News
At the end of September, the dreamlaser team took part in designing an audiovisual performance in the Mikhailovsky Garden for the Friends of St. Petersburg Festival. In collaboration with Stas Svistunovich, a lighting designer from the Nizhny Novgorod Opera and Ballet Theater, we worked with cultural heritage sites, preparing a mapping, an installation at the pond, and a mural projection.
In 2024, the Friends of St. Petersburg Festival was organized by Gazprom PJSC for the third time. The mission of the project is to help St. Petersburg preserve its cultural heritage and historical identity in the modern world. The multimedia performance, which took place across several locations, was dedicated to the history of the Mikhailovsky Garden and the heritage of Russian musical culture.
Our team presented a mapping on the arches of the first floor of the Mikhailovsky Palace (Russian Museum). A fascinating play of light on the arcade of the building was reminiscent of an aqueduct on the Fontanka River that once supplied water to the garden fountains. Installation projectors helped to implement this idea.
On the Maslyany Lug, a huge meadow that used to serve for Maslenitsa festivals in the 19th century and this time functioned as the main stage of the show, we opted for strobe lights and LED tape to fill the entire space with enigmatic glow. The lighting design transformed the location into a mythical city of Kitezh inspired by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's operas Sadko and The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh.
The Paradise Lost installation was set up at the pond, with laser beams gliding over the still surface of the water.
We presented the audience with a mural projection on the ceiling of the Rossi Pavilion and illuminated the space to highlight the mural and stuccowork.
Even a three-hundred-year-old oak tree took part in the multimedia show. Its canopy turned into a canvas for a laser projection. The light show was dedicated to eternity and self-replication of nature.
All the locations were united by music based on the works of Russian composers who were the teachers and first graduates of the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
The project originated in the cultural research laboratory.
Liza Savina, a teacher, cultural projects producer, and co-founder of the Sparta Foundation for Cultural Initiatives, curated this audiovisual performance.
The creative team of the project included Dmitri Shubin, art director of the Museum of Sound, conductor of the St. Petersburg Improvisation Orchestra, Yuri Elik, media artist and VJ, and Stas Svistunovich, lighting designer.
Dreamlaser, technical partner.
September 27–29, 2024