“ProToArt” is an exhibition and a series of concerts, performances, theatrical productions, and large-scale works which visitors have a hand in creating. For two days, Manege will turn into a futuristic city of strict geometric design where one can step into the fantasies of Mondrian. It is not coincidental that his paintings are often entitled “Composition №”. Three specially created urban spaces--Anonymous Square, CITY, and Games Square--will be the main attractions for visitors to “ProToArt”.

Famous artists from Russia and abroad are working on designing the “town’s” streets and spaces. Composition Square is home to Arquitectura Kinetica’s interactive multimedia piece “Fountain of Sounds” and sound installation “ArphaDorica” by Andrei Punin. Street galleries will house pieces by artist Mikhail Gorodetskii and sculptor Pavel Ignatiev, and a sound installation by Igor Potsukailo. Anonymous Square is dominated by large, interactive installations by Valerii Podlyaskii and Alexandra Kishchuk. CITY is home to theatre workshops, a film theatre, and a music club.

Video installations and interactive video performances will take place in the center of the town. Yuri Elik and Sonya Nelyubina will create an urban multi-screen piece inspired by motives present in Mondrian’s work. Some of Mondrian’s paintings will be animated, and a live video performance entitled “Mondrian Sticks” will demonstrate the evolution of Mondrian’s ideals.

The interactive installation “Quadratization” will offer each “ProToArt” visitor the opportunity to turn into a videowave, dissolve into pixels, and find their human form once again.

“ProToArt’s” theatre workshops will be led by artists from St. Petersburg theatre studio “Teatra.doc” and students from the special needs rehabilitation center “Anton tut ryadom”. “ProToArt” visitors will have the chance to see an innovative theatrical experiment “12 Shades of Boredom” by director Vsevolod Lisovskii and the choreographed performance “Tokipono” by Vera Priklonskaya.

Dances will be performed by Julyen Hamilton (England), Pia Lindy (Finland), and Anton Vdovichenko and Maria Sheshukovaya’s project “Technolaboratory”.

The schedule of auteur cinema shown in the theater is carefully curated by film critic Mikhail Trofimenkov, who promises viewers nothing but art-house, surrealism, and the cerebral.

The music club will host a silent disco, in which visitors don headphones and simultaneously listen to different music without interrupting one another. On the upper floor, research group Electroart will host a “Department of Sound Research”, a continuous exposition of electronic compositions, sounds, and automated musical instruments. On the lower floor, the “Department of Silence Research”, separated from the rest of the festival in an area of silent music, will allow visitors to experience conceptual auditory performances, sound-art pieces, and performances by modern academic composers. (Curator: Musician and sound engineer Boris Shershenkov.)

On Games Square, visitors can watch and cheer for “Living Chess”. “Living Chess” is a musical, performative production in which two costumed orchestras--white (improvisational jazz) and black (classical)--become living chess pieces. Whereas earlier people could control lifeless, wooden game pieces, now computers control the world; as such, computers will control the fate of players in this game as well. Pitted against each other will be the two most popular chess programmes--Houdini and Stockfish. Why do we need music? Perhaps so that we don’t turn into lifeless robots? The party will be broadcasted on huge screens, as well as online. (Curator: Alexandr Plyusnin. Consultant: Vladislav Bachurov. Artist: Nikita Sazonov.)

Alongside living chess, “ProToArt” visitors will be able to participate in a chess game of advantages and disadvantages. This social experiment will follow the phenomena of communication and space. (Curator: Sofia Pigalova of Nizhniy Novgorod).

City Kindergarten will also meet on Games Square. Here children from ages 0 to 100 can take place in master-classes, creative games, and themed lectures. (Curator: Ksenia Remezova).

On both days of the festival, there will be performances, musical shows and impromptu productions all throughout Manege. Participating musicians will be from the USA, Germany, France, and different Russian cities. Among them are Famoudou Don Moye (USA), Shelly Hirsch (USA), the art-group “Siniye nosy” (Novosibirsk/Moscow), Sergei Letov (Moscow), and Aleksandr Aleksandrov (Moscow).

“ProToArt” visitors can take part in different interactive projects, as well as a philosophical and practical conference on the theme of the festival. (Curator: Alla Mitrofanova).

A programme of electronic music by Viktor Sologub will take place on the square in front of Manege.

Entry to “ProToArt” is free. Enter through the entrance facing Pochtamskiy pereulok.