The XII International Fine Art Festival “Vera” (Vera World Fine Art Festival) was held with great success in the Central Exhibition Hall “Manezh” from June 7 to 11, 2017.
Over 10,000 people visited the festival over the 5 days.
The opening of the festival became the most important cultural event, the vernissage was visited by 25 Ambassadors of different states, including: Ambassador of Azerbaijan Polad Bulbul-oglu, Ambassador of Colombia Mr. Alfonso Lopez Caballero, Ambassador of Bulgaria Boyko Vasilev Kotsev, Ambassador of Paraguay Ramon Diaz Pereira, Ambassador at Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Eleonora Mitrofanova, artist and sculptor Zurab Tsereteli, fashion designer Vyacheslav Zaitsev, musician Evgeny Margulis and other famous persons.
At this year’s festival more than 300 artists from more than 30 countries representing 8 art directions: painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, installation, museum work, applied art and architecture. The best participants of the festival were traditionally honored in the Moscow International Music Festival with the “VERA” award, which was presented this year in 19 nominations.
In 2017, the geography of the festival participants is unprecedented. In the exhibition space of the Manege were presented works by authors from Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Angola, Belgium, Bulgaria, Belarus, Brazil, Great Britain, Georgia, Greece, Dagestan, Israel, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Monaco, Paraguay, Portugal, Romania, Russia, USA, France, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Switzerland, Japan and many others.
A special project of the festival was the exhibition of Mikhail Shemyakin, where his paintings, art history project “Imaginary Museum”, as well as works for theaters and jewelry were presented. Mikhail Shemyakin personally supervised the preparation of his exposition at the festival, for which he flew to Moscow for a few days from France, where he is engaged in research and teaching activities.
The center of the exposition was Russian classical art, represented by a large collection of still lifes by Russian artists from the Mamontov Gallery, including A.V.Kuprin, P.P.Konchalovsky, P.V.Kuznetsov, Y.S.Sudeikin, A.V.Lentulov, N.A.Udaltsova.
One of the rarest exhibits in the Manege was a unique inlaid violin by the famous violin maker from Italy Andrei Schüdtz – a copy of Antonio Stradivari’s 1679 Hellier model. The opening guests were able to appreciate her beautiful unique timbre. The violin was played by the outstanding musician Evgeny Levin from the State Chamber Orchestra “Moscow Virtuosi”. Other guests of the opening ceremony were singer Inna Subbotina, participant of the “Voice” project Alexander Bichev, laureate of international competitions, jazz saxophonist Anna Koroleva, laureate of international competitions Oksana Petrichenko.
This year’s jury included the president of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. Irina Antonova, Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Eleonora Mitrofanova, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the International Foundation for the Support of Culture and Development of Contemporary Art Mark Leivikov, art historian Lyudmila Marts, UNESCO expert George Petrescu and artist Zurab Tsereteli.
In addition to the most interesting exhibition program, the visitors of the festival were waiting for the most interesting meetings and master classes. Ismet Sheikh-Zadeh (the gallery “Crimean Khanate”) told about the world premiere of previously unknown works by Michelangelo, as well as the opening of the unified temple complex of the Universal Temple of St. Sophia. Tatiana Nikitina Art Holding presented several interesting topics about the experience of private collection of Salvador Dali’s works and the project “Carla Tolomeo’s Garden of Pleasures”. Lidia Nuja opened the secrets of patchwork, and Maria Ignatkina gave a very interesting lecture about Russian traditions of playing with dolls.
FESTIVAL INFORMATION
For 12 years of existence of the Festival “Traditions and Modernity” in Russia and the Festival “VERA World Fine Art Festival” abroad has attracted 6890 galleries and artists from more than 60 countries and 72 regions of Russia. The festival was awarded to 357 Russian and foreign artists, 5,650,000 visitors attended the event, and hundreds of media outlets covered its work.
Traditions and Modernity” and “VERA World Fine Art Festival” are organized under the auspices of UNESCO and with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the International Foundation “World without Borders”, the Moscow City Government, the Department of Culture of Moscow.
The festival is organized by the Moscow Public Foundation for Support of Culture and Development of Contemporary Art.
