The long-awaited Archstoyanie summer festival took place this weekend in the Nikola-Lenivets art park. We could not miss such an event and headed to the Kaluga region in search of adventure. Paris short concert, art therapy, Pyrodrama performance, immersive theater – read about this and much more in the BURO editors report.
REFERENCE
“Archstoyanie” is an annual international festival of landscape objects in Nikola-Lenivets, founded by the artist Nikolai Polissky. Over the 18-year history, about 150 authors from different countries took part in the festival, more than 100 art objects were erected, which became part of the Nikola-Lenivets landscape or moved to other territories. Yulia Bychkova was the producer of the festival, and Anton Kochurkin was the curator.
Art camps, a tent with predictions and a Shortparis concert: how was the Archstoyanie 2023 festival (photo 1)
Ekaterina Krayukhina
news editor
You can thoroughly prepare for Archstoyanie, study the program and the terrain, draw up a personal plan: which site to approach and when. This is great and probably correct! But, in my opinion, it is much more interesting to follow your intuition (especially when the theme of the festival is “The prediction game”). So I did. Walk around and look at art objects and installations, while connecting with the performances you see along your way. Go to the magic sounds and light of the thicket and meet at the open sound check hodila izba. By the way, it was the scene from “Folktronics in Birches” that most organically fit into the landscape: where to listen to folk, if not in the forest? Nearby you can also find the main stage, where the Shortparis band will perform, for which you have traveled to Nikola-Lenivets for such a long and difficult time. Among other things: master classes and dance practices, meetings on the “Drunken Fence” – Vladimir Nasedkin’s art object, pleasant acquaintances, lectures, endless discoveries of new names in music and art… All this happened to me only thanks to to self-confidence. feelings.
Art camps, a tent with predictions and a Shortparis concert: how was the Archstoyanie 2023 festival (photo 2)
extreme sandra
SMM-editor
Tents, bonfires and insects are not exactly my type of recreation, but Archstoyanie simply could not be missing. Dancing until the morning among pines and birches, yoga in the fresh air and beloved friends – everything you need for a perfect pastime in nature. The only negative is the round trip, which took a lot of time and almost all the forces, but that did not stop you from enjoying the weekend in Nikola-Lenivets. I will never forget these adventures!
HOW TO GET THERE, WHERE TO STAY AND WHAT TO EAT
Getting to Nikola-Lenivets is not easy (getting out, by the way, is even more difficult). You can get there in several ways: by car along the Kievskoe or Minskoe highway, by two buses – first to Kaluga and from there to Kondrovo, and by taxi. But in order to save time, it is better to use a transfer (for some reason they do not write about it anywhere), following the schedule from Moscow to Nikola-Lenivets and back. Whichever method you choose, think carefully about your route and purchase all tickets in advance – they may not be available that day.
We decided not to go the easy way and went by bus to Kaluga from the Salaryevo bus station. Then we took a bus to Kondrovo, and from there to the Nikola-Lenivets art park by taxi. On average, the trip there took around 6 hours.
You can stay at the festival in two places: in the camp (prepare a tent and sleeping bags) or in guest houses. Both tent spaces and houses need to be reserved well in advance, otherwise you risk being left without accommodation.
Take water and light snacks with you if you don’t want to spend a lot on food at the festival. On the territory of the art park there is a cafe “Ugra” with good breakfasts, hot dishes and desserts, but the prices are quite high. And of course, you can always grab a bite from the food trucks that run throughout the festival.
“UGRA” COFFEE
Art camps, a tent with predictions and the Shortparis concert: how the Archstoyanie 2023 festival went (photo 3)
CAMPING
Art camps, a tent with predictions and a Shortparis concert: how the Archstoyanie 2023 festival went (photo 5)
SHORT-PARÍS CONCERT, TECHNO DANCE FLOOR AND PYRODRAMÁ
The main purpose of the visit is the musical part of the festival. In several unusual scenarios, inscribed in the landscape of the park, several groups performed simultaneously. Shortparis gave a concert on the main stage, hidden in the woods: these guys were more expected than others, and on smaller stages you could hear other bands. Among them are Edi, Foresteppe, XYR, POKLAD, Ankobo + Kaboo, and Wozhd. For those who wanted to dance to techno, the Leveldva Chillrave dance floor was opened, located in a clearing among haystacks. The concerts continued all night, and only at 6 in the morning, when everything was over, there was silence in Nikola-Lenivets.
“PYRODRAMA” BY COMPOSER VLADIMIR GORLINSKY
Art camps, a tent with predictions and a Shortparis concert: how the Archstoyanie 2023 festival went (photo 6)
And now to the performance part: perhaps one of the most spectacular events this year is the sound performance “Pyrodrama” by composer Vladimir Gorlinsky, written specifically for Nikola-Lenivets. One could watch the wooden installation burn for several days: each time it was erected anew. The fire pit was visible from almost every corner of the park, and against the backdrop of burning wooden logs many people got beautiful shots.
ART CAMPS
This year, for the first time, art camps became part of the program: everyone was invited to go on a search for works of art, watch a performance about the journey of a black rooster, visit a “haystack” with video games, a introduced garden plants, and that’s not all. Especially for the festival, a “Prediction Pavilion” was built in the park, where, with the help of artificial intelligence, a personal forecast for the future could be obtained.
PAVILION OF PREDICTIONS
Art camps, a tent with predictions and a Shortparis concert: how the Archstoyanie 2023 festival went (photo 7)
IMMERSIVE THEATER
The only performance we could see was “Tatiana’s dream. Divination” by Ethel Ioshpa, Anastasia Smirnitskaya and Sergey Bystrov. The action took place at the same Alexander Brodsky roundabout, and then at a forest plantation. In the plot of the play, the fifth chapter of “Eugene Onegin” was staged, in which Tatyana saw a terrible dream at Christmas. The actors’ wardrobe deserves special attention: black raincoats and eerie papier-mâché monster masks. Composers Peter Aidu and Anton Svetlichny were responsible for the musical part of the performance.
FUNCTION “TATYANA’S DREAM. FORTUNE TELLING”
Art camps, prediction tent and Shortparis concert: how was the Archstoyanie 2023 festival (photo 8)Art camps, prediction tent and Shortparis concert: how was the Archstoyanie 2023 festival (photo 9)
WHAT’S NEW?
New this year is an art object by architect Alexei Kozyr, which will be shown next time only after 27 years. A 6 meter time capsule containing 1,550 messages from festival goers will be stored safely underground until 2050. We also send letters to each other in the future, an interesting experience!
Another new object this year is the Pavilion of Delusions by Irina Korina and Ilya Voznesensky. As conceived by the authors, this is a space without doors or windows where you can get lost. Actually, we did it.
The manifesto house collection has also been replenished: it includes an obelisk house by the Katarsis architecture office and an air duct house by the Cherry plum art group.
PREDICTION CAPSULE
Art camps, prediction tent and Shortparis concert: how the Archstoyanie 2023 festival went (photo 10)Art camps, prediction tent and Shortparis concert: how the Archstoyanie 2023 festival went (photo 11)
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM
For those who come to Nikola-Lenivets not for music and dance, but for knowledge in the field of art and new acquaintances, an educational program was created especially for the festival. This year it was held in two places at once: in the “Friends Shop” and in the “Wedding Pavilion”.
In the “Shatra” master classes of contemporary artists were held, it was possible to create collages-poetic predictions or still lifes from past and future lives, or share their stories with the actors of the Playback01 improv theater. In the “Wedding Pavilion” – pump dance skills into choreographic practices to live music and throw out negative energy, listen to lectures on architecture, Soviet temporality and utopia. This year’s educational program was supervised by the GES-2 House of Culture and the MARCH architecture school.
MODERN ARTISTS MASTER CLASS
Art camps, a tent with predictions and the Shortparis concert: how the Archstoyanie 2023 festival went (photo 12)
