ART SESSION WITH K.JOHN IN RUSSIA

ART SESSION

TOPIC OF THE PROJECT:

CREATIVITY UNITES

The major topic of the School program was the value selection between the internal own values and what affects a man from the outside, such as mass media, Internet, and common stereotypes. How does a modern man pass through such value conflict? What contradictory values do people face? What value dilemmas do they solve? How to save global values and avoid instantaneous influences?

Participants had to reflect the struggle inside a modern man between eternal true global principles and aggressively imposed inane temptations of the modern world.

SESSION PROGRAM:

Project participants attended lectures, intensive courses and master classes provided by the professors of the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, and got acquainted with the art community of the city and with the students of the Academy. Students also had a cultural program to spend their leisure time visiting world famous museums, theatres and galleries in Saint Petersburg. They have visited the State Hermitage Museum and the State Russian Museum, the Mikhailovsky Theatre, St. Isaac's, Kazansky and Nikolsky Cathedrals, the Tsarskoye Selo Palace and the Great Peterhof Palace. Creation of an artwork on the suggested topic finalized the course.

Fifteen artists and sculptors from Argentina, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Turkey, Venezuela, Burundi, Vietnam, Uganda and Burkina Faso, as well as ten young students from Lugansk State Academy of Culture and Arts named after M. Matusovsky, took part in the 2023 Art Session. Participants of different nationalities and social and academic backgrounds quickly found a common language between them – the language of art and global human values.

As a result, students created pieces on a given theme.

ABOUT ST. PETERSBURG ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS

St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts is a renowned school of Russian fine art. It was founded in the mid-18th century (1757, established in 1764) to train and educate talented artists, sculptors and architects. The first teachers were Europeans, who, over time, gave way to prominent Russian artists who created the academic canon. For centuries the main field has been historical painting, and pathos has always been valued here. Generations and circumstances have changed, but the priorities and reference points have remained unchanged. Expressive themes, imagery, and compositional integrity have always been valued within the walls of the majestic building on the Neva embankment. Painting has always been the most important discipline.

In Imperial Russia and during the Soviet era, the Academy of Arts was an educational center and a community of experts with experience and knowledge that made it possible to carry out large-scale government projects. The preservation and study of artistic heritage was thoroughly pursued. Nowadays, not only Russians but also young artists from more than thirty countries from Eurasia, North America, South America, Australia and Africa study here.

John Larris Wendpanga Kabre is a contemporary artist from Burkina Faso, who was captivated by drawing from a young age. Driven by his admiration for Art, Kabre aspired to refine and develop his talent through live model drawing and artistic anatomy training at the George Méliés French cultural center.

After passing two levels of training with distinction, Kabre graduated from both the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism and the National Institute for Artistic and Cultural Training. Intrigued by abstract paintings on canvas, he focused his energy on this particular genre. Despite participating in various workshops, trainings, exhibitions, and meetings, Kabre’s pursuit of his artistic identity sometimes leads him to the unpleasant white canvas syndrome.

However, after many years of dedication, self-confidence, and motivation, he eventually found his artistic calling in the early-20th-century avant-garde art movement of cubism, which revolutionized European painting and sculpture.