Children's Day on the Palace Square


Concept and design of the city celebration in St.Petersburg, 30.5 - 1.6.2014

home
exhibitions
books
art objects
contact me

It's well-known that every child has a guarding angel. St.Petersburg is a city full of angels, you can find them on the walls, on the roof tops of ancient buildings, sculptures and finely crafted statues etc. The most significant angel is the big one standing on top of Alexander’s Column in the middle of the Palace Square. My idea was thus to collect images of other angels from around the city, and to let them fly over the square as symbolic guardians of our children and our celebration.

We have built several 12-meter high replica columns, and placed our giant angels, now printed on huge metal boards, as weather vanes moving in the wind. At the bottom of the columns, one could find some interesting information about the Angels.

Children’s Day is an international festival, and our Angels are said to guard children worldwide. Therefore we have also built several historically important buildings from other regions of the world. Operating mainly with light metal constructions and large-sized prints, St Petersburg based company StagePro manufactured the impressive “copies” of the Parthenon, Colosseum, Tadj Mahal, Brandenburg Gate, Big Ben, Notre Dame and a fragment of the Great Chinese Wall. Every site provided some information about it's own country of origin and history.

Besides it's obvious historic importance, these features were responsible for a unique children’s activity. The Colosseum represented sports and other competitions, the Parthenon – theatre performances, the Tadj Mahal became a huge dancing pole, in front of Notre Dame, children could draw and paint, and it was even possible to climb on top of the Great Chinese Wall to have a fascinating view of the crowded square.

Hundreds of actors, artists and dancers took part in the interactivity of the festival, involving the public in theatre, dance performances and competitions, inspiring people to paint, build from cardboard, or even play on the green “English” lawn. There was a special quest arranged for children to let them find out more about the angels placed on the square. Konstantin Ermikhin as a chief director was managing the program.

The idea of the stage design for the festival was to create something that would fit the fabulous architectural ensemble of the Palace Square. The important historical buildings from different countries also symbolized the various departments of the Hermitage museum, famous for it’s collections of both Eastern and Western art. The goal was to have different places for different activities and to let people walk from one place to another collecting new experiences. It was a unique chance to travel around the globe without leaving the Palace Square of St.Petersburg!

 

Concept and design: Alexander Reichstein
Project development and technical performance: Alexander Korchagin /StagePro
Interactive concert program: Konstantin Ermikhin




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

back
forward
top