Projects

Evolution Haute Couture: Art and Science in the Postbiological Age

Curator: Dmitry Bulatov

The special project of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (Kaliningrad Branch, Russia)

Techno-biological art is a direction of contemporary art in which living matter is the means for creating an artwork, and the newest biomedical and informational technologies are the method used. Techno-biological artworks as a rule are generated in laboratories and frequently in collaboration with scientific research institutes. The works themselves are also alive or ‘semi-living’ and that’s why the only proof of a form’s existence that survives with time is the project’s documentation. This artificial life created by artists is as fragile and short-lived as natural life, but the existence is forever fixed and thus written into the history of the Earth’s evolution.

Sections of the collection

• Artificial but Actual (Artificial Life)
• Limits of Modeling (Evolutionary Design)
• Shining Prostheses (Robotics)
• Body as Technology (Technobody Modification)
• More than a Copy, Less than Nothingness (Bio and Genetic Engineering)
• Semi-Living (Tissue and Stem Cells Engineering)
• P.S.: Re-Coding

Web site: videodoc.ncca-kaliningrad.ru
Project curator: Dmitry Bulatov (bulatov@ncca.koenig.ru)

CHRONO IV (Intervals 2)

Author: art group Chrono

An international group CHRONO presents its fourth project, which continues the theme of time perception as a subjective construction, which most people consider as a social phenomenon and consecutive further developments, which connects past, present and future. But it is possible to create the designs that encompass past, present, and future, confirming French saying «Le Temps n'existe pas plus.» (Time doesn't exist).

European East (object)

Authors: Konstantin Solodunenko

"The Chinese want the whole world to be China and, preferably in red." And the idea came to me - to build a pagoda - red pagoda. This will symbolize China. Inside there are a lot of pendants made of bamboo, and The Red Ball can be seen more deeply - which symbolizes peace. It's allowed to enter this construction.

Art project Photophoby 1 and Photophoby 2.

The idea of ​​"Photophobia-1" was to appeal to the media tools and environments to create new forms of representation pictures - movies using text, sound, animation, and a number of digital technologies. Especially for the project artists from 10 countries established more than 20 photo-films, issued on DVD.

In "Photophobia-2" the input material was limited with one image for each film transmitted for interpretive reading to the artist by another author. To participate in the project were invited 18 artists (9 pairs) from 9 countries. The curators of project departed from the idea even further intensification of the fear of perfection and completeness of imaginative picture of the world, frozen in a single frame, and the transfer of photos to the hands of another provoked the blurring of a taboo zone of authorship, prompting the authors to the interaction.

Exhibitions

Roads and Portraits of the Pacific

Author: Bernard Steffin

"I like the language of photos, they convey a lot of words, staying silent. After years of working in the fashion industry in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Calcutta and other places, my attention is now focused on traveling and documentary photos. I photograph the roads and people around them".

Elusive Beauty

Authors: Natalia Akhmetova, Rostislav Maksimov

The concept of “Pictorial” (“picturesque”) photo was introduced into the world practice in the end of XIX century. This school of photography is creative, based on the laws of painting, its traditions and experience. By erasing the objectivity of portrayed, pictorialists fought with its detail. Soft focus — is the most recognizable feature of pictorial photography. Its creators softened images to distinguish them among the usual sharp shots and make them emotional.

150th anniversary of the Far Eastern photography

Photographers of the Far East made creative discoveries in the 19th century, along with explorers. They captured unique beauties of the Far Eastern land, created priceless material for an encyclopedia of our unique region: pictures of life, original natural landscapes, various historical events and more.

The first photo collection of the Far East was created by talented photographer Vladimir Lanin in Nikolaevsk on the Amur River in 1861.

At the same time with him other pioneers of photography worked on the Far East: Bran, Peter Lopatin, Emil NinoVladimir Mendeleyev, Carl Schulz, Stepan Makarov, Alexey Kuznetsov.

In the archives of Pacific photographers’ Union, in scientific libraries, in the funds of geographic societies and museums, wonderful historic photo collections are kept, many of them haven’t been demonstrated to the wide audience yet.

Meetings

Author: Yury Lugansky

Selected photos from the funds, meetings with nature, real and fantasy photo tours, unforgettable meetings with different interesting people, acquaintance with historical events, highlights of the Far Easten biography, Primorsky krai and Vladivostok are presented in 'Meetings' photo exhibition.

Events

The Seminar of Marc Bonneville

Multimedia... is it the second-rate photo?

"In the last 10 years the world of photography has changed a lot. The revolution of digital image implies the existence of sub-revolution. In this case photographer often becomes a director. After a short trip into the past, where the one of the first attempts to create a multimedia-based photography was La Jetee (Chris Marker), we will walk along the paths created by Magnum and see the latest works l’Oeil Public, Mediastorm and collectif item, by such authors as Guillaume Herbaut, Samuel Bollendorf, Bertrand Gaudillere, Christina Firmino... "

Quartet!

Director: Mimura Junichi

The family of 14-year-old Kai, junior high student, is on the verge of breakdown. His 17-year-old sister, Misaki, was arrested by the police for stealing a bike, father was fired from his company, mother is worried about their future and starts thinking of getting a divorce. Kai tries to recover damaged family and find his own sound by making a family quartet. Can music bring peace and love to them?

Funkytown

Director: Daniel Roby

1976. Montreal. Eight people who wanted to see and be seen at the trendiest disco in town, will be juggling freedom and tradition, lovers and family, drugs and sobriety, fame and anonymity, until they will be forced to make sober choices in an era when excess was the norm, and when disco was king.

Herb & Dorothy

Director: Megumi Sasaki

Herb & Dorothy tells an amazing story of Herbert Vogel, a postal clerk, and Dorothy Vogel, a librarian, who managed to assemble one of the most significant contemporary art collections in history with very modest means. In the early 1960s, Herb and Dorothy Vogel gradually began to purchase the works of unknown artists, guided by two rules: it had to be affordable and small enough to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Many of the works they acquired are now appreciated so high, that their collection today is worth millions of dollars. Still, the Vogels haven’t sold a single piece.

Cooking with Stella

Director: Dilip Mehta

Stella Elizabeth Matthews has been a cook in the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi for 30 years. She is an excellent cook, and brilliant at creatively padding her salary – with a few pilfered items, some minor overcharging, and a special phone‐order duty free business. A married couple Maya and Michael come to her house with their child. Michael is longing to learn authentic Indian cooking and stays at home as “housewife” while Maya goes off to work as Canadian diplomat. But Stella’s cozy world is in danger because of an honest nanny Tannu arrival, who threatens to expose Stella’s deceptions…

Women art revolution

Director: Lynn Hershman Leeson

The film details major events in women’s art of the 1970s: the first feminist art education program, political organizations and protests, alternative art spaces, independent publications and installations which changed the entire direction of art. New ways of understanding the complexities of relations between genders, races and classes appeared. Over time, the perseverance and courage of these artists-innovators resulted in what many historians now consider to be the most significant art movement of the late 20th century.

Canadian short films program

7 Canadian short films touching upon various and quite risky topics ranging from passionate affairs and unexpected incidents to gastronomic competitions and death dances.

Capalbio Cinema International Short Film Festival

Founded on 1994, the Festival is recognized as the Italian main short film event, and Capalbio is considered the Italian capital of brevity in all arts. 16 short films that were shown on the festival several last years are gathered in this program.

Gwanno mask dramma

Danno Puppet Theater's Performance.

Gwanno Mask Drama is one of the plays of Gangneung Danno Festival which has a thousand years history. It is the pantomime which consists of dances, motions and dialogues devoted to traditional culture, which are of great historic and artistic value.

The play "Three cheerful gnomes"

Primorsky Regional Puppet Theatre

Fairy tale in one act

Cheerful musical fairy tale about the forest gnomes and malicious Black troll who has stolen their magic book.

"Little Comedies"

Primorsky Regional Drama Theatre of Youth

Joke in two acts by Anton Chekhov's plays "A Marriage Proposal" and "The Bear".

The nature of human stubbornness is multifaceted and sometimes it comes to outright nonsense, pride and vanity simply knows no bounds. But there's no better cure for pride than a good laugh and humor.

Way to yourself

Meet the audience. Russian theatre and cinema actress Elena Dudina.

Born in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on October 26, 1988 . She is an actress of Vl. Mayakovsky Theater since 2009. In the play "Rubezh" (2009, dir. Blinov Alexander and Sergey Artsibashev) played the role of Olga Gumenschuk.

The Director of TV Show

Workshop of Felix Mikhailov

Actor, director, screenwriter, TV producer. Film-tragicomedy about travesty artists "Veselchaki"(2009) is his debut as a feature film director.

Day by day

Meet the audience. Director, People's Artist of Russia, Vsevolod Shilovsky

He graduated from the Moscow Art Theatre School (class A. Karev). He acted in more than one hundred and fifty films, among them - "The Voice", "The Speed," "Torpedonostsy", "Wartime Romance ," "Intergirl" and others.

Video-cinema

Seminar with film expert Karina Karaeva (Russia).

Video-cinema. About the synthesis of cinematograph and video art, the influence of cinema on development of video art.

Two destinies

Meet the audience. Russian theatre and cinema artist Anatoly Rudenko.

Born on October 7, 1982 in Moscow, in the family of actors. In 2004 he graduated from the Shchukin Theatre School. Plays in the theatre, acts in the films and TV. (Ryzhaya, Poor Nastya, Privet, duralei!)

Film. Life. Game.

Meet the Audience. Lev Prygunov - Honoured artist of Russia.

Lev Prygunov - Soviet and Russian film and theater actor, Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1976). Best roles on his opinion: in The Heart of Bonivur and Picture.

Young Russia

Meet the Audience. Boris Nevzorov – Honoured artist of Russia.

Boris Nevzorov - Russian actor and director, acted in more than a hundred films. From 2005 - Actor of the Maly Theater. He lectures at Russian Academy of Theatre Arts.

Stage director. Methods of working with an actor

Workshop. Moderator - Sergey Puskepalis, actor, director (Russia)

Studied under Petr Phomenko in the Russian Academy of Dramatic Art. From June 2009 till February 2011 - theater director for F. Volkov Academic theater in Yaroslavl. He has been invited by the most famous Russian drama theaters to stage plays.

The life of oligarch

Meet the audience Russian actor, director Aleksey Klimushkin.

Aleksey Klimushkin - Russian actor. The popularity came to him with the release of TV series Univer, where he played a role of an oligarch Sylvester Andreevich Sergeyev. He performed one of the main roles in Veselchaki by Felix Mikhailov.

Modern acting technique

Master Class for students of Drama faculty of FESAA of People's Artist of Russia Sergey Stepanchenko.

Sergey Stepanchenko was born on June 18, 1959, in the Tatarsk. Graduated from the Acting Faculty of the Far Eastern State Institute of Arts. Until 1985 he worked in the Syzran Drama Theater, since 1985 - in the troupe of Lenkom theatre. Acted in films "The Inner Circle", "Choknytie"," Private Ivan Chonkin", "Life in the red color", and in TV series "Next", "What did the dead man say" and "Syshchiki". In December of 2005 he was awarded the title of People's Artist of Russia. Since 2005, he's the President of Pacific Meridian Film Festival.

Guests

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  Mark Bonnevil Swiss photographer has been living in Russia since 1998. He tries to reflect the way of peoples lives in his works. Thats what his projects can tell us:, "Bessarion", "Hitchhiker's to Lake Baikal", "Tofalars" were published in National Geographis, GEO, «Ogonyok." He is enthusiastically engaged in panoramic photography, traveling the world to implement his own projects and also for editorial assignments. Mark is actively involved in common projects of Collectif, including Photofestival Visa pour l'image in Perpignan. He is currently working on a large project called "City of Peace".
• 
  Bertran Plan

  French artist deconstructivist. He was born in Perpignan city in 1975. Lives and works in Paris. He graduated from the Higher School of Arts of Grenoble and the State Higher School of Decorative Arts in Paris. Actively works and exhibits in Europe and the USA. In October of 2010. participated in the project LOFT “Floors” in St. Petersburg with the exhibition “Between.”

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  Dmitry Bulatov Artist, curator, art theorist. His research activities focus on different aspects of interdisciplinary sci-art media (robotechnics, genetic engineering, nano-tech, etc.). Bulatov is the author of many articles on contemporary art and new technologies; he has also edited books and anthologies such as BioMediale: Contemporary Society and Genomic Culture (Kaliningrad, 2004), Evolution Haute Couture: Art and Science in the Postbiological Age (I volume, Kaliningrad, 2009). His artworks have been presented in various national and international exhibitions such as the Ars Electronica Festival (“Radiotopia”, ORF, Linz, 2002), 50 Venice Biennial (“Brain Academy Apartment”, Venice, 2003), and others. 2007, 2008), Radiotopia (ORF, Ars Electronica, 2002), Off-Beats (Berlin, 2003), Up to date (Santiago, 2006), SKIF-8 (St.Peterburg, 2004), Days of Science (St. Petersburg, 2008), SciArtFest (Moscow, 2009), Lexus Hybrid Art (Moscow, 2010), The Unheard Avantgarde (Copenhagen, 2011). Bulatov has taken part in several international contemporary art conferences and given lectures in Russia (including The State Hermitage Museum, The State Tretyakov Gallery, The National Centre for Contemporary Arts), USA, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, Singapore and Hong Kong. He has received numerous grants and awards including the Special Recognition Award in the State Government category for Art and Culture (1998), and has been a finalist for the Russian Little Booker Prize (short-list, 2000), and a finalist for the Sergey Kurekhin Award for Contemporary Art (short-list, 2010). In 2007 his artwork has been selected by Wired magazine as the world’s 10 top innovations. In 2009 he has been awarded the National Innovation Award for Contemporary Visual Arts (Russia). He is the member of the Editorial Board of the "DOC(K)S" Art Magazine (France). Bulatov is the organizer and curator of more than 20 international sci-art projects. Since 1998, Bulatov has been the Senior curator at the Kaliningrad Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Art in Russia.
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  Bernard Steffen

  Born in Germany. Started his creative career from learning jewelry design in Austria, worked in the fashion industry in Paris as a designer and photographer. He started taking interest in photography due to traveling, especially while working for an Indian company in Kolkata, and during an extreme trip to Ladakh. His first exhibition was held in 2002.

  When choosing objects for shooting, he pays more attention to portraits and landscapes. At present he takes photos for construction companies. His camera enables to communicate with people without words.

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  Natalia Akhmetova, Rostislav Maksimov

  Natalya Akhmetova was born on March 2nd in Vladivostok city. She started taking interest in photography when studding at school. She graduated from 38 professional lyceum where she majored in photography. Natalya was working a photo correspondent in FESU and lectured photography on the Journalists faculty of FESU. She also organized and participated in students photo exhibitions. She is fond of literature and pictorial photography.

  Rostislav Maksimov likes everything beautiful and entertainments. Sometimes he takes photos.

• 
  Mimura Junichi

  Mimura Junichi was born on October 13, 1948 in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. He was the main assistant director and screenwriter in documentary film production «The Fox in the Quest of the Northern Sun» (1978). After that he produced and directed different films and TV programs and got several awards, such as silver medal of Italian Film award among documentaries about environment, for his film «Red-Crowned Crane» (1986). In 1988 he left for the USA, where he went on filming TV programs and made several films, which were significant for his career, like «Strawberry Road» (1995), he also made his debut as director in «Drifting School» (1995). After returning to Japan in 2004 he went on filming feature films like «26 Years Diary» (2007), which was serious social statement. The third film he directed was «QUARTET!» (2011).

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  Konstantin Solo
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  Yury Lugansky Is Honored Culture Worker of Russian Federation, chairman of Primorsky branch of the Photo Artists Union, chaiman of Pacific Photo Artists Union, photography teacher, photography historian, author of 42 personal exhibitions, participant, winner of 250 photo exhibitions in Russia, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, China and other countries, author of over 50 creative photo books and photo albums. (On 11 of September, 2011 Jury Lugansky will be 65 years old, all his work is connected with the Far East).
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  Art group Chrono

  Chronos artgroup's main objective is to embark upon investigations of human perception of time as it pertains to the advance of technology.

  International artgroup Chronos consists of 4 artists who joined together in Arka Gallery Vladivostok in May of 2011 to present a three part video installation. The group continues to make installation projects although separated geographically.

• 
  Megumi Sasaki

  Megumi's first serious breakthrough came in 1989, when she was covering the Fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1992 Megumi joined NHK, Japan's sole public broadcaster, to work as an anchorwoman of popular morning news program. From 1996 Megumi returned to independent work as a freelance director and field producer. In 2002, Megumi founded a production company, Fine Line Media, to combine her attention to Japanese TV with her new interest in promotion of feature and documentary projects. HERB & DOROTHY is the first of these projects.

• 
  Daniel Roby A graduate of Montreal’s Concordia University and the University of Southern California, Daniel Roby began his career by working as director of photography on several shorts and as a cameraman on Michel Jetté's ‘Hochelaga’ (2000). In 1995, he launched the production company La Mafia, later renamed Zone Films. In 2001 he directed his first short drama ‘Quelques instants de la vie d’une fraise’. His first feature film ‘La Peau blanche’ won the CityTV award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival. In 2005 Daniel Roby’s directing talent was once again rewarded when ‘La Peau blanche’ earned him the prestigious Claude Jutra award.
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  Lynn Hershman Leeson

  Her three feature films starring Tilda Swinton (Strange Culture 2007, Teknolust 2002, Conceiving Ada 1998) were shown at Sundance Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and Berlin International Film Festival and won numerous awards. She created projects for Tate Modern, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Charles Schwab. Hershman Leeson is a Dean of the Film faculty at San Francisco Art Institute, Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis.

  Recently Lynn has received the 2009 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, an award that supported her documentary WOMEN ART REVOLUTION.

• 
  Dilip Mehta

  Dilip Mehta was born in New Delhi and is a Canadian citizen. Worked as a photojournalist for a long time: his works were published in The New York Times, Figaro, Newsweek, National Geographic, Geo, Stern, Time. Dilip’s feature documentary THE FORGOTTEN WOMAN, about widows in contemporary India, has been invited to over 16 international festivals, and continues to win accolades and audience awards. Dilip has himself been the subject of a documentary: THE PHOTOJOURNALISM OF DILIP MEHTA, and has participated in many Deepa Mehta's films production.