All power to the artists!

We have the names of the artists invited to Volgograd for the festival «Excuse me, have you seen
Mr.Losev?»

They are painters, graphic artists, masters of street art, photography, photo and video installations,
performance, public art and dramaturgy. Everyone formulated an idea or proposal for the city, which
will be implemented during the work of the artist-in-residence program «Creation of the Mir». It's
dedicated to the 75th anniversary of twin cities relations between Volgograd and Coventry, the
founders of the global twin cities movement. On May 18 the artists will present their works at the
festival «Excuse me, have you seen Mr.Losev?».

For example, Kaushik Gupta from Chennai (India) will talk with Volgograd inhabitants about current
questions «Who are we?», «Where are we?», «Where are we going?». And then he will create
pictures corresponding to the impressions from the received answers. The playwrighter Chris
O'Connell from Coventry (UK) will put on a play about the city on the Volga river. The architect and
artist Diana Lukyanenko from Astrakhan (Russia) will create sketches of facade paintings. If the city
hall supports the idea, then she will create frescoes (graffiti) dedicated to peace and friendship
between the inhabitants of twin cities. Director of the Vitebsk Centre for Contemporary Art, Andrei
Dukhovnikov will draw the views of Tsaritsyn (Volgograd) on the plein-air and give a lecture about
the meaning of creativity.
The Organizing Committee received 138 applications from artists from 19 countries.

«Everyone is bright», says Marina Voronova, director of the festival, «so the experts were arguing for
a long time as to which of them should be given a scholarship to cover their travel and living
expenses. After a month of disputes, 22 artists from Armenia, Belarus, Great Britain, Germany,
Russia, Serbia, India and Italy were invited.»

«Payment for the travel and accommodation of the winning artists is made at the expense of the
Presidential Grant of the Russian Federation for the Civil Society Development provided by the
Presidential Grants Fondation,» comments Igor Dregval, the member of the Expert Council of the
artist-in-residence program «Creation of the Mir», «it doesn't limit the rights of artists wishing to
come to the festival on their own. It will be interesting.»

The list of artists:
Zoran Andzhelkovich - Krusevac, Serbia
Irina Afanasyeva - Krasnodar, Russia
Katarina Balunova - Turin, Italy
Maria Bogoraz - Rostov-on-Don, Russia
Alexander Volkov - Ulyanovsk, Russia
Mikhail Gulin - Minsk, Belarus
Kaushik Gupta - Chennai, Russia
Patimat Guseynova - Makhachkala, Russia
Andrey Dukhovnikov - Vitebsk, Russia
Philip Krikunov - Novosibirsk, Russia
Chris O'Connell - Coventry, Great Britain
Diana Lukyanenko - Astrakhan, Russia
Ekaterina Oskina - Moscow, Russia
Halima Saydudinova - Makhachkala, Russia
Vladimir Simonyan - Yerevan, Russia
Alexey Trubetskov - Saratov, Russia
Bulat Khalilov - Nalchik, Russia
Milanа Khalilova - Nalchik, Russia
Helen Nelson - Coventry, Great Britain
Olga Holzschuh - Cologne, Germany
Zaur Tsugaev - Grozny, Russia
Anton Chubakov - Tula, Russia