid Tishkov, Marina Chernikova, Aristarchus Chernyshev The project raises topical questions of human relationships, anthropology, humanistic ideals with impersonal forms, functions and social context. Artists of the project follow evolution of this dialogue from the 1930s till present time. “Industrialization +“ round table Place: Victoria gallery Industrialization, politics, economics and art as uniting process which breaks any law and any boundary, including ones between a museum and a street.

Creative evening of composer Vladimir Martynov Place: Victoria gallery Dates: 1 April – 31 July Presentation of the festival in Kirov Artists: Yury Albert (Russia, Germany), Victor Skersis (Russia, USA), Anton Olshvang (Russia), Valeriy Koshlyakov (Russia, France), Gor Chahal (Russia), Olga Chernysheva (Russia), Ad Simmons (USA), Anna Broshe (Russia), Marina Fomenko (Russia), Maria Andre (Russia), Konstantin Ajer (Russia), Janno Bergmann (Estonia), Alexey Garikovich (Russia) The event was realized in the frames of the project “SpasskayaOpenStreet: festival of art in open space”. Place: stops of public transport and shopping centers of Kirov, the Vyatka Museum of Fine Arts Dates: January – February

III International festival of contemporary art Museum as a Street â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Street as a Museum

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BOBYA-UCHA CONTEMPO PROJECT

Curator: Alexandеr Yuminov Bobya-Ucha village, Malopurginsky district, Udmurtia – Izhevsk – Moscow Destroying the stereotype of incompatibility of contemporary art and traditional culture a large-scale project Bobya-Ucha Contempo was realized in Bobya-Ucha village of Malopurginsky district of Udmurtia republic. The project was aimed to increase quality of living of the villagers and realized with support of the village administration. The project consisted of several stages and began with “Arganchi” expedition which was intended to document song traditions of a remote Udmurtian village. Then a series of art workshops “Painted carpet of BobyaUcha” took place, where people from home for elderly and villagers of Bobya-Ucha took classes on pictorial art and then created authorial painted carpets in textile painting with acryl technique. Majority of the participants gave interviews for catalogue; a photo session and mini-vernissage in the home for elderly people were organized in the frames of the project. The next big stage of the project – workshop “Photo census of Bobya-Ucha village” realized in cooperation with The Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia (curator V. Efimov, Moscow) – all the 168 families living in Bobya-Ucha village were photographed. Besides, during this workshop students realized several individual photo projects dedicated to artistic interpretation of village life which also became parts of the project and were presented at exhibitions “Edeygurt” in Bobya-Ucha village and “Udmurtia. Research” (additional program of the 5th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art” in the Museum of Applied and Folk Art in Moscow. The final stage of the project – “Bobya-Ucha Contempo” exhibition in Izhevsk which demonstrated the results of the work during all the project's stages. The exposition consisted of photographs, paintings, documentary videos and documentary audios. BOX “Bobya-Ucha Contempo” was created for the exhibition, it included the exhibition catalogue with photos of families, illustrations from art workshops, photos of students of the Rodchenko school, 4 CDs, DTS-CD “Bubbi Guryes” and full-color posters-booklets. Boxes were presented to each family which participated in the photo census and musical collective participating in the project. Dates: 1 April – 30 September

Bobya-Ucha Contempo project Opening of the “Edeygurt” exhibition

Bobya-Ucha Contempo project “Photo census of Bobya-Ucha village” workshop

Bobya-Ucha Contempo project “Painted carpet of Bobya-Ucha” art workshop

GREATEST HITS

IMPOSSIBLE OBJECTS

Curators: Ksenia Anufrieva, Andrey Nosov Participants: Dmitry Kurlyandsky – composer; Provmyza art-group – artists; Pavel Alekhin and Alexander Shulpinov – actors; Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (MCME), NoName-ensemble (Nizhny Novgorod), eNsemble (Saint-Petersburg) – per formers; Fedor Lednev – conductor; Andrey Skvortsov – operator Joint project with the “Platform” of Kirill Serebrennikov. Synthesis of a new video work of the Provmyza art-group and work of the composer Dmitry Kurlyandsky, it was premiered at Winzavod in Moscow, then at the Arsenal in Nizhny Novgorod and in Saint-Petersburg on the New Alexandrinsky Theatre Stage. Deafening call of hunting horns, rattlers of beaters, metal scratching – it is as though a medieval hunt from a canvas of Pieter Bruegel rushed into the hall of the Arsenal on the evening of December the 4th. In such a manner the orchestra consisting of musicians of three bands – the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble (MCME), NoName-ensemble from Nizhny Novgorod and eNsemble from Saint-Petersburg lead by conductor Fedor Lednev (Saint-Petersburg) began per formance of the Impossible Objects of composer Dmitry Kurlyandsky (Moscow). Indeed, if landscapes of Bruegel could sound, they would sound like this. The Provmyza art-group from Nizhny Novgorod, which long ago stepped beyond the boundaries of any territorial definitions and af filiations, once again surprised and confused the audience, made it watch, listen and think. Impossible Objects in video work of Galina Myznikova and Sergey Provorov on one hand became a version, embodiment and continuation of music piece by Dmitry Kurlyandsky, and on the other hand it is a completely dif ferent story on screen, created in the characteristic manner of Provmyza. Maria Medved “Capital Nizhny Novgorod” magazine, 5 December 2013

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Dates: 23 November, 4 and 22 December

Impossible Objects project Still from the video of the Provmyza art-group

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MONTHLY VIDEO MAGAZINE “ARSENAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART. CON-VERSION”

Broadcasted on the channel of the Nizhny Novgorod T V and radio company NNT V since January 2013 Author and presented: Ekaterina Orudzheva Directors-operators: Sergey Eroshenko, Vladimir Bezdenezhnykh Runtime: 20-25 min Audience: 3,5 million of people Archive: www.youtube.com/ArsenalNCCA Created at initiative of the NCCA Volga region branch with the purpose of cultural enlightenment and education of a new spectator, forming an intellectual need of visiting museums, narration about contemporary problems through the art, and strengthening family values through acquaintance with educational programs, master classes and other pedagogical museum practices for children and their parents. Topic – contemporary art with example of events in Nizhny Novgorod. First of all, it is the events which take place at the NCCA Volga region branch, as well as at the major venues of the city. The program's topic is usually one of concepts of contemporary art which is presented with examples of several events. The program consists of several sections: 1. Event. Narration about a major event of a month developing the program's topic. Report. 2. Reference guide. Information about trends of contemporary art, about personalities (artists, philosophers) which had an influence on development of the art, about history of contemporary art. 3. New format. In this section an event (discussion, concert, festival, master class, etc.) which can be referred to as a new format in museum practice is described. 4. Question-answer. In this section an expert answers one of questions about contemporary art. The section introduces key figures of contemporary artistic process to the audience. 5.Territory of art. This section presents events of centers and museums of contemporary art in other Russian cities, as well as the most significant international events. This section is intended to present situation in contemporary art in a broad sense, to help to comprehend scope and language of the culture which works with phenomena of contemporaneity, including social, information and existential problems of the present.

EXHIBITIONS

THE ART OF KNOWING. SCIENTIFIC WORLD VIEW FOR ARTISTS OF DIFFERENT AGE

THE ART OF LIGHT

Curators: Evgeny Strelkov, Andrey Suzdalev Participants: Alexander Bokser, Alexander Vorona, Varvara Gladysheva, Peter Goncharov, Ulyana Gotovskaya, Artemy Demidov, Alexandra Elnitskaya, Vladislav Efimov, Ekaterina Krysova, Vsevolod Lobov, Maria Serebryakova, Evgeny Strelkov, Andrey Suzdalev, Ekaterina Chernaya

Artist: Waldemar Mattis-Teutsch

Video exhibition combined works of contemporary media artists and participants of the NCCA workshop for children in one exposition. Animated works of the artists tell about dif ferent inventions and human practices, about history of science and technology. At the foreground is an authorial method – principles of narration, insertion of additional associations, quotes, and meanings. Sometimes animated works explain quite complicated processes and concepts with scientific accuracy, yet in easy to understand language; and sometimes narration is built in a game format (this genre was named “science-pop-art” by the authors). In one space with these “adult” works short animated films of young authors are presented, each of them builds its own world view, sometimes interpreting “adult” knowledge in an unexpected manner: knowledge about the Earth and Cosmos, about geometrical figures and numbers, about man's organism, about science, history, art and ecology. Parallel program  Guided tour of the exhibition with the curator A. Suzdalev.  “Media-Thursdays – technical media between the science and the art”, cycle of four lectures of the curator E. Strelkov dedicated to appearance and development of technical media of XIX–X X centuries against the background of scientific discoveries and artistic researches. Dates: 15 January – 3 February

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The project was realized with support of the Polytechnic Museum Development Foundation, in association with the Science Museum “Nizhny Novgorod Radio Laboratory” of the Nizhny Novgorod State University, Nizhny Novgorod Centre of Museums Support and Development.

The exhibition presented 15 holographic works of the Hungarian artist Mattis-Teutsch. Mattis-Teutsch works with intangible material barely perceptible for a human mind; he creates light sculptures using photons and light quants. Light (or electromagnetic waves to be precise) becomes the main graphic tool for Mattis-Teutsch: he plays with it, tames it and presents three-dimensional contours of real things to a viewer. Using holography, the artist transforms light fantasies available only for our senses into fully-featured light space; he captures flitting images in static sculptural form which cannot be touched but can be viewed from all angles. Dates: 7 February – 8 March The project was organized with participation of Embassy of Hungary, Hungarian Cultural, Scientific and Information Centre in Moscow, Gedeon Richter Company under patronage of the Honorary Consul of Hungary in Nizhny Novgorod Elada Nagornaya.

PHOTOGRAPHYING THE FUTURE

Idea of the project: Wolf Iro Curators: Ekaterina Lazareva, Esther Ruelfs Coordinator: Elizaveta Gorskaya, Aliya Berdygalieva Artists: Sof ya Gavrilova, Beate Gütschow, Vladislav Efimov, Jens Sundheim, Yakov Kazhdan, Anton Kuryshev, Eva Leitolf, Sascha Pohflepp, Ricarda Rogan, Olga Chernysheva How to capture the future on film? Participants of the Photographying the Future exhibition, photo artists from Russia and Germany, searched for the answer to this question. The task of capturing the future with means of photography was a challenge for the artists. On one hand, in everyday life we constantly encounter “photographs of the future” – images of possible happiness brought to us by advertisements with appeal to buy one thing or another. On the other hand, the art seems to have lost its monopoly on projecting the future – function of a visionary and constructor of the future which belonged to an artist, now is taken up by the power and economics. With that, in art of the present time a request for an utopia becomes more and more distinct, and theme of the future becomes topical in its direct relation to the present and the past. In the context of such “reinvention of the future” photography represents one of the most fitting artistic means in the arsenal of contemporary art. Result of the experiment – series if photographs, demonstrating diversity of approaches to the topic of the future, as well as a broad range of photography's possibilities: from documentary to staged photography and digital photography simulation. Parallel program:  “Open access to researches of the future: traditions and trends”, lecture of Vasily Kozlov, Doctor of Economics (Nizhny Novgorod).  “Short works”, video screening of artist Vladislav Efimov (Moscow) about exploration of a city with the means of photography. Dates: 15 – 31 March The project was realized with participation of the Goethe German Cultural Centre in Moscow in the frames of the Year of Germany in Russia 2012/2013.

DANCE! TRIBUTE TO PINA BAUSCH

Artist: Dagmar Schenk-Güllich (Essen, Germany) The exhibition of graphics by the German artist Dagmar SchenkGüllich. The main theme of her works represented at the exhibition is a moving, or dancing to be exact, person. She developed a unique artistic language appealing to visual art and at the same time to music which the artist refers to as timerelated. With that, her paintings not so much recreate dancing people like it was done by artists at the turn of the century, but rather communicate the exciting romantic feeling of the “stage” to the audience. Parallel program on the occasion of the International Museum Night  Master class of the artist Dagmar Schenk-Güllich.  “Four stories”, dance per formance-tribute to Pina Bausch. Participants: Pavel Alekhin, Polina Zyryanova, Karina Ginoyan and Irina Serkova. Dates: 17 May – 16 June

Photographing the Future exhibition Fragment of the exposition

“Four stories” dance per formance in the space of the exhibition of Dagmar Schenk-Güllich Dance! Tribute to Pina Bausch

EXHIBITIONS

INNOVATION 2012

THIS WORKSHOP STRIVES TO BE EXEMPLARY

Participants: Anna Zholud, Arseny Zhilyaev, Dmitry Morozov, Ivan Plusch, Vladimir Seleznev, Leonid Tishkov, Radya, ZIP Group (Stepan Subbotin, Vassily Subbotin, Evgeny Rimkevich) and KISI (Viktor Linsky, Yulia Kapustyan, Alexander Likhanov), Provmyza art-group, Barbarians project: Pavel Akimov, Evgenia Balantseva, Igor Baranchuk, Dmitry Venkov, Sofia Gavrilova, Evgenia Demina, Maria Doronina, Alexey Korsi, Mikhail Maksimov, Alexander Polevoy, Nikon Filipov, Sofia Filipova, Anna Khodorkovskaya, Olga Shirokostup, “Up!” Group, as well as curators and theorists, presentations of their exhibitions, researches and cultural projects of the year 2012.

Participants: ZIP group (Eldar Ganeev, Stepan Subbotin, Vasily Subbotin, Evgeny Rimkevich), KISI activists (Victor Linsky, Yulia Kapustyan, Alexander Likhanov)

Exhibition of the Nominees and Winners of the VIII All-Russian Contemporary Visual Art Competition INNOVATION 2012 brought together the best of what happened in the Russian contemporary art in 2012. Rich in content and spectacular, the exhibition presents to the Nizhny Novgorod audience a unique opportunity to see works of artists, photo and video documentation of curatorial projects, catalogues and theoretical publications. The INNOVATION competition determines winners in each of five nominations: “Work of Visual Art”, “Curatorial Project”, “Regional Project”, “New Generation”, “Art Theory and Criticism”. Out of 310 works submitted by artists from 24 regions, 25 were shortlisted in 2012, they were presented at the exhibition. Parallel program Cycle of unordinary guided tours-dialogues:  Nomination “Art Theory and Criticism” with the director of the NCCA Volga region branch Anna Gor;  Nomination “Art Theory and Criticism” with the art director of the NCCA Volga region branch Elena Belova;  Nomination “New Generation” with the head of the exhibition department of the NCCA Volga region branch Alisa Savitskaya;  Nomination “Work of Visual Art” with the head of art programs department of the NCCA (Moscow) Irina Gorlova.

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Dates: 6 June – 11 July

This Workshop Strives to Be Exemplary exhibition is a semiannual report on activity of the Workshop – association of artists and non-artists of Krasnodar, which are convinced that the art can change the world. Each project of the Workshop has its own task of solving one urban problem or another. The Workshop activities yielded certain results. For example, unauthorized pedestrian crossing drawn by the artists on a highway near Anapa was subsequently reproduced by the highway service. Furthermore, artistic activities had impact on city development perspective – creating intellectualartistic environment of the new generation, drawing attention of the city community to contemporary art and socio-politic issues. The exhibition is presented in a light manner which might remind the older generation of Soviet working men's clubs and honors boards: wooden constructions, photographs, and banners are meant to tell about artistic events in Krasnodar in a simple, easy to understand way. Parallel program  “The Art of Self organization Anywhere”, a traveling two-days seminar of the ZIP group participants Eldar Ganeev, Stepan and Vasily Subbotin in cooperation with the Workshop association's participants and KISI activist Yulia Kapustyan. The seminar is dedicated to an artist's self organization in the art and life, it includes discussion on topic of “Street practices of artists”. Dates: 4 July – 4 August Project was realized with participation of the XL Gallery.

Opening of the Innovation 2012 exhibition

This Workshop Strives to Be Exemplary exhibition Fragment of the exposition

EXHIBITIONS

CINEMA EMPIRE. DUTCH EDITION

HENDRIK KERSTENS. PAULA

Curator: Karina Karaeva Artists: Nicolas Provost, Elodie Pong and Sonja Wyss

Curator: Olga Averyanova

Holland was and is the country with a special cinematographic culture. The exhibition presents works of Dutch artists, and also of artists whose art in one period or another was closely related to the country and gained professional recognition there. With examples of works of Sonja Wyss, Elodie Pong and Nicolas Provost, selected by the curator Karina Karaeva for the exhibition at the Arsenal, the exposition illustrates transfusion of cinematograph and video art. From the moment of its appearance video art was closely related to cinematograph. One of contemporary trends – creation of such audio and visual works which organically exist in the space of a cinema and in an exhibition hall. Contemporary director/artist eliminates the boundary between a feature film, an essential part of which is a plot, and video installation which develops new principles of visual statement. Parallel program  Meetings with artists Sonja Wyss and Elodie Pong – discussions and video screenings.  “Conditional video. Communicative process”. Lecture of Karina Karaeva.  “Visible time: Cinema and Philosophy”, cycle of lectures of a philosopher Igor Kobylin.  “History of video art – first steps”, two-part lecture of Antonio Geusa. Dates: 29 August – 27 October

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The project was realized in the frames of the RussiaNetherlands Year with support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The exhibition of works by contemporary photographer Hendrik Kerstens presents series of female portraits reminiscent of pictures by the 17 century Dutch portraitists: Jan Vermeer, Rembrandt, Frans Hals. The photographer's model, so master fully transforming into beauties of the past and imitating their serene facial expression is young Paula – daughter of Hendrik Kerstens. In order to achieve similarity with grand medieval portraits Hendrik Kerstens arranges a proper masquerade for his daughter; plastic bags, rolls of toilet paper, gof fered lamp shades and ordinary towels. Time and his daughter Paula are two main constituents of the photographer's inspiration. He plays with time, eternalizing stages of his daughter's coming-of-age in style of the great Flemish, whom he considers to be his “silent teachers”. Hendrik Kerstens does not make it his purpose to imitate pictorial art in his photography, instead he works in the form of a dialogue between cultural paradigms. He interprets traditional canons of pictorial portrait in the spirit of postmodernism. Parallel program  “An artist and a model”, lecture-photo display of Alik Yakubovich. Dates: 16 September – 20 October The project was realized in the frames of the RussiaNetherlands Year with participation of the Perspectiva Art Company (The Hague, Netherlands), with support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Hendrik Kerstens. Paula exhibition Fragment of the exposition

EXHIBITIONS

DEFAULT. VIDEO INSTALLATION OF ROMAN KORZHOV

WEIGHTLESSNESS

Artist: Roman Korzhov Place: Kirov, The Vasnetsov Museum of Fine Arts

Curator: Elena Selina

The exhibition presents “vacuum” video landscapes from Roman Korzhov's “Defaullt” series, which are the part of large scale project Poetry of Alienation of Roman Korzhov and Nelya Korzhova. This project was dedicated to centenary of the Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni whose sense of distance and reflection on form are similar to those of the artists. In summer 2012 Nelya and Roman Korzhov with support of their friends, artist Vito Pace and art historian Susanna Crispino, traveled to Italy in order to gather material and study mentality of the country. Dates: 21 August – 15 September

Participants: Yury Albert, Alexey Buldakov and Anastasia Ryabova, Kirill Kto, Vladimir Logutov, Alexander Povzner, Sergey Sapozhnikov, MishMash group (Mikhail Leykin, Maria Sumnina) The project of a Moscow curator Elena Selina united famous Russian artists of the 2000s. Elena Selina compares contemporary art with gravity stress which a man suf fers from experiencing weightlessness for the first time. In cosmonautics there are four major types of reaction to weightlessness: depression, passive waiting for the experiment's end, tendency to adapt to the circumstances, and unexpected behavior. Analysis of works created by various artists for the last ten years reveals that the second type of reaction to the outside world tends to prevail – that is “suspension”, keeping ephemeral balance between a fall and a flight, hopeless anticipation of the end. It is belonging to this type that unites the works represented at the Arsenal. Per formance of the MishMash group “SuperJew gives guidance” was a part of the exhibition's opening. For no more than 10 rubles anyone could receive an advice on any subject from an antihero SuperJew. Parallel program  “Analysis of the urban fauna”, lecture of an artist Alexey Buldakov on issue of wild animals for which a city became a natural habitat.  “Either everyone, or no one”, meeting with an artist Anastasia Ryabova on experience of collective researches and researches of dif ferent groups. Dates: 16 November 2013 – 19 January 2014

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The project was realized with support of the XL Projects.

Weightlessness exhibition Fragment of the exposition

THE NIZHNY NOVGOROD KREMLIN: CREATION OF THE IMAGE. DRAWINGS BY SV YATOSLAV AGAFONOV The exposition is based on originals and interpretations of drawings by Svyatoslav Agafonov (1911-2002), Honored Architect of the Russian Federation, laureate of the State Prize, honored member of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction, honored citizen of Nizhny Novgorod. In his drawings he created the image of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin and the old city as though he witnessed its construction. Events of the XVI century were absolute reality for him. Presently, the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin re-created by Agafonov is one of the major brands of the city, cultural heart of the old Nizhny, the place where Nizhny Novgorod is traditionally determined. Dates: 14 August â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 8 September The project is realized with participation of the Quartz group of companies, The Museum of the Architect Svyatoslav Agafonov, with support of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Government.

Dmitrov tower of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin as seen from the side of the forge in XVII century. Drawing by S. Agafonov

FESTIVALS MUSIC EDUCATION

FESTIVALS

MUSEUM NIGHT: AROUND THE MUSEUM IN 80 MINUTES The Museum Night is the most attended annual event. It is held on the 18th of May – the International Museum Day. Events on this day happen in a marathon format, all areas of activity and all the Arsenal spaces are demonstrated. In 2012 The Arsenal welcomed over 5000 visitors on the museum night, and in 2013 more than 8000. Around the Museum in 80 minutes – exactly that much times was needed to attend all the Arsenal facilities, see all exhibitions and participate in all activities which were happening non-stop since 12 p.m. Courtyard Tarentass – an ironic installation of a French artist Philippe Jouillat. An old Volga Universal loaded with shabby leather bags was set between straps of a gigantic sling. Exhibition on easels – bizarre objects made of carton, plastic, photo works of students from eight Russian cities including Nizhny Novgorod for another Jouillat's project – Verst. Mediateque Tabletop games created by contemporary artists for Garage magazine, Seledka newspaper, and a game of Olga Zhitlina – “Russia – a country of possibilities” – about immigrants in Russia. Presentation of zines – hand-made magazines. Screening of the Art of Seeing film by John Berger. Cinema and concert hall Master class on making airships, studying French with teachers of Alliance Francaise. Evening program – concert of meditative music of sitarist Vadik Black (Izhevsk). Exhibition hall The last day of the Bestiary exhibition. Exhibition hall Under the Arches Exhibition of Dagmar Schenk-Güllich Dance! Tribute to Pina Bausch. Master class on creation of works in the German artist's style; “Four stories” dance per formancetribute to Pina Bausch by the Nizhny Novgorod actors Pavel Alekhin, Polina Zyryanova, Karina Ginoyan and Irina Serkova. Special guest of the Museum Night - Ambassador of France in Russia Jean de Gliniasty.

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Total number of visitors: 8 198 Date: 18 May

STRELKA. THE VII ALL-RUSSIAN FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY POETRY Curator: Evgeny Proschin Coordinator: Andrey Nosov Participants: more than fif ty poets from Ivanovo, Kazan, Moscow, Penza, Ryazan, Samara, Saratov, Saint-Petersburg, Alma-Ata The festival's history dates back to 2005 when the all-Russian award Debut gathered the most interesting young poets of the 2000s in Nizhny Novgorod. Since then the Strelka festival gained reputation of one of the largest and prestigious regional poetic festivals, which presents works of poets of dif ferent generations and artistic manners to the audience. One of the festival's distinctive features – wide geography of participants. The Strelka festival doesn't focus exclusively on concept of “contemporary poetry”, thus it presents diverse genres, from traditional to extreme post-Avantgarde. Dates: 26 – 27 April The project was realized in collaboration with Culture of Mesopotamia initiative group. BIG ANIMATION FESTIVAL Held annually in June Curator: Dina Goder Big Animation Festival is one of the largest international animation festivals in Russia which includes film screenings, educational programs, exhibitions, meetings with film authors and master-classes with famous directors. The Arsenal's courtyard hosts Cartoon Factory where children and their parents create animated films using dif ferent techniques. Dates: 6 – 8 June URBAN MEDIA WEEK FESTIVAL Series of events with the common titles Urban Media Week, which included lectures of urbanists, architects, designers, theorists and experts of media, journalism, video production and urban planning. Dates: 4 – 8 September The project was realized with participation of the Nizhny Novgorod regional organization of the Russian Youth association.

Around the Museum in 80 minutes Tarentass. Project of Philippe Jouillat

FESTIVALS

FESTIVALS DO SUMMIT

ART FESTIVAL IN OPEN SPACE “SpasskayaOpenStreet” KIROV

Festival of urban activism which already was held in Moscow, Krasnoyarsk, Saint-Petersburg and Chelyabinsk. The festival is aimed to create space for discussion of pressing issues related to urban activism. In Nizhny Novgorod the event was held in format of BarCamp – open conference the main rule of which is the following: “each member is an organizer”.

Curator: Daria Tkacheva Artists: Alexander Lysov, AO, STOP, Svetlana Shabalina, Denis Karpikov Place: Kirov, Spasskaya street

Date: 9 November ART BUTOH FESTIVAL 2013 IN NIZHNY NOVGOROD Curator: Alena Ageeva Master classes, plays and lecture of the world-renowned master of Butoh dance choreographer Katsura Kan ( Japan). Dates: 28 November – 5 December The project was realized in collaboration with the Art Butoh Festival 2013. MEST.COM PROJECT

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Coordinator: Alexander Komarov MEST.com project was initially intended for monitoring of local cultural space which includes a lot of curious, experimental and non-formal initiatives. From time to time the Arsenal makes an attempt to gather these experiments “under one roof” in order to make them not just property of the public but the subject of analysis and professional assessment. Thus each event of the MEST.com program is supplemented with discussions with participation of invited experts. Events of the project:  Presentation of the book ”Gentle Nizhny Novgorod: Ten Walks Through the Russian City”.  Presentation of a book by a journalist and dramaturge Nina Pributkovskaya.  Concert of Kristina Fish (domra) and Olga Grines (fortepiano).  Multimedia per formance of Kern Herst group.  Presentation of the book “Perspectives. Letters about Ersya” by Liya Aronovich.  Lecture of Yury Grigoriev about Jerzy Grotowski.  Arkaim multimedia project of singer Maya Balashova and composer Nikolay Popov in collaboration with dance duet of Pavel Alekhin and Polina Zyryanova.  One-man per formance of Pavel Alekhin “Pierrot”.  Presentation of Seven Part of the World project (artist Natalia Pankova and poet Irina Mashinskaya).  Presentation of jewelry brand Rosy Mood.  Presentation of an art-village HOLMO SAPIENS.

Festival of art in open space. Works were selected as a result of the open competition. Festival's projects  Light installation LINE by Alexander Lysov (Moscow).  Outstallation on windows of the Theatre on Spasskaya street by street artists AO and STOP (Nizhny Novgorod).  Benches in conversion design by Denis Karpikov (Kirov).  “Give something to old Guy” per formance of Svetlana Shabalina (Kirov). Dates: 20 – 30 June

Выставка «Невесомость» Big Animation Festival Фрагмент экспозиции Sand/powder animation workshop

MEST.com Arkaim multimedia project

MUSIC

Experimental trends of contemporary music and projects based on synthesis of dif ferent forms of contemporary culture. With organization of such events the Arsenal takes an active part in formation of a new music society in Nizhny Novgorod. Fusion and blurring of genre boundaries, building a dialogue between image, sound, movement and text, searching for new representation formats – these are reactions to “synthetic” vector of development in the world culture. II FESTIVAL OF TRADITIONAL AMERICAN MUSIC Modern blues masters – acoustic blues trio of Phil Wiggins, Guy Davis and Samuel James. The project was realized with participation of CEC ArtsLink Foundation, Embassy of the USA in Russia, Youth Art Centre, Theatre on Spasskaya street. Dates: 6 – 8 April JAZZ CONCERTS 

Standards and non-standards. VEIN jazz-trio (Switzerland). Fortepiano, bass, drums in contemporary jazz and post bop style.  Eyot band (Serbia). Fortepiano, guitar, drums, bass. European jazz analogue of Nirvana.  Kekko Fornarelli Trio (Italy). Keyboard, contrabass, drums. Multi-style Italian jazz.  Shine duet (Italy). Kekko Fornarelli (fortepiano, keyboard, samples) and Roberto Cerillo (vocal, electronics, bass-keyboard). Show at the junction of jazz and classic music. Dates: 22 March, 10 and 15 April, 5 October MYSTERIES AND PARADOXES Concert of Baroque music for violin solo per formed by Dmitry Sinkovsky. Date: 18 April

OPUS 52 Concerts of the OPUS 52 festival and Nizhny Novgorod school of contemporary music for young composers under direction of composer Sergey Nevsky. 

Music of composers of Wandelweiser band in the Arsenal courtyard. Per formers: NoName-ensemble and participants of the school for composers.  Outsourcing 2.0, concert of new music. Per formers: Mosaik ensemble and Natalia Pshenichnikova (Germany). Works of Sergey Nevsky “Jetais d'accord”, “Bastelmusik 2” and “Outsourcing” of Johannes Kreidler were per formed. Dates: 24 – 25 May

EDUCATION

Public lectures and creative meetings for audience with dif ferent interests on topics of art, literature, science, cinema and design, also film screenings. CYCLE OF LECTURES IN NIZHNY NOVGOROD

Reserve Stock magazine with Kirill Kobrin and Vadim Mikhaylin.  “How to dispose of contemporaneity: recipe of Alexey German”, lecture of culture historian Yan Levchenko. Dates: January – December

“War and Peace. The art of the X X century as continuation of politics and reaction to ideology”. Cycle of five lectures by artcritic Valentin Dyakonov, it is dedicated to history of the art in Europe and Russia in context of the First and the Second World Wars.

The project was realized in collaboration with the UFO publishing house. CYCLE OF LECTURES IN SAMARA

Dates: April “Education Gaps” – cycle of public lectures intended to popularize science and introduce its latest achievements to the audience. The cycle was organized with support of the Dynasty foundation, the Enlightener award and the Book Institute.     

“Culture in brown colors. Radio, theatre, cinema on occupied territory of Russia (1941–1945)”, historian Boris Kovalev. “Robots fly to Mars”, astronomer Vladimir Surdin. “A man and the climate: problematic relationships”, climatologist Andrey Kiselev. “How do we know what we know about alcohol?”, historian Vladimir Lovchev. “New evolutional and genetic threats to humanity“, chemist Petr Obraztsov.

Dates: January – December Cultural Modernization project. Series of lectures and round tables aimed to build a dialogue with the Nizhny Novgorod audience about what “contemporary” means in relation to art, literature, science. In what way “modernization” of the art and humanitarian knowledge is connected to modernization of life of the whole country. And what place in this belongs to traumatic memories of the Soviet past.

“Laboratory of Visual Communications”: video course of Igor Kobylin “NON FINITO: contemporary philosophy and avatars of the aesthetic” and course of Evgeny Proschin “How a poem works?” Lecturers: Elena Bogatyreva, Evgeny Proschin, Igor Kobylin. Dates: January – March “Contemporary art and philosophy: screens of the mind”. Five lectures on authorial strategies and work of artists as followup to the VII Shiryaevo Biennale of contemporary art “Screen: between Europe and Asia”. Lecturers: Nelya Korzhova, Roman Korzhov, Elena Bogatyreva. Dates: October – December “Debriefing”. Lecture program and presentation of “Arisen from Nowhere” project of Vladimir Potapov, The project of Vladimir Potapov consists of interviews with curators, artcritics, art historians and artists which answer the same five questions about state of contemporary pictorial art. Dates: November – December LECTURES FEATURING INVITED LECTURERS – EXPERTS IN DIFFERENT AREAS OF CONTEMPORARY CULTURE IN NIZHNY NOVGOROD

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Presentation of “The book of displacement: post (non) fiction” by Kirill Kobrin dedicated to bizarre Swiss writer Robert Walzer and German “psychogepographer”, singer of melancholy W. G. Sebald.  “Individual man and grand history: mechanisms of anthropologic description”, round table with sociologist D. Zernov, historian and essayist K. Kobrin, philosopher I. Kobylin, historian F. Nikolai, philosopher R. Sundukov.  “The end of modern: waste land, dust and return to archaic. Melancholy of a postmodern city”, seminarpreprint of the 89th issue of the Reserve Stock magazine, with participation of the editor Kirill Kobrin.  “Nestor Petrovich goes to people. Soviet teacher of history in the Soviet cinema”, lecture-postprint of the

“Exhibitions as evidence. “The best” and “the worst” in contemporary art”. Lecture by David Elliot (UK). In collaboration with Elliot two meetings with young artists of Nizhny Novgorod and Samara took place in December, as well as selection of works for the IV Moscow International Biennale for Young Art. Lecture about Dutch animation festival KLIK! by curator Mathijs Stegink (Amsterdam). Lecture of Erik Michael Karlsson and Frederick Ekman (Sweden) “Radio art and experimental musical drama”. Lecture and master class of Alexander Zaytsev “How electronic music of the X XI century is made”.

Lecture of Denis Romodin about architecture in the USSR. The project was realized in collaboration with “Big Municipality”. Meeting with street artists from Nizhny Novgorod Andrey Olenev and Fedor Makhlayuk. Meeting with a director Dmitry Zavilgevskiy. “Volgo-Balt. Components of contemporary architecture”. Meeting with Finnish architects Elizaveta and Jakko Parkkonen, part of the “Architectural discourse” club. The project was realized with support of “Architecture Days in Nizhny Novgorod”.

CINEMA/ VIDEO

“Methods of street art and direct urban communication”, lecture of street artist Kirill Kto. In the framework of the O'GOROD in a Garden festival.

“Island and treasures”, pre-premiere screening of Anataloy Golubovsky film about the museum island in Berlin. “The art of seeing”, screening of documentary series by John Berger about perception of classic artworks by contemporary viewer. “Cinema without barriers”, international cinema festival about life of disabled people. The project was realized with participation of the Perspective - Russian public association of disabled people, NVATUR Foundation. “Monika”, film screening and meeting with the director Christian Werner. The project was realized in collaboration with Goethe German Cultural Centre in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod Centre of German Culture and DOCKer project.

“What is good and what is bad… in the art”. Lecture of doctor of philosophy, art historian Leonard Emmerling (Munich). The project was realized in collaboration with Goethe German Cultural Centre in Moscow.

“Pasha 183” screening of documentary film in memory of a street artist Pavel Pukhov.

LECTURES IN KIROV

“Robert Capa – in love and war”, screening of film about the founder of military photo journalism. Project was realized with support of the Cloudberry publishing house.

“Moscow conceptualism: introduction online”, lecture of Sergey Letov at the Vyatka State University. “Can the art change the society?”, open discussion at the Vasnetsov Museum of Fine Arts. IN IZHEVSK “Traditional culture in contemporary space”, panel discussion at the Eastern European university with online broadcasting. Moderator Alexander Yuminov.

Architecture as an exhibit. View and discussion of the “Life of the Koolhaas house” film. The project was realized with support of the “Architecture Days in Nizhny Novgorod”, VKHUTEMAS gallery. BeatWeekend in Nizhny Novgorod. Tour of the international festival of new documentary films about music and contemporary culture BeatFilmFestival. Films: London the Modern Babylon, Teenage, David Bowie – Five Years. The project was realized in collaboration with BeatFilmFestival. International Animation Day in Nizhny Novgorod, charity screening of the best animation of the Ball animation school-studio. The project was realized with participation of the Ball animation school-studio. Retrospective of Krzysztof Zanussi. Meetings with the classic of Polish cinematography and his films. The project was realized with support of the Polish Cultural Centre, Record fellowship of cultural initiatives. IN KIROV Curator: Daria Tkacheva Open-air cinema festival “10 evenings in Rome”. Annual open-air festival of European cinema on Spasskaya street “10 evenings in…”

FOR CHILDEREN AND TEENAGERS

SPECIAL PROJECTS

NEW SPECTATOR

CHSRISTMAS WORKSHOPS

Curator: Evgenia Igantushko

Before the Christmas the Arsenal transformed into a fairy factory of hand-made Christmas presents for two days. All the Arsenal's halls became workshops: design workshop on creation of masks; marzipan workshop; “little workshop” for children of 2–4 years old; Christmas tree decorations workshop on creation of decorations with old technique of the beginning of the century: using cotton wool, wood and paper; In the frames of the Walter Benjamin's New Year Tree exhibition.

Innovative educational project for young audience. It is intended to create a system of continuous, step-by-step process of studying contemporary culture by children of dif ferent age. It includes development, approbation and application at various, mostly museum, venues of educational methods corresponding to dif ferent stages of arts language learning. In 2013 new educational courses were developed: “Color. Form. Material” (3–5 years), “Family workshops ” (6–7 years), “Main characters of contemporary art” (8–12 years), “Arsenal cartoon” (8–12 years), “Teenage Arsenal club TAK!” (13–18 years).

Dates: 5 – 6 January

COLOR. FORM. MATERIAL

SHOW OF A MAD PROFESSIOR NICOLAS

Teacher: Alevtina Nikonova

Unique holiday in scientific style. Physic and chemistry experiments and tests in a game format. In the frames of the Art of Knowing exhibition.

New course for the youngest audience of the Arsenal. Using artworks and dif ferent tactile practices (drawing, sculpturing, collage, 3D-modeling), the museum pedagogue introduces little ones to basic colors, forms and materials which are used by artists.

Date: 26 Januar SONYA AND DANYA – LOOKING FOR NEW YEAR TREE New Year multimedia interactive play in which actors and a video artist help children to create their own fairy tale about exciting journey of sister and brother Sonya and Danya. The journey from the gates of the Saint-Petersburg Botanic garden to Fujiyama mountain in Japan and back. The play is realized in a format which is nowadays trendy in Europe – storytelling. Curator: composer Olga Shaidullina (Moscow) Dramaturge: Maria Zelinskaya (Moscow), winner of the Debut all-Russian competition in nomination “Dramaturgy” in 2010. Actors: Anton Kalipanov (Moscow Puppet Theater), Maria Burova (Theatre "School of Dramatic Art", Moscow)

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Meet a circle and a ball! Circle turns into… Drawing a “circle” fairy tale on the sand. Warm colors. Drawing autumn with plasticine. Cold colors. Creating snow flowers. Making a rainbow panel. Mixing colors. Clay: sculpturing figures. Wood: assembling a sculpture. Paper: making a collage. Cotton wool: making fluf f y appliques. Plastic: creating a funny monster. Making a postcard: New Year workshop. Making New Year tree decorations

ARSENAL CARTOON

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Dates: 21 – 29 December Joint project of the Arsenal and Animation school 7BiOZ (Moscow) intended for those who want to learn to make cartoons from plasticine. During 14 classes young animators learn to prepare scenarios, make storyboards, create decorations, breathe life into characters and voice moving images. The result of the course – a short cartoon which is premiered during the last class.

FOR CHILDEREN AND TEENAGERS

FAMILY ART-WORKSHOPS

TEENAGE ARSENAL CLUB TAK!

Workshops are dedicated to studying actual art through interesting guided tours and practical lessons for families. Inspired by works seen at an exhibition, young and adult participants together with the museum pedagogue take a step into space where anyone can prove themselves as an artist-experimentalist. A result can be an object or an installation made of unusual materials, model of a city of the future, a house inside a carton box, a picture, a collage and many more.

Curator: Polina Sporysheva

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Guided tour of the Walter Benjamin's New Year Tree exhibition. Finnish Saturday. Master class on interior decorations. Building towers: master class inspired by works of Leonid Tishkov. Creating a wire sculpture; master class inspired by works of Anna Zholud. Percussion and noise instruments: lecture and master class. String instruments: lecture and master class. Wind instruments: lecture and master class. Electronic instruments: lecture and master class. Going to Paula exhibition: guided tour and master class. Watching cartoons: charity screening for International Animation Day. Hooray, Halloween! Fun master classes. Studying and creating a collage: lecture and master class. Art made of ordinary carton: lecture and master class. Going to Weightlessness exhibition: guided tour and master class. Art and clothing. History of friendship: lecture and master class. Art made of threads: lecture and master class. New Year is coming: fun master classes.

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MAIN CHARACTERS OF THE X X CENTURY ART Cycle of theory and practical lessons related to studying contemporary art through acquaintance with key artists of the X X century, the most significant artworks, methods, techniques and styles of chosen heroes. 45-minute theory part is followed by practice where each participant can try themselves as an author of an individual or group project. Main principles of the course: cognitive, interesting, interactive and bringing creative satisfaction. 20 lectures and master classes dedicated to following artists: Lucio Fontana, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Joseph Beuys, Jef f Koons, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Paule Cezanne, Franz Marc, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Vasily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Mark Chagall, Piet Mondrian, Paul Klee, Marcel Duchamp, Joan Miro, Salvador Dali.

Project is designed for pupils (over 13 years old) and students interested in traditional and contemporary art. The club's purpose is to create conditions for broadening outlook of young audience, to teach them to think, contemplate and ask questions upon meeting dif ferent artworks and share their opinion with others. TAK! project has two main parts: educational and creative. Format of a club assumes dif ferent types of work in educational part of the project: lectures, discussions, guided tours, video screenings, etc. Members of the club actively participated in the life of the NCCA Volga region branch - attended exhibitions and concerts, met with the Arsenal guests. Basic theme for the club was contemporary art. It was important for the project's authors that the youth learned to comprehend it in context of history, to realize interconnection and mutual influence of the art and the society throughout history. Creative part of the project supposes keeping the club's blog (vk.com/takclub) where participants will share their impressions and thoughts. At special classes teenagers acquire skills of working with information, learn to present their point of view with reasoning. ARSENAL+SCHOOL New program of guided tours of contemporary art exhibitions and interactive master classes for pupils and students of colleges and universities. Program continued during the whole academic year. It included:  Guided tours for pupils and students of exhibitions at the Arsenal (45 min);  Master classes on art experiment: with ordinary and not so ordinary materials and instruments anyone could create their own work in style of artists represented at an exhibition (45 min).

Compiling editor: Anastasia Polozova Texts: staf f of the NCCA Volga region branch Photographs: Ivan Volkov, Tatyana Demidova, Vladislav Efimov, Vladimir Kovachev, Valery Kudinov, Alexander Romanenko, Alisa Savitskaya, Andrey Smul, Alexander Yuminov Design, layout: Tatyana Alekseeva Proof-reading: Irina Feldman Printed at the NCCA Volga region branch 100 copies