KALUGA, August 8 (RIA Novosti) - The Kaluga Region village of Nikola-Lenivets, located in the Ugra National Park, is for the second time hosting the international land art festival, ArchStoyanie 2007, between July 15 and August 5, 2007.
Land art is a
form of art that uses materials from the natural environment, such as rocks, sticks, soil, clay and plants.
"The unique local landscape, rich in picturesque hills with wooded slopes just where the Ugra River makes a graceful bend is a perfect site for installing pieces of land art," says Nikolai Polissky, a prominent artist and organizer of the event.
Around three dozen artists from Belarus, Britain, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and Russia have come here to display their works. They are living in tents, using natural materials found on the spot to create their pieces.
The idea behind their works, which vaguely resemble bizarre houses, towers, lighthouses, gates and other structures, is to find and show the harmony of Man and Nature. Lovers of land art have also arrived from Russia and other countries to watch the artists at work, and enjoy the local nature and works of land art.
The name of the festival translates as "Archaic Standing," which is a reference to the famous historic event that occurred here in the 15th century - the Great Standing on the Ugra River. It was a bloodless standoff between Akhmat Khan, Khan of the Golden Horde, and Grand Duke Ivan III of Russia, when the Russian armies made the Tatars retreat without battle. Khan Akhmat's retreat from the Ugra was the beginning of the end of the Golden Horde and signified the end of more than two centuries of Tatar enslavement.
