Sergey Kuryokhin International Festival

HISTORY

Sergey Kuryokhin International Festival (SKIF) is a festival of modern art, based on the concept of Pop Mekhanika, the multicultural project of the outstanding Russian pianist, composer, writer and public figure Sergey Kuryokhin, who died untimely death in 1996. Kuryokhin's long-time partner cellist Boris Raiskin conceived the festival in New York City. SKIF-1 and SKIF-2 took place in New York in 1997 and 1998.

In October 1998 SKIF-3 moved where it belongs - to St.Petersburg, the city where Kuryokhin lived and worked. The fourth and fifth festival took place in St.Petersburg in April 2000 and 2001. The fourth festival was an enormous event which was happening during three days and nights in Theatre Baltijskij Dom.
The six preceding festivals turned into multimedia events which featured more than 1000 musicians, DJs, visual artists, photographers, dancers, movie-makers, authors, art critics and philosophers from the USA, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Switzerland, Korea, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Faroe Islands, Belgium, Bulgaria, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine and of course Russia. The highlights included performances of such world renown artists as "the father of minimalism" Terry Riley, British improvisers and prog rock legends Keith & Julia Tippett, founders of Krautrock legendary German group FAUST, SONIC YOUTH's guitarist and leader Thurston Moore, "the Jimi Hendrix of accordion" Kimmo Pohjonen, American jazz legends Rashied Ali and also Borah Bergman, Hans Reichel, Rudiger Carl, French progressive legends Pierre Moerlen�s Gong, classical mugam singer Alim Kasimov, Keshavan Maslak, Frank London, Shelly Hirsch and David Moss, Japanese turntable virtuoso Otomo Yoshihide, Tuvan singer Sainkho Nemchulak, leading Russian jazz players Vladimir Tarasov, Vladimir Chekasin, Vyacheskav Gayvoronsky, Vladimir Volkov, Misha Aleprin, Arkady Shilkloper, German legend of world free-jazz Peter Broetzmann, Campes Dolores, Eugene Chadbourne.

Music performed defies stylistic and aesthetic boundaries. It both draws upon and challenges accepted notions of jazz, rock, classical, ethnic, world music etc.

From the outset SKIF, in the true spirit its founder's Pop-Mechanica concept, aspired to maintain a truly multi-media nature featuring along with "pure" music dance, theatre, visual arts, film, video, performance art, electronic media and everything else that does not fit into any category.

The festival gives enormous impetus to the cultural life in St.Petersburg, the city world famous not only for its classical heritage but for the traditions of the avant-garde and experimental art. It revives the spirit of St.Petersburg's great citizens: Diaghilev, Malevich, Mayakovsky, Khlebnikov, Kharms � and Kuryokhin. The combination of immensely rich cultural tradition and cutting edge art experimentation makes SKIF one of Europe's most interesting cultural events.

The Sergey Kuryokhin Foundation is supported by the City of St.Petersburg, foreign embassies and by the cultural organizations from different countries. The Project is expected to appeal to creative young people and general public interested in modern art. Its objective is support of the ideas of free creativity. The organizers hope the Festival will provide an active mechanism of communication for creative people of different countries.

More information on SKIF is on the official web-site

SKIF-8 will take place on 23-25 of April 2004

http://www.kuryokhin.com