Komarovo (formerly Kellomäki) is a unique geographical and spiritual space on the map of our country. For more than a century, this corner of the Karelian Isthmus has been a sanctuary for the Russian intelligentsia. Here, beneath the canopy of ancient pines, Anna Akhmatova, Dmitri Shostakovich, Andrei Tarkovsky, Evgeny Schwartz and Daniil Granin lived and worked, alongside academicians and Nobel laureates: Ivan Pavlov, Axel Berg, Zhores Alferov, Dmitry Likhachev and many other titans of Russian science and art. Today, this legendary place is taking a historic step towards its revival.
In pre-revolutionary Russia, Komarovo was associated with the names of Agathon Fabergé, Gavriil Baranovsky, Mathilde Kschessinska and Feodor Chaliapin. The architectural centrepiece of Komarovo was once Gavriil Baranovsky’s dacha, Villa Arfa. It was known as the ‘eighth wonder of the world’.
In Soviet times, the entire flower of Soviet poetry gathered at Anna Akhmatova’s famous ‘Budka’. Joseph Brodsky was a frequent guest. The atmosphere of the Writers’ Creative House gave rise to ideas that were ahead of their time. It was here, after all, that the brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky created their cult science-fiction masterpiece Roadside Picnic and presented world culture with the concept of the famous Zone – a mysterious space where the laws of physics and human perception are transformed. To this day, the Komarovo pine forest feels like a special place of power, capable of awakening hidden creative impulses.
Yet for many years now, the historic sites, natural landscapes and infrastructure that still bear the footsteps of great figures have been in need of care and protection. A significant event for Komarovo will be the launch of a dedicated week-long creative residency.
The residence in Komarovo, where young researchers and theatre practitioners will gather to develop projects at the intersection of science and art, will breathe new life into this historic space, thoughtfully uniting its distinguished past with the demands of the present.
During the residency, young directors, set designers, playwrights, choreographers, composers and scholars will immerse themselves in the settlement’s unique atmosphere, enriching one another in the process. Through interdisciplinary dialogue, scientists and artists alike will be able to work together on projects in the Art & Science format so sought after today.
Three major institutions – the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, the G. A. Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre and the Big Cultural Project Autonomous Non-Profit Organisation – have joined forces to realise projects at the intersection of science and art. Following the residency, the Theatre. Art. Science case championship will take place.
The official opening of the residency and case championship will take place on 29 September at the Second Stage of the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre (Kamennoostrovsky Theatre).
By taking part in this project, the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre continues its programme of collaboration between artists and scholars, which provides a space for exploring the possibilities of dialogue between art and science.
Following the residency, from 12 to 25 October, the Theatre. Art. Science case championship will take place, during which participants will be able to develop their own projects inspired by the residency and present them at a demo day at MIPT, where the winners will be announced.
The co-chairs of the jury are theatre director and teacher Andrei Moguchy and physicist Dmitry Livanov, Rector of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT).
The thematic focus of the projects should be prompted by the themes and ideas that emerged among the participants during the residency in Komarovo.
The winners will receive cash prizes and the opportunity to bring their project to life with the support of the case championship’s partners.
Find out more about the project and apply: https://phystech-union.org/kejs-chempionat-teatr-iskusstvo-nauka/
The residency and case championship will culminate in a series of projects: plays, installations, performances and a variety of artistic concepts inspired by the history of Komarovo. The residents’ projects will carry on the Strugatsky brothers’ tradition of intellectual daring, turning Komarovo into a working laboratory for the meanings of the future.
It is important that the opening of the first residence in Komarovo gives rise to a series of cultural events reviving the traditions of the settlement’s intellectual and cultural milieu.
The revival of Komarovo promises to become an unprecedented example of how private initiative and a profound respect for history can rescue Russia’s spiritual shrines from oblivion, transforming them into contemporary centres of attraction for new generations of thinkers, scholars and creators.
In October, the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre presented a two-act ballet «The Cherry Orchard,» based on the play by Anton Chekhov.
From 23 to 28 October, Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra will present all 15 symphonies by Dmitri Shostakovich at the new Shanghai Opera House, followed by bringing Verdi’s «Aida» to China, which will be shown in Asia for the first time.
The foundation of the new public library is the book collection of the distinguished Russian art historian Dmitry Sarabianov.
