UNEXPLORED TERRITORIЯ

The Moscow Times
10.13.2006
Anna Malpas

An ambitious new festival aims to break down the walls between music, theater, film and even comic books

Defying classification, the TERRITORIЯ festival brings Italian mask makers, the writer of the G.I. Joe comic books and an unsigned New York indie band to Moscow this week for 10 days of cultural illumination.

The new festival is organized by an all-star cast, featuring Greek conductor Teodor Currentzis – who once called himself the savior of classical music in a newspaper interview – alongside top actors Chulpan Khamatova and Yevgeny Mironov, and the director Kirill Serebrennikov.

Borrowing the design of the Moscow metro map in its posters and brochures, the festival aims to bring contemporary art to the people through free or inexpensive events. Metro chief Dmitry Gayev is on the board of trustees, and the opening and closing ceremonies will be held in the subway, although they are not open to the general public.

The program covers seven main areas: classical music, theater, dance, film, poetry, gigs and comics. That last item might seem unexpected, but Moscow's best-known comic-book artist, Pavel Sukhikh, a.k.a. Khikhus, is organizing a three-day multimedia event called Trojan Rabbit that includes video art, graffiti and a DJ session. About 20 artists from Japan, France and other countries will take part, Khikhus said by telephone Tuesday. He called the show's rabbit concept "just a funny game." The artist said he would present a project "about me and my friend, a pink rabbit." It was Serebrennikov's idea to include a comics event, said Khikhus, who also runs an annual comics festival called KomMissiya. Entrance to Trojan Rabbit is free, but visitors who turn up wearing rabbit ears or T-shirts featuring rabbits will get a free catalog, he promised. Trojan Rabbit includes a master class taught by Larry Hama, the Japanese-American artist who wrote a 1980s Marvel Comics series called G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero.

The cultural figures organizing the festival are also taking part in events: Currentzis is conducting specially commissioned works by three young composers from Russia, Germany and Ukraine, while Serebrennikov is directing an evening of contemporary Russian poetry, with readings by Khamatova and Mironov, among others.

The festival's hands-on aspect also comes through in its program of master classes. Provocative artist Oleg Kulik, known for performances where he gets on his knees and barks like a dog, will give a master class and accompanying performance. There will also be a class on traditional Italian theater masks led by Donato Sartori, who has made masks for stagings by Dario Fo and Eduardo de Filippo.

TERRITORIЯ is supported by the presidential administration and the Federal Culture and Cinematography Agency. It grew out of a program to support theater in the provinces, Roman Dolzhansky, one of the organizers, said by telephone Tuesday. But the program's founders, who include actor Mironov, decided to branch out and organize a multimedia festival.

Dolzhansky, a theater critic for the Kommersant, called the festival "absolutely non-commercial" and said it was an "important signal" that the state was interested in supporting contemporary art. "The people who gave the money did not exert any influence on the festival's program," he stressed. The event is planned to be more than a one-off, but whether it will become a regular event depends on its reception this time, Dolzhansky said.

He called one of the festival's key events a radical interpretation of Jean Racine's Phaedra by The Wooster Group, a U.S. theater company performing in Russia for the first time. Other must-sees are the Currentzis concert and the evening of poetry organized by Serebrennikov, he said.