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Created on the Arctic Circle

Creative authors are invited to bring their ideas to life in Salekhard

18 august 2022

18.08.2022 // The world's only city on the Arctic Circle invites Russian artists, architects, designers and urbanists to take part in Yamal's first art and research project, Birthplace.

The call for applications has already started and the project will end on 27 September. Anastasia Pronina, art historian and curator of Benoit 1890 public space and the Benua Art Garden exhibition project in St. Petersburg, as well as the City says street art festival in Arkhangelsk, will manage the selection of applications. She will also chair the expert council of the Birthplace project.

Photo: vk.com/prrronina

Participants in the project will get a unique chance to become guests of the Polaris Art Residence. And there is no cost to them: all travel and accommodation costs are covered by the organisers. They expect only one thing from the guests of the art residence—the willingness to fully immerse themselves in the history and architecture of Salekhard, get to know the townspeople, understand what integrations of contemporary art will be understandable and close to the residents of Yamal.

In the final, all participants will present their sketches of public art projects or art integrations at an open meeting of the expert council, in which the inhabitants of Salekhard will also take part. The winners will get the chance to bring their ideas to life during the second stage of the Birthplace, a street culture festival. They will all receive grants of RUB 20,000 for this purpose.

Yamal is one of Russia's pilot regions, where a federal project to create new-format creative spaces is being implemented. Four art residences will appear here—in Salekhard, Novy Urengoy, Noyabrsk and Nadym. The Polaris Art Residence in the district capital is already up and running—it was established in 2020, with others scheduled to open in the next two years.

Photo: www.yanao.ru

Polaris has everything one needs for productive creativity: a youth theatre with an 80-seat auditorium, make-up and costume rooms, a transforming stage with an LED screen, a media studio for creating video and audio content with all the necessary equipment, a choreography room and free creative space.

Photo: www.yanao.ru

Polaris' regular residents run projects such as a video blogging school and a television school, dance studios and a recording studio, puppet theatre and youth theatre, a board games club and a calligraphy school. The best of them receive development grants from the county budget, as well as the opportunity to present their work at domestic and foreign venues.

The main aim of the residency is to support young Yamal authors who are creating new art and to increase their professionalism. To this end, in the next few years, Polaris plans to launch the first professional residency programme in Yamal, with authors from both Russia and other countries taking part. Together with the region's indigenous inhabitants, they will explore, make sense of and update cultural phenomena in Yamal.

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