It happened in Erarta, the museum of contemporary art, during the workshop of Christian Guémy. This Parisian street artist (on the right in the photo, the man in the stripes was translating) is famous because of his meaningful stencil projects all around the world.
He was speaking on means of creativity (I've written down the whole talk in Russian), on how being creative is much the same as when you are not just a cook, but a chef. French food metaphors, you know.
I've asked Christian about him being in St. Pete for the first time. He's already been to Moscow 4 times and disliked the violent atmosphere (he showed how the passengers of the subway are kicking each other with elbows).
He said St. Pete is way more civilized, european-like city (and I can't agree more as I moved here from Moscow 9 years ago with the same thoughts).
He named Wassily Kandisky as his fav Russian artist and promised to stencil him, too.
He did that several hours later near Erarta and published on the Facebook page:
He'd also done some other typical stencils in St. Petes before the workshop, themes being "peace/world" (in Russian it's the same word, 'mir'), "love", "cats" and "Virgin":
I am really keen on two things: travelling and sketching. When i started my first yeat at university, i got an opportunity to combine my interests in one project - sketchbook about Transsib. Transsib is nearly 9000 km long and it is one of the biggest railways in the world. Starting its way from Moscow, it goes through Udmurtia, Ural, Siberia, lake Baikal and Far East. This journey takes five days by train.
For this project i used sources about the Transsib, blogs, books and personal memoirs of my friend and family. Follow the railway to see all the Russian beauty from the window of the train.
I've seen Slava Polunin's Snow show ads in Portugal and Spain this summer. Europe will embrace Russian clown several times, as seen in his schedule. So I've decided to tell you about him.
What Is My Kind of Theatre?
or
The Theatre I Love
- It is a kind of wedding cavalcade,
where I try to marry everyone to everyone;
- It is a theatre of ritual magic
and festive pageantry,
constructed on the basis of images and movements,
games and fantasies,
that are the common creation of the audience and the people of the theatre;
- It is a theatre which inexorably grows
from dreams and tales;
- It is a theatre of hopes and dreams,
full of longing and loneliness,
losses and disillusionment;
- It is a theatre which always changes,
which breaths spontaneous improvisation
and cares scrupulously for tradition;
- It is in the vein of contemporary
multi-layered synthesis,
on the boundary of life and art;
- It is a theatre that works in an epic-intimate alloy
of tragedy and comedy,
of absurdity and naivity,
of cruelty and gentleness;
- It is a theatre which escapes
definition and the unequivocal
understanding of its actions,
as from attempts
to usurp its freedom.
Slava Polunin
Sixty-five-year-old Russian clown, Slava Polunin began his incredible career over four decades ago. According to CNN, what started out as a fascination developed into a probable career path for Polunin after he watched Charlie Chaplin in The Kid. A child at the time, he went to school in his father’s hat, boots and cane – emulating Chaplin, he made the other kids laugh all day.
Polunin became very fascinated with the way movement could convey so much emotion. He studied dances from around the world and he would imitate everything from Disney characters to kids, insane people, drunks, and animals stating, “these movements are not limited by intellect.” Polunin described his inspirations in an interview with CNN: “The perfect example is to see a child playing on a playground, or running around a forest — this is how humankind used to be originally – genuine and excited. These movements evoke a desire to follow.”
Polunin’s career has been filled with many highs including performing on state television throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was there that he would mock authorities – making parodies out of communist restrictions – and get away with it. Because no actual words were being used, Polunin could convey important messages without actually saying them. Later in his career he created the “Academy of Fools,” an international organization uniting clowns, and “Caravan of the World,” a travelling theatre. Today, Polunin is one of the most notable clowns in the business – performing in 50 countries across the world.
But Polunin is not your average over-the-top circus clown. He puts a lot of thought into all of his actions, stating to CNN: “Today my perception of clowning is that you should be able to move just one centimeter and get a reaction from the audience as if you moved an entire mountain.” He also changes his routines based on the different countries he visits, noting that each culture has a different sense of movement and humour.
In all areas of his life, Polunin keeps the creativity and fun alive. According to Messy Nessy Chic, he even hosts visitors at his Dali-meets-Disney wonderland. And the list of oddities – including five kaleidoscopic gardens, book trees, walls you can walk through, flower beds you can sleep in, staircases that melt into the walls, giants living in trees, a giant egg house, horses with pink wings, and a Buddhist temple – is enough to make your head spin.
Polunin is going to be featured in an upcoming documentary, “Secrets of Snow – Slava’s Journey,” which will surely be a majestic and hypnotically visual ride.
Russian media tells a story about Valeriy Khramov who painted all the school #168 interiors.
Valeriy is 90. He lives in Yekaterinburg and used to be art teacher for twenty-five years. Now he is a guard there (common practice: ex-actress becomes cloak-room attendant at the theater etc) but never stops thinking of beauty, art and what children need to be taught. Now he's quitting this job and no one will take care of paintings which means they could be lost when paint will fade out.
Valeriy thought all the paintings through: one floor is dedicated to architecture (Great Wall of China, Taj Mahal, St. Basil's Cathedral), another is for geography, third one shows folk tales heroes.
Some children tell him "you're bad at painting". Valeriy tells them that painting is not everything, you have to think through ideas, connections between stories. All his paintings have stories inside, all the heroes have names and specific meanings in the interior: folk tales part, for example, sits near elementary school section.
Viktor Schnayder from Orenburg was one of Naiv painters. I haven't found any paged about his work in English... or in Russian. So few things left online from some people.
Anyway, he was amazingly honest and his works show a lot about Russia and even about Russian soul.
This picture is called 'Occupation'. Not as in job title, but as military occupation.
Zoya Cherkassky was born in USSR and now lives in Israel. Lately she created several works explaining everyday life of every soviet teenager. They look so close to what I personally remember.
Family gathering:
Vacuum cleaning:
Picking leaves in autumn:
Morning, winter, preparing to go to school:
At school:
Read more about artist here.
Her facebook page is here.
This Medium article by Roman Muradov will guide you through Russian illustrators you might never have heard about.
"Russianness is an acquired taste, like licorice or the voice of Michael Silverblatt. I used to take great pains to avoid it, but now my expatty bitterness is finally giving in to something more patient, a deep affection for the individual, in part divorced from the country, in part tied to it closer than ever. The ten artists listed below are all excellent, regardless of the degree of Russianness their work may exhibit (some of them are not Russian at all, “Russian-speaking” is perhaps more accurate). This is not an attempt at a comprehensive list, it’s just a few names off the top of my head, mostly friends & contemporaries whose work I believe deserves wider appreciation".
Among all talented people who paint my favorite city, Igor Yanovsky stays aside.
His paintings (and huge ones, 250х130 sm for example) are both so untrue and so true.
They combine thickness of windy air together with delicate shapes of famous buildings.
