WINTER OF RUSSIAN CULTURE COMES TO THE CAPITAL

Major Rodchenko exhibition…Tarkovsky film season…AES+F's Venice Biennale hit…
…jazz from Arkady Shilkloper…classical star Yevgeny Sudbin….
Folk duo Zventa Sventana…

8 November 2007: The first major UK retrospective of work by Russian photographer Alexander Rodchenko, a season of films by legendary director Andrei Tarkovsky and AES + F's The Last Riot, one of the must-see installations at this year's Venice Biennale, are amongst the highlights of the fourth Russian ACT (www.russianact.co.uk), a season of Russian culture in London. Russian ACT, which runs from November 2007 until February 2008, crosses genres and centuries to give Londoners a fascinating and far-reaching insight into the country which has long been, in the words of Churchill, "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."

The festival also includes a strong musical line-up with performances from jazz legend Arkady Shilkloper and Sax Mafia as part of the London Jazz Festival; Yevgeny Sudbin, one of Russia's most exciting young pianists performing at Wigmore Hall and Zventa Sventana, the young stars of Russian folk music performing as part of the Pulse Festival.

The previous three Russian ACT festivals have brought an equally varied and absorbing programme to the capital, from the brilliance of conductor Teodor Currentzis and the quirky elegance of film director Rustam Khamdamov, to the undiscovered master of Russian photography Max Penson and the dazzling talent of Darcey Bussell and Igor Zelensky. Each festival has revealed to a British audience the range and diversity of Russian culture, challenging preconceptions about this rapidly changing country.

A full list of Russian ACT events follows below. Russian ACT is organised under the auspices of the Russian Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography.

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Press release and high resolution images relating to all Russian ACT events can be downloaded from www.kallaway.co.uk/russian-act.htm


For further information please contact:

Kallaway
Anna Cusden
anna.cusden@kallaway.co.uk
020 7221 7883

Jo Williamson
jo.williamson@kallaway.co.uk
020 7221 7883



Russian ACT Events Overview

Russian ACT Full events information in date order:

Shilkloper and Friends
22 November 2007 - 19.30
Arkady Shilkloper is the most well-known, active and successful Russian jazz musician. This is made all the more impressive as he plays French horn, an instrument rarely associated with the genre. Shilkloper's concert in London, as part of the London Jazz Festival, will consist of three parts: a solo, a revival of the original TriO (with saxophonist Sergey Letov and tuba player/vocalist Arkady Kirichenko-Freeman) and a relatively new quintet with Kirichenko, bass player Vladimir Volkov, pianist Yuri Brenner and percussionist Arkady Gotesman.

Southbank Centre's Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Belvedere Road, London
£15, £10 + booking fee
Tel: 0871 6633 2505/ www.londonjazzfestival.co.uk

Sax Mafia
23 November 2007 - 18.00
Barbican Free Stage

24 November 2007 - 16.00
Royal Festival Hall Foyer. Live for BBC Radio 3 Jazz Line up

24 November 2007 - 18.00
Ray's Jazz Show in Foyles, Charing Cross Road

Sax Mafia is the first saxophone quartet of the Soviet/post Soviet era. All four of its members are fully accomplished composers, musicians and improvisers. Founder Sergey Letov is a veteran of the Russian music scene, and was part of the late Sergey Kuryokhin's Popular Mechanics. Other members include Nikolay Rubanov, founder of jazz performance project SKA, Eduard Sivkov, part of avant folk group NeTE and the Moscow Composers Orchestra and Yuri Yaremchuk, who brings Ukranian folk music to the already eclectic mix.
www.londonjazzfestival.com
www.barbican.org.uk
www.southbankcentre.co.uk
www.letov.ru

London Jazz Festival, in association with BBC Radio 3, runs from Friday 16 - 25 November.


Yevgeny Sudbin & Alexander Chaushian
Presented and supported by the Pharos Trust
3 December 2007 - 19.30

Yevgeny Sudbin, one the world's most exciting young pianists will be performing a programme which includes Weinberg, Beethoven, Schumann and Shostakovich with Armenian cellist Alexander Chaushian at Wigmore Hall.

Wigmore Hall
www.wigmore-hall.org.uk
www.yevgenysudbin.com
www.thepharostrust.org
Box Office 020 7935 2141
£10, £14, £18, £22

AES + F - Last Riot
Late at Tate: Tate Britain
7 December 2007 - 18.00 - 22.00

AES + F's video installation Last Riot was first shown to great critical acclaim at this year's 52nd Venice Biennale as part of the Russian Pavilion. It premieres in the UK as part of Nature to Advantage Dressed, an event curated by DJ Mary McCaughey for the Late at Tate Britain programme. Incorporating Boudicca and Future Loop Foundatioin this show will bring together Russian and British talent in an intriguing fusion of art, music and fashion.

Nature to Advantage Dressed: English Garden Lounging, Winter in London
Featuring The Last Riot (2007), by AES + F, which appears courtesy of Triumph Gallery, Moscow, and Multimedia Art Centre, Moscow.
www.aes-group.org
www.tate.org.uk

Tarkovsky Festival - A Retrospective
Andrei Tarkovsky (1932 - 1986) was an undisputed master of world cinema and the 75th anniversary of his birth will be marked by a season of film screenings and talks at Curzon Cinemas and Pushkin House. The season features seven of his most important films, including Ivan's Childhood and Solaris. Most screenings will be introduced by an actor or member of the crew, followed by a Q &A.

Curzon Mayfair
7 - 14 December 2007
For full listings go to:
www.curzoncinemas.com
www.tarkovsky-festival.co.uk

Zventa Sventana
in association with Pishter
31 January 2008 - 21.00

Zventa Sventana, which brings together the talents of Christina Kuznetsova and Alyona Romanova, is the latest Russian folk formation to find their inspiration somewhere between the songs of the past and the sounds of the future.

Cargo
www.zventansventa.ru
www.pishter.com
www.cargo-london.com

Alexander Rodchenko: Photographer
Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) is one of the great figures of early 20th-century avant-garde art, and also one of its most versatile practitioners. Half a century after his death, The Hayward presents the first major exhibition in the UK of Rodchenko's photographs, featuring some 120 prints and photomontages, as well as poster and magazine designs. The exhibition traces the development of Rodchenko's photography over two decades from the early 1920s, a period when he revolutionised the medium by pioneering a new vocabulary of bold and unusual camera positions, severe foreshortenings of perspective, and surprising close-ups.

The exhibition is organised by the Moscow House of Photography and curated by its Director, Olga Sviblova.

Alexander Rodchenko: Photographer opens at The Hayward on 7 February to 27 April 2007.
The Hayward, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XZ
www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visual-arts
Information and tickets: 0871 663 2519

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