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Archstoyanie 2016. The Shelter
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July 22-24, 14:00
Nikola-Lenivets Park 
 The Archstoyanie Festival is not only one of the most important events on Russia’s art calendar but also one of the most ambitious. Known for its giant land objects, the festival is now includes sound art, installations, lectures and more. The Archstoyanie Festival of Land Art has become a must-attend event for anyone interested in art in Russia. What started out as a casual affair, created to celebrate the odd architectural construction in the artists’ village of Nikola-Lenivets, a four-hour drive from Moscow, has rapidly transformed to become home to a permanent — and ever-growing — collection of land art. What’s more, the eleventh edition of the three-day festival held on the last weekend in July has expanded its scope to include sound installations, sculpture and lectures.
In summer 2016 the main theme for the Festival will be re-interpretation the first role Nikolo-Lenivets has played in art life - the Shelter. Archstoyanie 2016 will show new shelter-objects - the shelter not for phisical surviving but for saving emotional clarity and peace. The shelter to continue life. Curator: Anton Kurochkin. Participators: Wowhaus, Kawarga, Irina Korina, Dmotry Zhukov, Pavel Suslov, Patkonen, Nail Gareev, Nikolai Polissky and more.
The night 23-24 July will be given to anti-eutopia music scenario - land of art-park become a shelter for those who escaped from urbanization and dream of a new industrial world in harmony with nature. Two musical space - Zikkurat and Tribel - will become a metaphora of polorized camps. Music curator: Andrey Morozov. Zakkurat: Demdike Stare (UK), Lakker (Ireland), Andron Nikolaev (Russia), Dimitri Mazurov (Russia), Zukras Tepla (Russia), Nikita Zabelin (Russia) and more. Tribel: M. Geddas Gengras (USA), Moa Pillar (Russia), Suokas (Russia), Holypalms (Russia), Andrey Morozov (Russia).
 The festival was set up by artist Nikolai Polissky, who moved away from Moscow to live in the beautiful, if remote, area of a national park in the Kaluga region. Archstoyanie has music, locally sourced and grown food, but most important — weird, captivating objects. Each year Polissky and some of Russia's best architects and artists create fascinating, bizarre, alluring objects using local materials. Among the highlights over the years have been a wooden volcano that spouted fire, a gigantic wooden ear that you can climb inside and get a perfect view of the Ugra River and a special path which also worked as a giant trampoline. Some of the objects were then ceremoniously set on fire at pre-Lenten Maslenitsa celebrations, but most remain, meaning that after nine festivals, the grounds are full of wooden objects that make it worth visiting at any time of year. Writing about Polissky's work on display, the ArchDaily website wrote last week that "anchored to a spectacular landscape, they act as lighthouses, inviting the community to occupy a vast territory that seemed impossible to completely inhabit." Polissky moved to the small village of Nikola-Lenivets more than 20 years ago. "I was looking for a beautiful place, a place for work and a dacha for the family," Polissky said in 2006, the year when the festival began. "It simply astounded me. I haven't seen anything [like it] so close to Moscow, here is a river and a high river bank and a church — a singular beauty". Polissky has always worked with locals to create his own unique works, calling it "art that goes to the people." The first major work was "Snowmen," a grand, surreal army of 300 figures that were built with the help of the locals. The photos of the snowman army caused a stir in Moscow, and other snowman armies took up residence in Moscow periodically, memorably taking over Arbat a few years later.
Demdike Stare (UK)
 Demdike Stare is a British experimental electronic music duo who sculpts obscure masterworks under the metaphorical Demdike Stare moniker (Demdike was the most famous of the Pendle witches). Successfully debuted in the 2009 with an enigmatic album named “Symbiosis”, a project effectively continued to impress die-hard music lovers with their expressive sound collages. Remaining loyal to the prolific Modern Love record label, Demdike Stare has now released 5 critically acclaimed albums and numerous singles. Their occult soundtracks are based on gloomy ambiance, penetrating melodic cuts and abyssal rhythm textures that are often enriched with fragments of world music. However, their 2013 “Testpressing” vinyl's trilogy examines much wider palette of sounds ranging from jungle, deep house style beats to industrial, noise motives. Accompanied by Andy Votel's (Finders Keepers Records) symbolic artworks and suggestive visuals from retro horror or surrealistic movies, Demdike Stare keeps a well-balanced stylistic integrity. Their live shows are like unexplored narratives, that always surprise with their improvised rhythmic / atmospheric lines and cinematic sense. Demdike Stare also curates Pre-Cert label. It is important to mention that Whittaker is one half of Pendle Coven (with Gary Howell) and also produces music under MLZ, Suum Cuique and Miles pseudonyms. His newest release “Faint Hearted” surely pretends to be on the Secret Thirteen best albums of the year list. The concept of Demdike Stare mix is based around researching and finding music that is relevant in the present, but originally comes from anytime in the last 40 years. It is inspiring to hear that Sean Canty and Miles Whittaker are sharing their lightly resonating musical discoveries in a such delicate and liberal manner thus completely maintaining a fundamental temperament of Demdike Stare. Refined intersections between accurate static pieces by notable composers such as Bernard Parmegiani, Pierre Henry, Egisto Macchi and improvisational masterworks by alternative multi-instrumentalists and bands such as Michel Redolfi, Fabio Fabor, Tony Williams Lifetime, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe amaze and inspire. Intermittently incorporated electronic dance music tracks by artists such as Experimental Audio Research, Oliverwho Factory and Doctor Rockit enrich the surface of this mix with an old-fashioned drum machine beat patterns and purified synthesizer chords. The diverse mixture of works from different times and cultures gives this influential selection an enduring value, a joy of unpredictability, dynamism and flexibility.
Lakker (Ireland)
As Lakker, Berlin-based Dublin natives Dara Smith and Ian McDonnell started operating in the early 2000s for the release of largely tense, bass-heavy, experimental productions. They debuted in 2007 with Rudio, an album that ranged from solitary piano vignettes to bracing percussion barrages, issued on the Lazybird label. A few years passed prior to an assortment of more distinctive 2011-2014 EPs for labels such as Killekill, Blueprint, Stroboscopic Artefacts, and, most notably, Belgium's revered R&S. On the 2014 EPs Containing a Thousand and Mountain Divide, Smith and McDonnell evoked unease while deploying some of their richest obscured melodies. Tundra, the duo's second proper album, was released on R&S in 2015 with cited inspirations ranging from pre-Dare Human League to Arvo Pärt. Re:VIVE, an initiative of the Netherlands' Institute for Sound and Vision, then sought Smith and McDonnell to produce a conceptual work (based on the theme of water) using their audio-video archive as a sample source. The duo obliged with Struggle & Emerge, issued in 2016 on R&S.
M. Geddes Gengras (USA)
 Born and raised in the pocket of New England, M. Geddes Gengras made his way out to Los Angeles in 2005 and ever since then has steadily added projects and releases to the trail of tape that he drags around. He first came to attention as one half of Antique Brothers, a duo formed with his real-life brother Cyrus (releases on House of Alchemy, Foxglove, Phantom Limb, Not Not Fun, Stunned, Really Coastal), as a member of L.A. allstar improv sextet Thousands, and solo as Fantastic Ego, dropping acidic folk and tape manipulation bombs on the Phantom Limb label run by Grant Capes, also his duet partner in Fantastic Sleep, their deep drone project. Lately, he has dropped the Ego moniker and started recording under his own name, dropping epic synth science, as well as becoming a full time member of Robedoor, Pocahaunted, and forming Vibes, Low Light Situations, and Dogwiper. He has collaborated live and in the studio with acts as diverse as The Congos, Sun Araw, MV & EE, and Super Minerals. In addition to all this, he runs Green Machine Studios, based out of his home in east L.A., and has recorded such bands such as Super Minerals and Lateral Hyetography. With past M. Geddes Gengras solo releases on Digitalis and Stunned, plus more coming on Stunned, Tape Drift, Ruralfaune, and his first solo LP on Abbadon records, along with a stream of super-limited releases on his own Peccant imprint, Gengras is honing in on a strange, new form of synthesizer mastery. In 2016, Intercoastal Artists released one of Gengras' most ambitious works to date, the double LP Interior Architecture.
Moa Pillar (Russia)
Spiritual bass techno is now officially a thing. A heavy, heavy offering by the prodigal son of Russian electronics. Whilst drawing on authentic folk and tribal musics, Moa Pillar is equally inspired by the forward-thinking electronica and pounding dark techno as well as sound art. Think raster-noton meets Sublime Frequencies. Or Shackleton remixes the Ocora catalogue. Comparisons don't make justice here – "Humanity" is a crushing sound odyssey in all it's HD glory. Fedor Pereverzev is yet another artist who "doesn't like to stop". He rose up to prominence during his late teens setting new age trends in the country's Beats scene circa 2009. Having later incorporated live instrumentation and vocals along abyssal wobbles he basically developed his own niche he likes to call "spiritual bass". Two years after the excellent "Hunting" EP Moa Pillar's music becomes harder and leads to this longplay. Inbetween records Pereverzev manages to knock out excellent ambient in Tikhie Kamni and produce Lovozero's debut EP (one of the most talked-about records in Russia in 2015). A stunning documentary film about Moa Pillar's trip to the Caucasus is entering its festival phase right now. Moreover, Fedor's day job in one of the leading Russian sound design / audio-branding cliques has surely paid off: the textures and character of "Humanity" are as thick as stone.
Suokas (Russia)
Suokas was born in 1986, Karelia, northern Russia, which is near Finland and Norway. His music is based on rhytmic sound collages, prepared live instruments and field recordings. Beginning from 2007 his avant and deep techno records out mainly on UK and russian labels. In 2010 he recorded an ambient soundtrack for a silent movie with norwegian artists as Electron Hemisphere. Producing electronic music as Suokas he keeps also the eclectic folktronic project Slow.
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