The Big Mini Festival opened the door to street art, sounded an Australian didjeridoo and revived movie heroes

The Big Mini Festival opened the door to street art, sounded an Australian didjeridoo and revived movie heroes

29 августа 2019 1179

The fact that the pedestrian street of Grodno was about to turn into one large stage and that literally something will happen at every step, was announced by a bright and noisy procession of all the participants of the VIII Big Mini Street Art Festival.

Musicians, dancers, actors, living statues walked to the youth center "Grodno" in dance, on stilts and with a noise. Brazilian drums spoke of the approach of the column long before it appears in front of enthusiastic spectators. This collective “Raccoon Batucada” from Minsk led the procession. They later opened the program on the site at the Grodno youth center.

The dance floor, meanwhile, was located near the Palace of Trade Unions. Then at the administration of the Leninsky district, then at the Neman trading house and, finally, near the registry office. And one more in the courtyard near the store "Ratushnyy". So as you move away from one festival area and get closer to another, rhythms and forms of art change each other. Spectators wanting to miss the most interesting, managed to take pictures with living statues along the way. There were plenty of them this year - several clubs from different cities at once.

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“Cross Time” from Minsk to Grodno became a pirate with a pirate and a plague doctor.

- How much can you stand without moving? - I ask the pirate, who seems to have stood still for a long time.

-You puzzled me, I don’t even know. In general, good living statues do not do this, they should move and change their position, attracting the attention of the audience, said the participant of the festival.

Here are a couple more secrets. For makeup, they use acrylic paint. And to completely reincarnate, it takes about forty minutes.

- And what about washing off?

- Differently. If do it actively, the same amount, probably forty minutes.

A little further down the street is a company of cinema heroes. Amateur team "Classic" from Gomel. There were last year, however, in a different guise. In life they are people of various professions. At the Grodno festival there are Mary Poppins, tortoise Tortilla, Papa Carlo, Freddie Mercury and others. These statues came to life in a small representation of each hero.

A separate topic of the Big Mini Festival is music. There were performers familiar to the Grodno residents: the Indian Eve or, for example, Alexander Zimin with his “flying saucer”.

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Frankly speaking, musical instruments were generally amazing. Alexander from Lida proves that almost any box can become a guitar. In his collection there are more than a dozen string instruments made with his own hand. Mostly ... from cigar boxes. excellent material, apparently.

- Today I brought tools in the same “style” - all these are cigar boxes, guitars from cigar boxes made by my hands. He took that he could take with him. Including this one - the new travel model guitar. These are now in demand: "travel" means picked up, put in a backpack and went on a trip. And today she is the only one out of the box. I made it from a piece of wood that my musician friend gave me, said Alexander.

The Minsk team, the Ketri ethnic studio, also had something to surprise. For example, you played on a long, two meters, you would call it a pipe, but no.

- This is not a pipe. The tool is called didgeridoo, conducts EvgenyShatukha me an educational program. He comes from Australia. Once the Australians took a tree that was carved from the inside by ants or other insects, but which has preserved bark. And learned to play it. It turned out such a musical instrument.

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Also during the performance of the collective sounded a harp, ethnic drums, a shamanic tambourine and a flute. Tools from different countries and at first glance are absolutely incompatible.

- Yes, we mix the traditions of different cultures, and in the end we get such a kind of music. Belarusian motives can be combined with African rhythms, northern tunes to the verses of our leader and so on. We have a lot and different, fun and sad, smiles Maria Vorobyova .

A separate story is how the tools get into the team. Something is bought consciously, sometimes it is presented. It happens that the participants first get something unusual, and then they puzzle over how to use it. And, it seems, even over how it plays. But the result is unusual. And, judging by the number of viewers, captivating.

More than dozens of small artists united the performance at the registry office, which was immediately prepared in front of the public by the Grodno workshop of creative thinking "Origami" with the participation of the audience themselves. First, they made paper dolls with the children, and then they showed a performance about happiness.

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Meanwhile, in the courtyard behind the "Ratushnyy" is another theater, but for adults. Performance "Svyazki" with philosophical overtones. The long ropes connecting the artists are our invisible connections with other people. To everyone around us. And every step we take, every decision concerns someone else, forcing us to take a step either to stand still, or to fall. Because sometimes it really hurts.

Another site, by tradition, will appear when it gets dark in the Swiss Valley. There, as always, it will be hot and bright, because real fire tamers - firecrackers from Belarus and abroad will perform.

Big mini fest again surprised. Charged with the mood of the streets, their sound, their creativity. On Sovetskaya Street, the whole evening, in exchange for applause, smiles, delight and, of course, voiced coins, more than three hundred artists gave the audience their art.

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Written by Tatyana Kuznechenkova

Photos were taken by Vadim Golotik, Yan Khvedchin


Translated by Olga Ilyuk