– In 2022, the theme of the festival sounded like “Is there happiness?”, in this – “Guess Game”. Could you tell us how and why you chose this subject?
— The fact is that Nikola-Lenivets is one of the few art institutions that can be called independent. We exist at the expense of our own audiences, and this allows us to treat what we do in a special way. We look for these topics, to respond to our audience’s feelings and experiences, we are currently creating projects that can be valuable to our audience.
Last year, “Is there happiness?”, which initially ended with an exclamation point. It had a theme. Then terrible and tragic things started to happen and we added a question mark at the end. This year we set the theme of Guess Game because we see how people torment themselves by trying to come up with a glimpse of the concept of a future, for example, where it is impossible to find them in endless thought scrolling. We react to this and say that the future is uncertain. We’re turning this into a game. Beautiful pictures appear on the coffee grounds, let’s enjoy this beauty.
– Is there a particular person choosing a topic, or is there such a thing as collective brainstorming?
— We have Anton Kochurkin, the curator of the festival, but we develop the theme with the whole team. The more people, the better – this is how we can check if we understand the general mood of the audience correctly.
When does the festival start?
— It is necessary to establish the main framework of the program in at least one year. It really doesn’t happen automatically. Moreover, Archstoyanie has many architectural elements that took a long time to design and build.
— You are responsible for the music program of the festival. Tell me what to expect this year?
“Archstoyanie is a contemporary arts festival, so we treat performances primarily as big musical performances that we create by working with the venue. The main program starts on Saturday, July 29. Opening in the “fire scene” format: Everyone will gather not in one, but in many fires in a large area.
This year we decided to focus on contemporary composer music. Vladimir Gorlinsky is writing for us a piece “Pyrodrama” that will be performed by 16 musicians with percussion instruments. The musicians are placed in such a way that the audience moving in the concert area can hear the work in different ways. 16 geometrically arranged sound sources will be intertwined in various sound panels. And, of course, the fire, voiced separately in the score.
On the main stage, Shortparis, Pompeya, Edi and polnalyubvi will take the stage. The guys from Chill-rave record label Leveldva will turn their traveling bus into one of the scenes. The improv team “Parnik” will occupy the jam stage where the musicians will improvise with each other in different formats. In total, there are 7 stages at the festival that will work as a single large music venue. I hope this allows our guests to choose what they want.
Will there be secret scenes this year?
I don’t think so this year. We already have so many scenes that the audience probably won’t have time to listen and see everything.
– Musicians mostly from Russia perform at Archstoyanie. Is it related to the concept of the festival? Or are foreigners not coming?
– At some point, we realized that we generally don’t need it when foreign musicians stopped coming during the coronavirus period. First of all, we try to make programs with all musicians and integrate them into musical performances. And this is quite difficult to do with strangers: they “drag” the same program all over the world and do not want to make any changes. We also want the Russian people to connect as much as possible with the modern culture that revolves around it.
I will give you an example. Last year, most of them managed to take part in the sound checks of Russian bands. And some artists were ready to communicate with the audience. Horizontal links appear when people realize that the characters in playlists are real people, that they can interact with. This is much more important than a bright creature from a celestial from another country. I think there is indeed a hurdle to be overcome in Russia. Barrier to misunderstanding that modern culture is a necessary part of personal life with writers and artists face to face. Culture should not exist behind the scenes, behind barriers of fans, it should be in everyone’s personal experience.
— Archstoyanie will be held for the 17th time this year. Can you tell us what Nikola-Lenivets means to you?
“I came here when I was six years old. Of course, this is my home. It’s a natural story for me to continue to have festivals here, because I’ve developed this approach to life: Create what you believe in around you. Of course, I was lucky that my father started something. (Nikolai Polissky, artist, founder of the Nikola-Lenivets art park – ca. “socialbites.ca”)and that this is a village, not a city where everything is predestined.
And it answers. Many people come here for this impression, for the image of another life. Don’t expect someone to give you something and do what you need for you. Russia is such a big country, it has many beautiful, amazing, historically or culturally significant abandoned places. And if there is energy, it is better to apply it where it is lacking. Because otherwise, these places will disappear. Secondly, this is how you can show an alternative world that could be important to the overall picture of modern Russia.
– Did the Russian-Ukrainian conflict somehow affect the festival? Did it get any harder to do? If yes, what exactly did it affect?
“External events always affect what we do. And frankly, it happens on such a regular basis that it has already become the norm. How does this affect the festival? The people we expect and the public with whom we communicate on the same social networks, in general, are filled with a certain tension. And it seems to us that it is already difficult to cope alone with this tension in everyday life. Therefore, people decide to go somewhere to see something new – for example, many began to go to festivals more often last year.
And if we talk about mundane things like security, then now we work in our activities in a completely different way.
– Please tell me.
– It is necessary to better control the work of the security service, how quickly it reacts. Our interaction with government services responsible for security has increased significantly. And thankfully, this interaction is very coherent because on the one hand, everyone understands that security is important. On the other hand, people need to periodically go somewhere and try to somehow enjoy life in a situation where there is a lot of fear and anxiety.
– In 2018, representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church criticized Nikola-Lenivets for burning an art object resembling a temple in Maslenitsa. Although no religious symbolism and imitation of the temple were implied. Did this incident affect the team’s work? Do you have taboo subjects?
– We are not trying to talk about “mainland” issues in any way. Our “small land” is relatively an island state that only cares about what goes on in the “big land” in terms of how the people who come to us from there feel. It’s not our job to talk and talk about the realities going on in the public sphere. We do not do politics, at least we do not want the statements and positions of some to disturb others. We want people to raise flags and slogans and see that there is a community of people who want to spend this weekend with each other and enjoy life, who do not understand who is right and who is wrong. We don’t care about religion, sexuality, because we don’t really care. In this vast world, we are interested in issues such as beauty, harmony, and the search for ourselves.
– Many festivals lost a significant amount of money last year due to the separation of sponsors. Tell me, what is your festival for? Do you receive government support?
– Government support for commercial events is unfortunately almost impossible. In my opinion, this is a serious omission of state policy in the development of cultural enterprises, because in essence it means that state funding begins to go to projects that do not have solid and clear indicators of participation. We, as people who are financially dependent on the number of guests that will come to us, are doing everything we can to get more people in touch with the cultural project. As a result, most of the stupid things that are funded are those that happen in government institutions where locals gather, watch trivial dance performances in folk costumes, and disagree with a complete lack of understanding of what Russian identity is.
Therefore, the financing we are looking for is the tickets purchased by our guests and the existing sponsorship integrations. In fact, many Russian companies are interested in talking to our audience. There are a significant number of them this year. The main thing, of course, is that the Archstoyanie is the flagship festival of Nikola-Lenivets. And since Nikola-Lenivets works 24/7, 365 days a year, part of the program, for example, art objects, remains forever. In addition, the festival also increases the interest of the audience to come back, for example, in winter. That’s why we can afford little more than festivals that flash once a year and have to earn all their money in a weekend.
How many people attended the festival last year?
– Archstoyanie festival revolves around 6-8 thousand people. Judging by the reaction of our audience, I think it will be a little more this year. This is a comfortable number for us, because when we exceed 10 thousand, the park loses the possibility of loneliness, communication with nature, starry sky. And for us that is probably the key and fundamental thing.