Russia all around : what cities and artists are missing from the creative map?
At ArtyGeneration, we’re expanding our focus to Russia’s less well-known cities, including many of those featured here. Over three articles, we explored the cities ranked 25 to 1 in the PwC and Calvert 22 Foundation Creative Capital Index (check these out - article 1, article 2, article 3). We’ve presented some of the best examples of innovation in culture and the creative industries across Russia.
But as we counted down through the cities, we realised that there were a lot of gaps. Here we present a guide to some cities missing from the creative capital index and present our personal recommendations of creative places and cities to visit across Russia. More importantly, we need your help to help us map the most interesting emerging creative artists in those cities and spaces. We’re crowd-sourcing your knowledge to build an emerging artists map of Russia.
Cities
Going beyond the creative capital index and finding even more creative spaces and cities.
Inversia 2019 - image from the opening night, taken from Facebook.
Murmansk
Murmansk has its share of underground creatives celebrating its unique Northern environment, like 1999Q and Fridaymilk, that inspire creative programmes like the experimental music festival, Inversia, and an ongoing redevelopment of the city and its creative industries. The region benefits from creative collaboration with its close neighbours, Finland and Norway, through, for example, the Arctic Arts Summit and the Barents Spektakl.
Flacon, in the mountains near Sochi. Image taken from Instagram
Sochi
Sochi, now famous for its Winter Olympics, hosts the Sochi Winter International Arts Festival. Not far away, in the somewhat superficial, apres-ski environment of Rose-Khutor you can find the creative industries cluster and residency, Flacon 1170. Sochi also featured in the Calvert Journal guide to the New East.
Regenerated city-centre space, Iskra, in Tula. Photo taken from Instagram
Art by Bobur Ismiolov (Бобура Исмоилова) in an exhibition, «Горизонт иллюзий», at gallery Viktora Bronshteyna, Irkutsk.
Irkutsk
Irkutsk is finding its feet on the bigger creative map, too, with the upcoming expansion of Moscow’s Territoria theatre festival to form Territoria.Irkutsk, to be held in November 2020. Co-working space Drozhi brings together local freelancers and creatives, and in the same building you can find other interesting start-ups and initiatives. Contemporary art galleries Viktora Bronshteyna and Art Dias are worth a visit. Irkutsk also has a lot of heritage lining the streets, in the form of old wooden buildings.
Festival “Human of Peace” on the Nerl river, close to Suzdal, by Andrey Popov and Evgenya Kazarnovskay
Recommendations from ArtyGeneration writers
Our favourite creative places.
Marine
This art park near Kaluga, a few hours road trip from Moscow, is the perfect weekend destination during summer. Initiated by the artist and architect Nikolay Polinsky in the early 90’s, this is a place of connection with nature, where land art installations are like portals to other dimensions. A swim in the nearby river, a bicycle ride around the village, a night in one of the many glamping-ish accommodations, a concert under the stars followed by a light and sound performance : a gateway to remember that renews each year with festivals and new land art.
Ellen
Suzdal - the most visited city of the Golden Ring. Famous for its modern ceramics and the festival “Human of Peace” on the Nerl river made by Andrey Popov and Evgenya Kazarnovskay.
Crimea - summer art-school “Tavrida” brings the most important people of across the creative industries to work with Russia’s young generation. (Stay tuned on ArtyGeneration for another article on this new meeting point for talented people and its picturesque art park for tourists)
St. Petersburg - my two favorites are Anna Nova gallery and their collector’s lounge, and New Holland Island, a project of Darya Zhukova with its concerts and Art Events. St. Petersburg is full of small galleries. Often not easy to catch, they are artist-run with a great sense of humor - like “Not Russian, Not State Museum” by artists Ruben Monakhov and Alexandre Dashevsky, where they offer a unique wall for artists to create an exhibition. Very particular and not so obvious is the museum of contemporary collector Igor Sukhanov in Soviet Style House of Culture (DK Gromov).
Image from Likerka Loft on Facebook
Daria
Tula - LiKЁRKA LOFT - a former factory, now full of local events and festivals. Kizhi, Karelia - open-air complex with stunning wooden architecture back to 15th century, located on an island in the centre of Lake Onega.
Yaroslavl - one of Russia’s oldest cities, situated in the Golden Ring. Its historical city center is under UNESCO protection. The city is famous for its beautiful churches and monasteries with frescos. Check out creative centre TEXTIL, and its welcoming "City weekend". The centre organizes meetings for people to communicate and learn new things about the city and its inhabitants. In addition to the "City weekend", there are also music concerts and festivals, exhibitions, flea markets, and large dinners. Art space TEPLO has become the main haven for the creative community of Yaroslavl. Musicians, artists, poets, actors, and film critics come here. Film club ‘Neft’ hosts film screenings and special events. The main repertoire of the film club consists of European films in the original language with Russian subtitles. However, Neft also hosts special projects - one of the latest ones is ‘Neft. Freedom", which was organised together with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. As part of this event, the audience was shown films about freedom, human rights, and civil society. Admission to all events is free.
Voronezh’s disused railway line, perfect for Instagrammable photos. Nicole McNeilly (2018), CC BY-SA
Nicole
Voronezh - accessible by a fast train from Moscow, though it will still take eight hours or so. While the creative scene might be quite small, the city feels welcoming. I particularly enjoyed speciality pelmeni in the Olen Pelmeni Bar.
Tula - so close to Moscow that it could become the new commuter town. We walked around in the heart of winter, exploring Tolsoy’s home estate, Yasnaya Polyana (a bus ride away from the city centre) and then exploring what the city itself had to offer. Great restaurants, small shops, пяники (speciality gingerbread which originates from the town). Whilst we found Oktava quite cold and empty when we visited, the city itself was lively as we sat outside around open fires, drinking steaming mulled wine.
Also keep an eye on:
Governmental support for the creative industries in Khabarovsk (and initiatives like the ArtHub Residence).
The art residency opportunities, government support and interesting contemporary art in Petrozavodsk and wider Karelia.
But what are we missing? Let us know in the comments or on social media!
Artists
The map of creative cities can show off creative spaces, infrastructure and often, new initiatives. But what we’re missing are the interesting artists that breathe fire and energy into those cities and spaces. After this creative four week tour of the most interesting creative cities in Russia, it’s time for you to get to suggest the art that inspires you, or the art you are creating.
You are an artist : answer the survey and get selected to appear on the map.
You are an art lover, a friend or an ally : answer the survey too or share with us on social media who are the artists we should feature to raise the profile of the grassroots and emerging artists you know and admire.
Thanks for helping us share a more genuine vision of Russia and its creative scene !
Lead image by Alexandr Syachin (2012) CC BY-NC-ND
