Nikolay Polissky

Authors: Nikolay Polissky

Location & Date: Moscow Region, Art Klyaz`ma festival, 2003

Curator: Alexander Panov

In 2003 Nikolay Polissky and his ‘Nikola-Lenivets Art Trades’ took part in the Art Klyaz’ma festival, which for several years running was one of the largest open-air shows of contemporary art in Russia. Polissky brought almost half the population of Nikola-Lenivets to the festival, and they created a wicker installation-village called Art Bazaar. For the duration of the festival the authors lived in their works of art, cooked food, and plied the amazed general public with samogon [homemade vodka]. The camp was likewise made of wickerwork; it took the form of a large circular haystack-shaped tower surrounded by four projecting minarets.

Special part of the whole project was a bathhouse made of transparent film, transposing traditional peasant bathing culture into live performance opened for everyone.