APPLY | KURBA ART RESIDENCE

ART-RESIDENCE IN KURBA

Kurba, once the patrimony of the famous Kurbskii princes, then a thriving merchant village with a developed infrastructure and a church with unique architecture, is now withering: the main production and workshops facilities are closed, old houses die in fires, and after graduation from local school, young people tend to leave the rich in nature, but poor for its social and economic development.

These events are naturally reflected in the life of the village: every year the unique Church of the Kazan Icon of Our Lady comes closer and closer to it’s doom, the once picturesque landscapes ran wild, floodplains and river banks are littered with debris.

One of the main reasons for these processes is the loss of interest in their homeland among the local population, their inability to see ways of its development.

The Art-residence in Kurba is aimed at bringing new life into the village of Kurba, increasing interest of local youth in their village, which becomes a place where creative active life is concentrated. Through the participation of an international team of artists in the life of the village, their work with the younger generation of local community, the creation of a film about Kurba we want to evoke and maintain a feeling of belonging to the village among local residents.

Art Residence in Kurba is aimed at working with the environment of the village and the local community, finding solutions for manifesting the identity of the place, implementing a rich cultural program and, as a result, gradually changing the image of the village in the eyes of the local population and tourists, creating awareness of international art-community.

Through the interaction of local residents with an international team of artists we want to generate interest in the study of history and development of Kurba’s territory as a place with the potential to deploy a successful cluster for cultural and educational tourism, to form a “center of gravity” for social and cultural activities for long-term development of the village.

We want to achieve this:

a) through the active involvement of the young generation in the art-residence events;

b) by creating an Internet platform about the life of Kurba during the art-residence for its sustainable update by local school students upon completion of the project;

c) the creation of a film about the art-residence in Kurba;

d) forming an exhibition and a tour guide.

Art-residence in Kurba is the beginning of the process of revitalization of the Kurba village in the Yaroslavl region. An international team of artists, together with local people, work during the summer period on creating art objects, cultural events and other artistic statements about Kurba, its landscape, architecture, history, events and modern life characters.

This will revive interest and pride in the local children and youth, love for Kurba; Give a format of a new intercultural and intergenerational event on the territory of the village; form an idea of Kurba as a place that is ideal for creative residences and promising for tourists.

As a result of the project, materials about Kurba will be collected, media content created (video, photo, website) to promote Kurba and form a positive image of the village both for local and international community.

We hope that the project “Art-residence in the village of Kurba” will serve as an example of involving local people in modern socio-cultural events for the benefit of developing the tourist potential of the village for neighboring villages. Kurba’s closest neighbors — the villages of Shirinye, Degtevo, Rezanino, Mikhailovskoye, Kozmodemyansk, Novlenskoye, Solonets — are places with interesting history and abandoned architectural heritage, for which the art-residence format can also be a turning point for cultural development.

WE HAVE

- Huge garden with vegetables, fruits and berries

- Russian banya

- 2 Houses

- Household with rustic milk, eggs and cheese

- Well with sweet artesian water

- Homemade wine (from fruits and berries)

- Brazier and well cooked fish

ART FIELDS

ILLUSTRATION

DANCE

MUSIC

VIDEO

PHOTO

FINAL PRODUCT

Film made in the process on different languages will be sent to the

competitions of world short film festivals.

Also we will make an exhibition in the local Russian art-center and the book.

WHOM WE INVITED

We invite particular people those art has fascinated us a lot for years and who we think will be able to properly reflect the spirit of this place in their work. With whom we are already friends and whom we want to make friends with. It's 10-15 people from Russia, USA, UK, Germany and France

aged from 20 to 30.

To be specific :

Nikolai Polisskiy (Russia) site-specific architecture polissky.ru

Jack Harries (UK) documentary film-making jacksonharries.com

Alice Aedy (UK) documentary film-making aliceaedy.com

Finn Harries (UK) designer, filmmaker finnharries.com

Clara Noa (Germany) dancer @cnr2312

Simon Schmidt (Germany) Visual artist ownwayofinspiration.com

Nicolas Neny (France) Actor @nicolasneny

Julien Znaty (France) DOP voodshop.tumblr.com

Maria Mashtakova (Russia) Model @mariamashtakova

Vanilla Melli (Germany) DOP, director @vanellimelli