History
The GOGOLFEST Festival was founded in autumn 2007 by the "DAKh" Center for the Contemporary Arts and the "Art Arsenal" Culture and Arts Complex. The idea and initiative behind the creation of a polyphonic, multicultural festival of modern art came from the director, producer and artistic director of "DAKh" Center for the Contemporary Arts, Vladislav Troitskii.
The Festival came to light in the unique space offered by the Old Arsenal, a former armaments factory, built by the Italian architect Johann Moeller in 1803. The festival brings together and presents in a single interactive space modern painting and installation, audio-visual art, electro-acoustic and chamber music, theater, modern dance and literary projects, as well as an educational program including training sessions, seminars and master classes.
The first GOGOLFEST took place within the walls of the "Art Arsenal" September 7-14, 2007. The Festival was intended to unite the Ukrainian creative and intellectual elite around the name and philosophical, religious and artistic views of N.V. Gogol, "the genius, who uncovered and gave the world a new and unrecognized mystic 'terra incognita' - Ukraine".
The first Festival featured the "GOGOL PORTRAIT" thematic modern art exhibition, in which more than 105 artists from Ukraine, Poland and Russia took part, offering concerts, plays, performances and an international literary round table. More than 10 000 spectators visited the Festival's events.
GOGOLFEST'S second iteration was named "The Festival of Festivals", taking place at the "Art Arsenal" May 7-25, 2008. This time, the mission of "GOGOLFEST" was to consolidate Ukraine's festival movement, assimilating the experience of Ukraine's best festivals. In addition to its own program, GOGOLFEST showcased the other best of other festivals: "Sheshori" and "Kraiyina Mriy" for ethnic music, "Molodist'" and "Vydkrita nich" in film, the "Kroyu" festival of animated film, "French Spring" and "Jazz Koktebel'" . GOGOLFEST 2008 welcomed among its participants the composer V. Martynov, T. Grindenko and the "OPUS-POSTH" Ensemble, E. Gromov, the Dmitrii Pokrovskii Ensemble and the Tretyakov Gallery's Saint Nicholas Choir, the "Volkov Trio", Alla Zagaikevich, the St. Petersburg "AXE" Engineers' Theater, "LaboraTORIYA", the Illyés Gyula Hungarian National Theater (Beregovo), "Studio "SoundDrama", "Kyiv Modern Ballet" and many others.
GOGOLFEST 2008 offered, for the first time, an educational program, along with other festival highlights, with a concert and lecture from V. Martynova, master classes from P. Makov, T. Sil'vasha, A. Zagaikevich, V. Troitskii, B. Yukhananov, KLIM, M. Yaremchuk and S. Loznitsa. More than 50 000 visited GOGOLFEST 2008.
GOGOLFEST 2009 (September 3-19) marked the 200th anniversary of Nikolai Gogol's birth , with a wide range of cultural activities held throughout the year, including: creative studios in the autumn, April performances in Gogolevo and Kyiv and a presentation of the Festival in St. Petersburg. For the first time in 2009, GOGOLFEST left the capacious territory of the Art Arsenal and held a variety of events throughout Kyiv and elsewhere, among which were the plays "The Death of Gogol" and "Oedip. Sophocl" from Kyiv's DAKh Theater, the premiere of Kyiv director Dmitrii Bogomazov's "Hamlet" in Odessa's V. Vasil'ko Theater of Music and Drama, and tours by the "U Mosta" Theater of Perm, with two plays by Martin McDonagh.
The musical program included a concert entitled "Dreams of the Lost Road", involving musicians from the ethno-chaos group DakhaBrakha, and a performance by the organizers of the Moloko Music Fest, featuring Adam Green, Adanovsky, Tikkle Me and Sergei Babkin. Also on offer were an electro-acoustic program by Alla Zagaikevich, a performance by St. Petersburg's NOM and a festival-closing show involving the group "Picasso's Children."
Overall, the third GOGOLFEST played host to 150 000 visitors and over 800 cultural activists from more than 25 countries.
The 4th GOGOLFEST is planned for September 4-12, 2010 and will take place at Dovzhenko Film Studio. Among the participants will be the Spanish theatre La Fura Dels Baus, Italy's Kataklo theatre of athletic dance, the Huun Huun Tu musical group from Russia's Tuva region, Switzerland's Plasma Theatre and others.
