The charm of small towns: why did the “Vyksa Festival” remain in our hearts?

Text: Sasha Treschina

When I learned that I was going to explore Vyksa, I immediately set high hopes for this trip. I hoped that I could breathe a little, slow down the pace of the endless Moscow race – in general, as the buzz says, slow down.

Vyksa is a small single industrial city with a population of 53,000 in the Nizhny Novgorod region. “Vyksa-fest” is what I call a festival because I love to shorten words passionately. In general, the full name of the festival is “Vyksa-Festival”. All inclusive”. And this The only example of a cultural project in Russia that develops an entire city. The festival program includes contemporary art, theatre, folk art, music and sports. But first things first.

First there was a factory

Both in the city and in my personal festival schedule. The metallurgical plant is the city-forming enterprise of Vyksa. I thought “a factory and a factory” and went on a tour with our “tourist” group without a fight.

To say that I had a special aesthetic pleasure from this trip is to say nothing. The plant lives, glows, breathes steam, beating giant hot iron plates with jets of cooling water.

And there is no soul in sight. It seems that no human has ever set foot here and everything is on its own. But in fact, about 15 thousand people work at the factory, which, by the way, make up about 26% of the entire population of the city. And half of the employees are women!

Creativity is everywhere

Thanks to the festival, creativity has literally taken over Vyksa: from Erik Bulatov’s paintings on factory facades to mosaics of molten glass in transformer boxes. I really liked the Volna cultural center created on the basis of an exhibition hall for thinking about art and an art residence for professionals in the field where you can bring your ideas to life, and the VYKSA AIR KIDS project where children learn. creating and thinking creatively (not behind garages, that’s all).

There was also a lot of poetry. Within the scope of the festival, a poetry talk was held for the first time this year. It seems that on it I met a little Brodsky, a little Akhmadulina and (it was no longer visible) a forbidden technique – a creative duo of a poet and a dog. Ten out of ten for this duo. The winner will go to the All-Russian Slam in Moscow and, in case of victory there, to the World Slam in Paris.

A separate discovery for me personally was the musical project “Nastavshevs & Lubennikov”. Together with the Vyksa children’s choir, they performed a musical performance called “Almost By the Sea” at the festival.

The artists presented synth-pop compositions based on the poems of Russian poets of the 20th century, Yesenin, Tsvetaeva, Pasternak, Akhmatova and Brodsky.

inclusion

It is good to see that OMK-Uchastie, the organizers of the Vyksa-Fest, are making sure that the festival in particular and the cultural life of the city in general are accessible to all.

Art has no boundaries, and this year’s festival’s inclusive program is proof of that. The inclusive theater-studio “Krug II” performed for us, and the guests were presented with the works of the “Language Myths” workshops from the studio “Okoyom”, created by the project participants during music and art therapy.

natives

Vyksa residents, of course, the highlight of my festival trip. There are always people behind all this beauty and charm. They are the main motivators, ideological inspirers, performers, organizers and contemplators of what has happened at Vyksa for the past 12 years (Vyksa-Fest has been around for such a long time). It would not be wrong to say that the festival regularly invites the masters of the industry to cooperate. For example, this year artist and curator Katya Bochavar became its artistic director.

More about people and trips

My trip to Vyksa ended with two very touching tour performances – “In the Corners” and “At Home”. In the first, we wandered the streets of Vyksa with young locals showing us their favorite places, iconic objects, telling urban legends and personal stories.

And then we literally went to the houses of the residents of Vyksa, who prepared special dishes for us as part of the performance – Vyksa and not so much, they showed their way of life, let their pets be petted.

The openness and friendliness of the locals, their creative energy, their attentiveness to each participant and guest of the festival, the hustle and bustle, tall pines and calm lakes – that’s why the “Vyksa Festival” went so deep in our hearts.