New territory opened

An international forum of contemporary art will be held in Moscow until October 23

On the night of October 15, the opening of the TERRITORIA contemporary art festival took place at the Vorobyovy Gory metro station. The fact is that the metro is one of the symbols of this new festival, where interchange stations represent the intersection points of different arts. And the Moscow Metro is a sponsor of the festival.

On one side, the exit from the platform was blocked, and guests were directed there through a police cordon. Who would have thought that the metro area is a great place for such events? Next came drinks, snacks and a riot of art: on the marble walls of one hall they projected a video with the faces of young poets reading their poems (it was a presentation of the evening at the Polytechnic “100 minutes of poetry”), the walls and stands of the next were covered with huge and very bloodthirsty comics about hares (another project was presented here - the exhibition of comics “The Trojan Rabbit”). Well, those who went up the escalator into the fresh air could listen to music (the Stone Shades group featured in the Territory club program performed) and dance.

It all looked quite beautiful: while relaxing, people came out with glasses to stand and look at the Moscow River from the new bridge, as if from a ball - on the balcony. In the depths, behind the stage, an empty space opened up, on which the letters TERRITORIA glowed with light bulbs. In addition to the organizers and the secular-bohemian public, the spectators were students of art institutes, specially brought from six cities of Russia: the festival, with its numerous master classes, is designed mainly for them. The students jumped, screamed and clutched black briefcases with the inscription TERRITORIA to their chests.

At half past twelve at night the organizers took the stage: Evgeny Mironov, Kirill Serebrennikov, Teodor Currentzis, Roman Dolzhansky. Mironov was wearing a baseball cap and, trying to fit in with the audience, he was rocking it. “Chulpashka is not there yet, she is abroad,” he said, referring to Chulpan Khamatova, who is also listed among the organizers, “but she will arrive soon!” "Yo!" - answered the audience. “And now I’ll tell you what great people supported us!” "Yo!" - the audience screamed and jumped. “Excellent Slava Surkov from the presidential administration, without him nothing would have happened! Yo!” - Mironov shouted, throwing out his hand in a salute. “Hurray!” - echoed the students. “Don’t get too drunk here, real school starts tomorrow,” Kirill Serebrennikov came to the microphone. “Hurray!” - answered the youth, who could no longer stop. “Now let’s try to be silent, completely silent for ten seconds,” Currentzis tried to conduct, but only the first rows heard him. As the organizers left the stage, fireworks went off, and then the musicians came out again and blasted out ABBA's Mamma Mia. The student diet: vodka, beer, belyashi and vinaigrette were constantly served. The students danced and were happy.

Dina GODER