* The Golden Mask 10th theatre festival opened in Moscow on March 27, World Theatre Day. The festival will feature all aspects of theatrical life in Russia, while the programme includes the best performances of the 2002-2003 season as chosen by an expert council. Performances from ten Russian cities -- Moscow, St Petersburg, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Voronezh, Minusinsk, Yekaterinburg, Vladikavkaz, Ufa and Perm were nominated for the Golden Mask awards. The winners in honorary categories have been already announced. Outstanding opera director, artistic head of the Moscow Chamber Music Theatre Boris Pokrovsky and leading actor of the Okhlopkov Drama Theatre (Irkutsk) Vitaly Venger will receive "For Honour and Dignity" awards. President of the Chuvash Republic Nikolai Fedorov and the Kultura TV channel were given prizes in the other honorary category "For Supporting The Theatre". "Donelaitis' Seasons", staged by well-known Lithuanian director Eimuntas Nekrosius, won the award for the best foreign performance shown in Russia.
The festival will run until April 12. Its programme will feature all theatre genres: drama, opera, ballet, modern dance, puppet theatre and operetta. Two juries, for drama and puppet theatre, and for music theatre, are to see all the 29 performances and decide the winners in each category. After that, the Golden Mask winners will tour Oryol, Kazan, Perm, Rostov-on-Don, Khanty-Mansiisk and Tyumen from May to December 2004.
* The Tretyakov Gallery is running a programme "A Dedication to Kasimir Malevich" timed to coincide with the 125th anniversary of the birth of the celebrated 20th-century artist. The programme features Malevich's little known work "Architecton", or "A Suprematist Architectural Model". These dimensional objects, prototypes for the architecture of the future, have not been exhibited for a long time. "Achitecton", which dates back to 1927, belongs to the late period of the work of the non-objective art founder. It was exhibited in 1928 and purchased by the Tretyakov Gallery at once. However, avant-garde art soon fell victim to persecution, which meant that "Architecton" and other works outside the socialist doctrine could not be displayed for sixty years. The model made of fragile plaster was kept in a depository and gradually deteriorated over time. In 1965 it was written-off and taken to the archives. Only in 1993 were the surviving fragments returned to the Tretyakov Gallery and restored. Now it is included in the permanent exposition "20th-Century Art".
The Tretyakov Gallery has also hosted the launch of a new two-volume edition dedicated to the artist's life and work, "Malevich about Himself. Contemporaries about Malevich. Letters. Documents. Memoirs. Criticism". This is the first time that a collection of this kind has been published in Russian.
* An exhibition has opened at the Tretyakov Gallery featuring 59 works by 173 artists nominated for the 2003 State Prize in the fine arts category. They include artists and groups of artists from Moscow, St Petersburg, the Vologda, Kirov, Nizhny Novgorod, and Saratov regions, the Adygei, Kabardino-Balkar, Chechen, and Chuvash republics and the Khabarovsk territory.
The exposition features works by artists of different generations, for instance, 75-year-old academic Illarion Golitsyn, and 42-year-old participant in the last Venetian Biennale Valery Koshlyakov. Paintings by Muscovite Oleg Lang hang side-by-side with works by the emigrant and non-conformist, Mikhail Roginsky. There are graphic works by Alexander Suvorov, sculptures by Lazar Gadayev, as well as photographs taken by Igor Palmin and Lev Melikhov. Many of their works have already been included in the Tretyakov Gallery's collection. The gallery has traditionally collected works by contemporary artists for 150 years.
From April 1 to 15, the Central House of Architects will exhibit works nominated for the State Prize in architecture.
* The Nicholas and Helena Roerich state museum-reserve has opened in the remote village of Verkh-Uimon in the Altai Republic (the Siberian Federal District). It is a branch of the republic's museum and occupies the house where the famous scientist, artist and traveller, Nikolai Roerich, stayed during his Central-Asian expedition in 1926. In 1995, this country house was declared a valuable historical and cultural monument. At the opening ceremony, deputy of the Altai parliament Sergei Ognev presented the branch with Nicholas Roerich's original sketch of the picture "Messenger" painted in the 1890s. Up to this day, the Altai national museum did not possess any of Roerich's original works, only copies painted by the artist from memory during his two-week stay in Altai 78 years ago. Roerich came here to study migration routes of Asian peoples, their beliefs, traditions and customs. After the expedition, he published many articles, painted hundreds of pictures and drew a draught for the Zvenigorod centre of culture and science in the Uimon valley.
* An exhibition of dolls organised by the Japanese embassy has opened in Murom (the Vladimir region, Russia's Central Federal District). It is timed to coincide with the Japanese dolls' holiday, which is marked in March. The exposition features porcelain, ceramic and wooden dolls dressed in national costumes made of brocade, silk and batiste. The best Japanese tailors and hairdressers created the dolls. A hierarchy of dolls, from the couple depicting the emperor and empress to dolls-musicians and dolls-bodyguards, is on show at the exhibition. Ordinary Japanese toys, figurines of animals, Kokesi wooden dolls and Daruma dolls serving as charms to make wishes come true (a Japanese version of Russian matryoshkas) will be exhibited, as well. The exhibition will run until the end of March.
*An exhibition "Japan in Fans and Pictures" has opened in the Rumyantsev mansion of the State Museum of St Petersburg's History. It is based on a rich collection (over 100 pieces) of Japanese fans of the late 20th century gathered by St Petersburg restorer Yelena Yankovskaya.
The fan was invented in China in the sixth century and then moved to Japan. The Japanese attributed magic spells to fans from the earliest times. Fans are traditionally used in ceremonies, birthday parties, weddings, etc., while they were also created for theatres, battles, temples and tea ceremonies. Fan making is one of the most important arts in Japan today.
The St Petersburg exposition features fans of two types, the Uchiwa (flat, round fans) and the Sensu (folding fans), Japanese dolls, ceramics and kimonos. A separate section of the exhibition is dedicated to the development of political and cultural ties between St Petersburg and Japan in the 19th-20th centuries. It features art, historical documents, photographs, books and the personal effects of St Petersburg residents whose life and work were associated with the Land of the Rising Sun. Works by modern Russian artiste Natalia Maksimova will be exhibited, as well. The exhibition "Japan in Fans and Pictures" is being held as part of the 4th annual festival "Japanese Spring in St Petersburg".
