The project ArtAntarctica is a creation of the Manege team in partnership with the ARKI creative studio, dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the discovery of Antarctica by Russian seafarers Fabian Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. The outdoor exhibition is part of the Manege Outdoor programme, imagined by the Manege team for the purpose of creating an interactive cultural space and stimulating a rethinking of the urban environment.

The ArtAntarctica project is a large-scale mapping installation in the form of a luminous iceberg on Ploshchad Truda (Labour Square) next to the Central Naval Museum and New Holland. The surface and sides of the iceberg will host a video mapping festival dedicated to the discovery and exploration of the Arctic and the Antarctic, round-the-world journeys, and the role of the city of St Petersburg in the development of the science of geography around the world.

The installation is yet another artistic experiment at tempting to unify contemporary art with the historical urban environment. Art Antarctica offers viewers a unique journey through time: the exhibition allows you to return to the time of Antarctica’s discovery through a retelling of the feats of Russian explorers of the sea.

The reis a technical novelty to Art Antarctica: for the first time, there will be video broadcast from the inside of a huge installation on all its facets simultaneously. The video performances will be shown in a certain chronological order in the evening and at night.

From January 12-27, visitors to the outdoor exhibition can enjoy a video mapping festival, shown every day from 17.00 to 01.00.

As part of the festival will be broadcast short films:
- The History of Antarctica's Discovery
- Journey of an Artist by Pyotr Reichet, Music by: Alexey Plyusnin
- "Antarctica 2020" Children's Drawing Competition: works by the winners of the international online children’s drawing competition 2020 – 200 YEARS SINCE THE DISCOVERY OF ANTARCTICA (in which children from over 20 countries participated), Music by: Valeriy Alahov

And contemporary artist`s video performances:
- "Space Invaders From Antarctica", Tonoptik (Russia)
- "What they dreamt before discovering Antarctica?", Fragments and Forms (Mexico)
- "Drops", Baraga (Slovenia) &Fraction (France)
- "The Last Report. From Antarctida With Love", Daria Shkeleva (Russia), Music by: Alexander Neonicle (Neonicle)
- "Permafrost", Maotik (France)
- "Allegory", Lisandro Sabio (Argentina)
-"Subspace", Andrey Svibovich (Russia)
- "The Crystal Map", Licht.Pfad (Germany)
- "Time of Melting", Stain (Russia)
- "Etude in Blue", Yuri Elik, Music by: Igor Potsukailo (Russia)

The films will be shown according to the following schedule:
17:00-18:00: short films
18:00-19:00: video performances
19:00-20:00: short films
20:00-22:00: video performances
22:00-23:00: short films
23:00-01:00: video performances

The project is accompanied by a parallel educational programme, including public talks by artists and a panel discussion with all project creators. The event takes place on Manege’s online platforms.

Concept and project architect: Andrey Punin
Curators: Darya Shkeleva, Aleksandr Novikov
Technical curators: Yury Elik, Konstantin Lelikov
Coordinator: Dmitry Krylov
Director of Manege Outdoor programme: Anna Yalova