Browsing through the now dormant Russian art information net agency arteria.ru, i came across the suggestive.ru site.

The website has not been updated for a while, but i think that there is still some content worth taking a look. Conceptualized as an information-analytical resource for researching suggestive media technologies in the field of art, PR, political technologies and propaganda, in its short life time the site managed to gather a number of interesting contemporary view points (in Articles) and a small but well chosen propaganda banners collection of old political campaigns. For example the covers of the Soviet “Znanie-Sila”(Knowledge is Power) magazine covers from 1926-1940 juxtaposed to the American Sixties trash novel covers, suggesting to the viewer those symbols which alas seemed to be more viable in human history according to the suggestive- authors.

Questions and parallels come up naturally when browsing through the Soviet WWII poster collection and finding in the next issue old Indian film posters or the hellboy comic strips. The current belief in the malleability of humans is exemplified through the illustrations of the children’s Nazi-propaganda book “Der Giftpilz” (1938) which stands in stark contrast to the Soviet Children story by Nikolai Oleinikov: The Amazing Adventures Of Makar The Furious (in Russian) while not denying its purpose. (The Soviet children story is a true gem of the site, and i hope to be able to get hold of an English version soon, as the humour and peculiar world-views of the characters are too good to be missed. Otherwise this would be a good starting point to brush up some Russian.)

The Art production part offers among others an overview of an exhibition by Anna Kossovala showing contemporary Russian artists advertising or propagating contemporary art’s “usefulness” to every single man. Some suggestive content!

The Izolenta_group from the International Festival of digital video in St Petersburg invites digital video artists to send their work made by digital, audio and computer equipment after the 1^st January 2007 by post to enter the competition in one of the following categories: animation, videoart, documentary, fiction.
A special program is dedicated to club nomination in the categories: musical video, dance video.
Entries have to be sent by post before the 1^st of May 2008. Contact info and application you can find here.
Last year’s program was screened at one of the few art house cinemas: the beautiful Rodina theatre and at St Petersburg’s cult club Griboedov and was accompanied by a diverse program of art performances, poetry readings and music. We are looking forward to find out more about this year’s line up!

It’s a pleasure to invite you to the brand-new Russian FORMALISTA site offering the “world without text “ presented by Russian visual aesthetes. The contributors “chose images as the most emotional way of communicating information” announces the site. The site is a frequently updated image roll where one can also browse by date, by contributors or by “taste” suggestion. In many ways FORMALISTA is the little Russian brother of weheartit.com (the social bookmarking tool for images and videos by Fabio Giolito) with the difference that contributions are so far made by a selected few. Joining the formalistas is by invitation only. Have a look and enjoy the Russian view of the visual internet.

We would like to announce that the SKIF-Festival takes place from April 24-27 2008 at the Modern Art Center St Petersburg (located in a former Soviet-style cinema complex Theatre Priboy on Sredniy Prospect 93 of the Vasilevsky Island).

SKIF stands for Sergey Kuryokhin International Festival, it is dedicated to the memory of Sergey Kuryokhin the internationally acclaimed Russian composer, musician, performer, and an influential figure in Russian rock, jazz and experimental music. In 1991 he caused a veritable media uproar with his appearance on the Russian TV show “5th Wheel”. It was one of his semi-improvised acts of performance art, broadcast live: he proved that anything was possible to prove, even that “Lenin was a mushroom”. According to the English Wikipedia, he thereby created one of the first popular media viruses in the Russian media. For an English-subtitled version of this legendary piece of “Russia in the 90s history” visit overstream.net (a useful video posting service which allows you to subtitle in any language the posted videos online).

Kuryokhin’s media virus thesis: Lenin is a Mushroom
Photo via: ru.wikipedia.org

After Kuryokhin’s death in 1996 his wife established the Foundation and Festival to continue to promote contemporary music and arts in and from Russia. SKIF-1 and SKIF-2 were held in 1997 and 1998 in New York City, SKIF-3 moved to Kuryokhin’s home town St Petersburg where it is held since then.

The concept of the Festival is derived from Sergey Kuryokhin’s legendary project “Pop-Mechanika” which gathered on stage artists from the most varied backgrounds: musicians of Rock, Jazz, Classical music, Folk as well as poets, dancers, clowns and even animals. One can get an impression of the “Pop-Mechanika” spirit here.

Sergey Kuryokhin. Photo via http://video.recovered.info/

In his project Sergey Kuryokhin accepted no artistic boundaries, and this lies at the core of the SKIF festival concept. Each year the Festival presents new names in contemporary, progressive and original music from Jazz to Electronic Music, from World Music to Noise and Experimental.

The SKIF-12 program includes over 40 music collectives from all over the world:

Nils Petter Molvaer/Thomas Stronen/ Eivind Aarset (Norway), MoHa! (Norway), DAAU (Belgium), Ben Frost (Iceland), Pierre Bastien (France), FM Einheit & Caspar Brotzman (Germany), Black Engine (Italy), ZU (Italy) , Alamaailman Vasarat (Finland), Funckarma (The Netherlands), Mitch&Mitch (Poland), BJ Nilsen (Sweden), Fusedmarc (Lithuania), Analogik (Denmark), Harmonia: Michael Rother/Hans-Joachim Roedelius/Dieter Moebius (Germany) , Leafcater John (UK), Midi Lidi (Czech Republic), Nid & Sancy (Belgium)* , Moha! (Norway), Eraldo Bernocchi (Italy), Trigon (Moldova), Jahcoozi (Germany), Polar Bear (UK), Dick Verdult (The Netherlands)* , The complainer and the complainers (Poland), Silence Kit (Moscow), Actual Music Quartet RSM (Russia), Port Mone (Belarus), I Am Above on the Left (Russia), Gurzuf (Belarus), Earworm (Belarus), N.O.M. (Russia), Digital Forks (Russia), Ilya Belorukov (Russia), atlantida (Russia), Cyclofillydea (Russia), and other artists.

For more detailed artists info visit.

The music program will be accompanied by daily performances, films, animation and video art. The last day of the festival April 27th is dedicated to film media. This year’s program includes films by Miron Zownir, “Zownir Radical Man” (Slowboat film, Germany), “American Astranaut” (USA), Russian and Czech animation, video clips and experimental shorts.

This year’s SKIF will also commemorate the sudden death of another influential figure of St Petersburg underground artist circles Natasha Pivovarova (the founder and ex-singer of the St Petersburg based band KOLIBRI):

On Thursday night at 23:00 St Petersburg musicians, dancers and artists will come together for a joint performance dedicated to her memory. One can surely expect an unusual spectacle.

Privet! I invite you to take a look at this stunning result of the graduate work from British Higher School of Art and Design student Elena Marus from Moscow. This web project portrays and explains with fresh style and humour Russia’s flagship symbols and emblems ranging from samovar and cheburashka to astronauts. It also includes a short survival dictionary, explaining for example how to attract as well as detract attention or lower the price on Russian souvenirs, which are as comic as they are useful.

Although the site is directed at the foreign visitor of modern day Russia, some of humour of Elena’s comments might get lost to the completely Russia-uninitiated English reader: many of the puns depend on some knowledge of the so-called Russian mentality and current issues. But this is why both Russians and non-Russian speakers will enjoy this refreshing piece of inter-cultural dialogue.

The short animation Multivision Festival runs for the 6^th year in St Petersburg, Russia. This edition is set to take place on May 31st 2008 at a unique screening place – two raised bridges crossing the Neva river in the centre of St Petersburg.

The competition is open for entries in the 3 categories: love, fairy tale or window.

Entry dead line: 30 April 2008

The organisers promise good sound and screening facilities and above all a big audience. The Multivision Festival coincides with the Day of St Petersburg with a great number people celebrating the beginning of the White Nights along the embankment of the Neva river.

The Festival acts as a platform for filmmakers and artists in Russia and abroad to experiment with and exhibit their eclectic and unusual film works. Last edition was attended by over 7000 people including many international and Russian filmmakers, artists, press and local art organizations.

If you are interested in participating, please send your work (link or preview, indicating the category in the subject field) to Fabrice Praz (International Curator) at Fabrice@multivision.ru

http://picasaweb.google.com/multivisionfestival/2007

Designed as a cross-media information and entertainment channel for post-ideological, non-partisan thinkers, the Spacecollective creators emphasize idea exchange and interaction among the members by providing an unusual set of communication tools e.g. create synapse. Own project proposals and participation are greatly promoted.

Where forward thinking terrestrial exchange ideas and information about the state of the species, their planet and the universe, living the life of science fiction today.

As a result an extraordinary amount of great content has been generated here since the opening of the think-tank three months ago, dealing with Language, Consciousness, Space, the Singularity, the juxtaposition of Artifice and Nature, the intersection between Art and Science, the worlds future Archives, etc. The original community structure ensures deep absorption into any of the highly topical subjects. Warning: The enthusiasm of the creators and members may lead to hours of lost in space.

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