The Malevich Festival of Contemporary Culture was held in Malevich Park

On August 30 and 31, 2025, the first Malevich Festival of contemporary culture was held in Malevich Park near Moscow, dedicated to rethinking the ideas of the Russian avant-garde in various artistic forms. Over 30,000 people attended the festival in two days.

The festival guests participated in readings and performative practices, witnessed the premiere of Nikolai Polissky's new art object "The Suprematist Forest", listened to lectures and discussions about the avant-garde, participated in workshops for children, and also attended concerts by Ellie on the poppy field, Zventa Sventana, musician Tim is looking for light, pianist Nikola Melnikov and the Octo Ensemble., the Cinematica Orchestra conducted by Gleb Andrianov and other musicians. The festival was held with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Moscow Region. The organizer was the autonomous non—profit organization "Moscow Regional Directorate for Park Development", the curator of the project is the Nikola-Lenivets bureau.

A special place in the program was occupied by the opening of Nikolai Polisky's new art object, the Suprematist Forest. The installation, which is over 12 meters high, was created specifically for the festival from two thousand hazel sticks. The central element of the composition is a three—dimensional black cube, the embodiment of Kazimir Malevich's "Black Square". After the end of the festival, the object remained in the collection of Malevich Park.

The program "Zero Forms, zero Feelings", prepared by curator Karina Hvorostova, transformed the art objects of the park into platforms for poetry readings, performances, dance practices and multimedia installations. Igor Shelkovsky's sculpture "The Running Man" became the stage for poetry readings "Victory over August" with the participation of Egor Zaitsev, Anton Kirillovsky, Sofia Petrova and Anna Potebni, as well as a venue for buto dance practice under the direction of choreographer Nikita Petrov. Leonid Tishkov's object "Private Sun" has turned into a space for the performance-storytelling "Green Forest — Red Sun" about Mikhail Matyushin directed by Alexandra Nikitina with the participation of playwright Elina Petrova. There was also a theatrical reading of Malevich's treatise "Laziness as the real truth of mankind" directed by Polina Kardymon, the playwright was Egor Zaitsev. An audiovisual installation by Oleg Makarov and Nikolai Popov in collaboration with engineers from the Electroacoustic Music Center was presented at the "Sitting Man" facility.

"Together with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Moscow Region and the Moscow Regional Directorate for Park Development, we have presented a pilot project. We work with great art for the untrained viewer, so we had to take into account and think through all points of view. Here, in the park, there was already a large-scale collection of art objects, the authors of which it was very important to pay tribute to. Curator Karina Hvorostova came up with the event program "Zero Forms, zero feelings", where the audience saw theatrical readings, performances, and a beautiful light and sound installation by Nikolai Popov with a man sitting. The musical program was very subtly reinterpreted by Ivan Polisky. A large children's program "Be like Kazimir" was also prepared. And when asked what Malevich had to do with it, our educational program under the supervision of Irina Gerasimova answered. We hope that the festival will become an annual event and we will fill this beautiful territory with a new context," said Yulia Bychkova, General producer of the Malevich Festival.

Educational program "What does Malevich have to do with it?" Under the curatorship of journalist and art critic Irina Gerasimova, she gathered art critic Kirill Svetlyakov, curator of the Zotov Center Dmitry Nikishov, museum architect Yulia Napolova, artist Nikolai Polissky, producer of the festival Yulia Bychkova and other speakers who talked about the heritage of the avant-garde and its modern interpretation.