French writer Yves Gaultier will become a special guest of the “Aksenov-fest”

(KZN.RU, September 10, Ekaterina Vislavskaya). Laureates of the Star Ticket Award created the club, and the French writer Yves Gautier agreed to come to Kazan and present a book about Vladimir Vysotsky. Azat Abzalov, the head of the Kazan Department of Culture, told about these and other innovations of the “Aksenov-fest-2018” at the Business Monday.

The XII festival will be held from 13 to 16 of September under the motto “The Wanderer, or the eternal return to Kazan”. The guests of the festival will be poets and writers Alexander Kabakov, Evgeny Popov, Guzel Yakhina, Maria Golovanivskaya, academician of the Russian Academy of Arts Natella Toidze, musician and composer Andrey Makarevich, filmmakers Vadim Abdrashitov and Rashid Nugmanov. “The goal of the festival is to become an open creative platform for everything new in our culture. This is how Vasily Aksenov himself saw the festival. We pay special attention of the festival’s Board of Trustees to it”, said Azat Abzalov. He added that the Board was replenished with three new faces. Vadim Abdrashitov, Guzel Yakhina, and Denis Osokin joined the Board of Trustees.

“Over the years, friends of Vasily Aksenov, who support the brand with enthusiasm and love, have become real friends of Kazan, the public. Every year the festival opens new names. We hope this year will be the same. The atmosphere itself continues the traditions that Vasily Aksenov laid”, said Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan.

In total, the program of the “Aksenov-fest” included more than 30 creative meetings and film screenings. The venues for it will be the Vasily Aksenov House-Museum, Lenin House of Culture, the Kazan Federal University, the Central City Library, the Aksenov Square, Bauman Street at the monument to F. Chaliapin, the CCS “Moskovsky”, the art residence of Konstantin Khabensky, the KRK “Pyramida”, and the National Art Gallery “Khazine”. The entrance to all events is free. The number of seats is limited and the preliminary registration is required. You can get an invitation ticket for events and sign up for a dictation in the Central City Library on Vishnevsky Street, №10. Telephone: (843) 236-42-93.

“It is pleasing that the festival went beyond the House of Aksenov. Today it will come all over Kazan, including in the restored HoC Lenin. It is very important that the events are also taking place on the streets, which unlimitedly expands its audience”, said Ilsur Metshin.

The festival will begin with a concert-opening and a solemn ceremony of presenting the Star Ticket Award. On September 13, the names of two young authors in nominations “Prose” and “Poetry” will be named in the KRK “Pyramida”. This year, the laureates of the past years have united in the Club “Star Ticket”, and “newcomers” will join their ranks.

The House of Aksenov will open an exhibition of graphic works by Andrey Makarevich with the presentation of his book. Natella Toidze will present an exhibition of her artworks in the national gallery “Khazine”. Vadim Abdrashitov will open screenings of documentaries under the general title “Writer and Cinema” in the cinema of the HoC Lenin. Thus, Kazan citizens will see and discuss 6 films, including “The Servant” by Vadim Abdrashitov and “Needle” by Rashid Nugmanov.

The dictation “Write, Kazan” will take place in the walls of the Kazan Federal University and in the Central City Library. The writer Guzel Yahina will read the text, and the writers participating in the festival and university teachers will check the work.

The meeting "Two PEN-centers of one country. Russian and Tatar” will be held for the first time. Razil Valeev, the president of the Tatar PEN-center, the people's poet of Tatarstan, Akhat Mushinsky, the writer and the director of the Tatar PEN-center, and Evgeny Popov, the writer and the president of the Russian PEN-center, will talk about the humanitarian activities of the international writers' clubs.

A special guest of the festival will be Yves Gautier, the famous French writer and researcher. He presents a new book in Russian about Vladimir Vysotsky “Scream in the Russian sky” at the “Aksenov-fest".

A big concert “Word and Sound” will take place at the monument to Fyodor Chaliapin, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Vladimir Vysotsky. Jazzmen and writers will hold a traditional event for this festival in the Aksenov Square. On the last day of the Aksenov Festival, the composer and musician Elias Fingersh will show his solo performance “Solo from the Orchestra pit”.

“Interest in the festival is not fading, only increasing. The annual arrival of a large number of writers proves it. They know about us, about the festival. We hope that the next festival will become a bright page in the cultural life of Kazan, the republic and the country”, concluded the Mayor and invited Kazan citizens to the events.