Exhibition of original textile dolls, art textiles and felts in St Petersburg (24 June - 3 July 2022).

An exhibition of author dolls, art textiles and felting has opened in St Petersburg, at the Gallery of the Book and Graphic Centre. The two halls of the exhibition feature works by doll artists from various cities in Russia, near and far abroad.

The exhibition brought together more than 120 works by 45 authors from 23 cities. Here are such masters of art textile as Anastasia Goleneva (Moscow) and her pupils from different cities of Russia, Yana Boeva (St. Petersburg), Svetlana Nerutskova - project "Kudesnoye shapito" (Togliatti). The participants are: Ana Boeva (St. Petersburg), Inga Moiseeva (St. Petersburg), Natalia Sheina (Tula), Lena Akulova (St. Petersburg), Anastasia Sultan (Saratov), Zoya Sereda from Belarus, and Varvara Skripkina and Olga Shabalina.

The exhibition is organised by the Bridges Puppet Artists' Association, which, for the second year running, has held large-scale exhibition projects of author and puppet art "AIDOLL", bringing together talented authors, creative artists and experienced practitioners.

The undoubted advantage of the event is the opportunity not only to see the best examples of doll art, but also to gain first-hand knowledge of the technology of working with materials. The exhibition includes lectures and master classes by renowned textile doll artists Lena Lakhova, Oksana Tsyganova, Anastasia Goleneva, Lena Akulova and Liana Vengerovskaya.

We were able to get a short interview with Valeria Korsakova, director of the association, and Olga Bakaleeva, curator of exhibition projects.

The organisers stressed the importance of the event for the cultural life of the city and shared their plans for the future. This exhibition promises to be an annual event. An important platform for presenting puppeteers at the international level has appeared in St. Petersburg.

DDN: How did the idea of holding such an event in such a narrow specialisation as 'textiles' come about?

O.B.: A textile doll is a separate story, which we love very much and think it deserves its own exhibition. It's the same with felt. There are many authors, different technologies and styles. And we thought, why not show all the techniques of working with this deceptively simple material...

DDN: This project is renewable, will you repeat it?

V.K.: It will be an annual project. It is an offshoot of our main project, AIDOLL, an annual pre-New Year's Eve exhibition. In autumn we are preparing a new exhibition "Non-Fearful Tales", where we invite all those who create works in Fantasy&Horror style. Come to our exhibitions and workshops as participants, teachers and spectators. We look forward to seeing you there!

We wish success to the young and energetic organisers from St Petersburg and look forward to more meetings!

Guests of honour at the vernissage included Galina Tikhomirova, chairman of the Board of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Crafts, Lyudmila Osokina, journalist and representative of the St. Petersburg Angels Museum, artist and puppeteer Anna Chulanova, leading teacher of the "Chukla" studio with her husband, founder and editor in chief of the "Artistic Puppet" community, and Varvara Skripkina, owner of the first and only St. Petersburg gallery of puppets.

The exhibition can be visited until 3 July 2022, at 55 Liteiny prospect, St. Petersburg.

Event website: https://vk.com/aidolltextile

Contacts: https://vk.com/leradoll, https://vk.com/olga_bakaleeva.

Text by Irina Panfilenok, photo by Olga Kudryavtseva.