Varvara Lozenko

Varya Lozenko is a young Russian photographer. She describes her works as  nature and people-oriented. Last spring she presented  “Invisible Beauty” at Flacon design-factory. Once someone said to a blind girl that she didn’t look beautiful in a shot. That was the starting point for Lozenko’s project.

She made shots of blind women during the year when she presented them their favourite flowers.

In her project she tried to answer  the question “What is beauty?” and of how people could appreciate  beauty if they couldn’t see it. To each picture she put Braille description by herself.

While taking pictures for this project she met a young blind girl named Irina who never traveled abroad because of her condition. Despite  her blindness Irina successfully graduated from university and took medals in horseback riding contests.

Lozenko decided to sell her shots and to spend the half of the income to organize a trip for Irina and her dad. She started the project in December 2012 and in April 2013 Irina went to Paris.

Another outstanding project from Lozenko is a work in progress titled “320 Icelandic people”. Lozenko has been in deep love with Iceland for a long time and usually goes there to volunteer.

She decided to take shots of 320 Icelandic people which is around one thousandth of the population of Iceland. In her works we see the real life of fishermen, ship carpenters and other ordinary people against the background of the amazing environment of the North.

www.lozenko.com

“Vera and the bicycle”

The performance of Evgeny Kamenkovich’s graduates in the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts, is composed of scraps, photographs and postcards, and is a place where you should go to answer the most important question.

Vera’s suitcase is full of cycling rings, and she can tell a story about each of them. Vera has a dream – to buy a bicycle, but she  cannot manage to save  for it, so she ponders if she should  give up on on her dream? May be then the dream will come true?  Vera’s fiance Kolya, is  a pediatrician, who also has a dream – to save children around the world and to have seven  with Vera.

In the middle of this tragicomedy about an orphan with real Armenian dances I suddenly find myself crying. Whether it be from the fact that all your life you  only  have a grouch on a dream or because here, from the scene of theater center, you hear the most important question you always fear to answer: do you love me at all, even if you do not know that I dream about the bicycle?

Please check the schedule here.

The nomad and the steppe

Young Buryat artist Zorikto Dorzhiev is quite famous in Russia, as well as abroad. He has several personal exhibitions in Russia, Europe, China and New York. From his works, full of a mixed of sense of humor and traditional art, we can discover the traditional nomad life of Buryats, Russian Mongolians, who are living on the shores of Lake Baikal.

Dorzhiev is one of the representatives of Russian Asian artists and may be continuing Dashi Namdakov’s tradition. Buryat fine arts are very distinctive and were formed under the influence of Tibetan and Chinese cultures. In Dorzhiev’s works the main theme is the relationship between the nomad and the steppe.

Buddhist philosophy is reflected in his works, because in the vast steppes of Buryatia time is nothing and nomads usually think in terms of eternity. The inspiration for the plots of his works comes from the history of his nation, and through the prism of irony. A parody of the Mona Lisa is one of his most famous pictures.

Dorzhiev is like Buryat fashion designers who usually remember and respect their roots and try to promote the traditional way of style among the youth. This is quite important in the era of globalization when fashion has no borders anymore and we can find hipsters in the same hoodies and skinny jeans  everywhere – from Ulan-Ude to Manhattan.

This mindset helps people all over the world be more informed about the history and culture of this outstanding nation, who is credited with creating the second greatest empire in the history of humanity.