SIXTH INTERNATIONAL MONOTYPE FESTIVAL 2011

SIXTH INTERNATIONAL MONOTYPE FESTIVAL 2011
“Festival of Three Capital Cities: Moscow, Helsinki, Saint-Petersburg”
supported by the Committee for culture of Saint-Petersburg

VI International Monotype Festival in 2011 includes numerous different events - exhibitions of works by modern artists, conferences, master classes of the artists, concerts, poetry recitals, etc. Festival will take place since April till November, 2011 in Moscow, Helsinki and Saint-Petersburg.

Works by artists from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, Spain, USA, Finland, Italy, Estonia and Sweden will be presented at the Festival. Main goal of the Festival is to attract attention to the art of Monotype and creative process on the whole, forming the artistic outlooks on life and tastes in modern society, dissemination of knowledge in the field of history of world art.

Terms and Venue (embracing the period since April 26 till November 30, 2011):
April 26 - May 12, 2011
Ardena Gallery (Moscow, 9/13Chernigovsky side Street, building 2)
http://www.ardena.ru

September 15-30 2011
Russian Center for Science and Culture (Helsinki, 1 Nordenskeldinkatu)
http://fin.rs-gov.ru/fin/

October 27 – November 10, 2011
Center of book design and graphic art (Saint-Petersburg, 55 Liteiny Prospect)
http://www.naiv-art.ru/

November 1-15, 2011
Children's Library for history and culture of Saint-Petersburg (Saint-Petersburg, Affiliation No.2 of Pushkin State Central Children's Library, 72 Marata Street)

November 15-30, 2011
Center of graphic art, painting and design "StART Akademia" (Saint-Petersburg, 1 Lomonossow Street).

On Monotype
Monotype is one of the wondrous kinds of fine art. “Mono” means in Greek "one", while «typos» means "a print". A unique print, which could be made with any kind of paints (inks) on any material. A single print, which could be applied to any substrate. This technique implies a number of individual sub-techniques. Each artist uses this unique print in the most individual way. Monotype is called "the technique, implying the participation of God". It is improvisation-related and fatal. At the festival we shall show the results of our search – the works of the artists as well as the process, in which you are invited to take place – master-classes. Monotype is an attentive look directed into the depths of the artist's thoughts, meeting of the conscious with the subconscious. It is impossible to imagine a monotype, which is "made to order", because its main co-author is "the Incident". Monotype is always associated with the realm of joy, experiment, success and hope. Fortune itself takes care of this remarkable technique implying the mode of thinking of an oil painter.

The following events will take place as part of Festival:
1. Exhibitions of monotype artists
2. Conference in art history, which are dedicated to the creative activities of famous monotype artists of the past (G.Castiglione, Ye.S.Kruglickova, Maurice Prendergast, etc.) and to the Monotype technique itself.
3. Master-classes of monotype artists (for children and grown-ups)
4. Concerts “Improvisation of overtone sounding”
5. Poetic recitals
6. Contest of poetic and literary essays (on the topic, associated with monotype)
8. Exhibitions of photographic art
9. Unique memorial exhibitions of works by Ye.S.Krouglickova

Target audience of the festival:
No age restrictions. Audience, which is interested in painting, graphic art, photography, interesting cultural events.

Mainly the Festival is targeted at:
- Students and pensioners,
- Families with children,
- Adolescents,
- Professional artists, art historians and publishers;
- Citizens of the cities in which the festivals are going to take place and the visitors to these cities.

Partners of the Festival:
ART-GID.ru - Culture and arts of Saint-Petersburg (www.art-gid.ru),
Internet Agency AMORI Group (www.amori.ru),
Excursion bureau and the project "Walks around Saint-Petersburg" (www.walkspb.ru),
Children's Library for history and culture of Saint-Petersburg (Affiliation No.2 of Pushkin State Central Children's Library),
ArtDare Agency - promoters of artists and organization of festivals,
Ardena Gallery (www.ardena.ru),
North-Western Institute of Printing (of SPb University of Technology and Design)
School of photographic artists in Lensoveta House of Culture,
Soroptimist Club (International Women's Club "St Petersburg-Galactic"),
Art contests in Russia and in the world (www.artdeadline.ru),
Union of Artists of Russia,
Petrovskaya Academy of Science and Art,
Saint-Petersburg State University for Technology and Design,
Information web-site www.stopinfin.ru and monthly magazine STOP, Finland,
Center of graphic art, painting and design "StART Academy" (www.startacademy.ru),
Russian Center for Science and Art (Helsinki),
Exhibition gallery “Domus Fabricatoria”,
Center for Book Design and Graphic Art, Saint-Petersburg.

The project is supported by:
Committee of Culture of Saint-Petersburg,
Institute of Cultural Programs,
Administration of the Central Region of Saint-Petersburg (Department of Culture),
Consulate General of Finland in Saint-Petersburg.

Some information concerning the Festival of 2010:
Fifth Monotype festival, which took place in 2010, was devoted to the Englishman William Blake - Monotype artist, poet and engraver; "one of the most unusual artists in the history of world art". Based on the results of the festival, which took place in April 2010, an exhibition was organized in autumn, which was called "Festival of Monotype. Selected Works" (October 5-20, 2010, Domus Fabricatoria Gallery).

The following events took place as part of the festival: 3 exhibitions of modern monotype painters, children’s exhibition of monotype art, a conference in art history, two poetic recitals, a concert of overtone singing, a contest of poetic essay, photographers’ competition and an exhibition of photographic art, 11 master classes, (Monotype, Monotype and calligraphy, printing techniques using an eau-forte press, photography and Monotype), unique memorial exhibition of works by the famous lady-artist Ye.S.Krouglickova.

 

The year of 2010 was marked by a discovery for us and for the visitors of the Festival: we came to know that Monotype also exists in the art of photography – Assia Nemchyonok, photographic artist and her students presented the works in the technique of photographic painting, in which the elements of Monotype are used. The works of other artists implying the situational photography formed another section of the exhibition called “Monotype in Nature”. Some works presented at the festival were inspired by the poetry of William Blake. It is also noteworthy that the famous collector of Willam Blake material Mr. Michael Golden came to visit the events of the festival. He owns a collection of items associated with the name of William Blake (the biggest in the world). Last year our friends and colleagues from Finland and Germany came to visit the festival, since it had a 5-year jubilee in 2010. Internet web-site and the magazine STOP in Finland got interested in the participation of our friends from Finland and published two issues, containing information concerning the festival.

The Institute of Finland offered us invaluable support through dissemination of the information. Numerous printed periodicals (WHERE, Moi rajon, STOP in Finland, Vetcherny Peterburg, announcements in TimeOut Petersburg) as well as Internet-related mass media (the number of Internet publications amounted to 80) also offered information support to us. A special program was devoted to the festival by the channel Radio-Petersburg. The administration of the Central District of Saint-Petersburg (Department of culture) assisted us in spreading part of the posters and our information partners (high schools of the city) also helped us with this.

We were happy to have the following persons among the participants of the festival in 2010:
Yelena Oscarovna Martilla, artist, siege of Leningrad survivor,
Piotr Petrovich Chobitko – chairman of the Board of “National Calligraphers Union”,
Visa Norros, Finland) – member of Helsinki Art Association), Chairman of Finnish Union of Printers (1998 – 2003, The Association of Finnish Printmakers).
Valery Syrov – Member of Union of artists of the Ukraine, the works of this artist are preserved in: Ministry of culture of the Ukraine, Kyiv; chief Administration of Art Exhibitions, Kyiv; Art Museum, Odessa; "Les Oreades", Moscow-Paris; in private collections.
Andrei Petrovich Diachenko – member of International Association of Art historians (MAIS), Rudolph Vagramovich Georkian – poet and member of Translators’ Union of Russia.
Valery Babanov - book illustrator and graphic artist from Saint-Petersburg working in monotype technique.

Some statistics characterizing the Monotype Festival 2010:
120 persons took part in the Monotype Festival in 2010
(among them - 61 artist, 11 photographers, 40 children; art historians, poets, actors).

Participating countries: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany, Spain, USA, Serbia, Italy, Finland. Artists came to the festival from the following regions of Russia: Bratsk, Chelyabinsk, Perm, Kopeisk, Krasnoyarsk, Vladimir, Novosibirsk, Moscow, Saint-Petersburg. Totally 212 works were presented (among them 42 photographs).

Overall attendance during the entire period of exhibitions operation - 4000 persons.
Attendance of the festival events - 1190 persons.
Children’s audience - ~1100 persons.
Photographs of the festival could be found at: http://monotypy.ru/fest/photo2010/


“ It is very fashionable to speak about innovations, both in science and in art. Monotype has not yet been analyzed as an innovation technique. Only in future it will be possible to evaluate the contribution of these unique monotype prints to world culture, and to draw conclusions as to how the outlooks of the artists changed after the technique of monotype came into existence. These questions are far from being simple and the exhibitions of monotype art, which will be displayed during the days of the Monotype Festival-2010 is the foundation for offering a truthful and deep evaluation of the monotype role in the world culture.”
Andrey P. Diachenko, Member of International Association of Art critics (MAIS)

Contact details:
Project Director - Arina Daur (arindersen@yandex.ru, +7-921-777-97-77)
Project Coordinator - Daria Klestova (polchok@yandex.ru, info@art-gid.ru, +7-921-639-93-34)
Curator of the Festival – Yelena Zayats (zayatsart@gmail.com, +7-952-372-74-83)
Curator of the exhibition in Moscow – Anastasia Danilochkina

Web-site of the festival: www.monotypy.ru