Dmitry Bykov will participate in the Salisbury International Arts Festival and Hay Festival of Arts and Literature:
Friday 28 May, 11:30am
Salisbury International Arts Festival
Saturday 29 May, 1pm
Hay Festival of Arts and Literature

Video poetry is a new phenomena in the contemporary Russian arts scene. In today’s world, media has no limits - information is mixed together with a myriad of fast, dynamic images, and punchy sounds. Video poetry has incorporated these elements that are all around us and used them to create a new art form which has become extremely popular in Russia during the last couple of years. Leading experimental poets and film directors, including Kirill Serebrennikov and Valeria Gai Germanika, amongst others, have come together to create films based on poems read by the poets themselves. The performances are also strongly influenced by European artists of the 70s and 80s, such as Gianni Toti, Richard Kostelanetz, Arnaldo Antunes and Caterina Davinio, whose experimental work was considered arthouse and cutting edge thirty years ago, but seems to strike a chord with the world we live in today. In our culture of multi-media, the merging of poetry, music and film feels only natural. ACADEMIA ROSSICA will be premiering three programmes of video poetry at SLOVO literature festival. The three programmes will offer a unique opportunity to see the works of fifteen of the most important names in Russian video poetry, including Andrei Rodionov, Inna Kabysh and Alina Butokhnovskaya. Programme 1 & 3 will be screened at the Apollo Cinema, Piccadilly at 18.30 on 20 & 22 April. To book tickets, call 0871 220 6000 or go to www.apollocinemas.com Programme 2 includes readings from cutting edge contemporary Russian and British poets and takes place at Calvert 22 art gallery at 18.30. Attendance is by invitation only. These events are part of the SLOVO festival and organised in collaboration with Tom Chivers and Penned in the Margins. These programmes are curated by Andrei Rodionov, one of the leading contemporary Russian poets and Ekaterina Troepolskaya, who also curates the Piataya Noga video poetry festival.

Mario has published numerous poetry books and pamphlets, including: Shrapnel and Sheets, Bosco, Heavy Water, Half Life, Fearnought (poems for Southwell Workhouse), along with translations of Catullus, Sappho and Montale. Lepidoptera is a hybrid book of long poetry and short prose, while his illustrated collection The Stamina of Sheep (the unique result of an innovative public and educational arts project for Havering, the Thames and Essex) captured the Essex Book Award for Best Fiction Publication (2000-2002). Flowers of Sulphur was published in 2007. Mario is currently working on two further collections, Monte Cassino and i tulips.

By Andrea Hubert
The Russians are coming! Well, actually, they're already here, and now in the second year of their annual UK film festival. London-based arts organisation Academia Rossica showcases some of the brightest stars of contemporary Russian cinema.

Leicester Square Theatre
9 & 16 March
£12/£10
‘A Sense of Delicacy’, one of Chekhov’s best comic stories, comes to the London stage, performed by the Romanian actor Mihai Arsene. Actor Mihai Arsene was born in Pitesti, Romania. He studied Performing Arts at the University of Craiova, where he graduated in 2001. Just before graduation, he was awarded The Best Actor Award for the role Mr. Bogoiu in "The Holiday Game" by Mihail Sebastian, which was part of the Student Actor Festival in Iasi, Romania.

By Andrea Hubert
The Russians are coming! Well, actually, they're already here, and now in the second year of their annual UK film festival. London-based arts organisation Academia Rossica showcases some of the brightest stars of contemporary Russian cinema.

By Andrea Hubert
The Russians are coming! Well, actually, they're already here, and now in the second year of their annual UK film festival. London-based arts organisation Academia Rossica showcases some of the brightest stars of contemporary Russian cinema.

10 May, 9 am - 7 pm
An international interdisciplinary conference taking place at Queen Mary, University of London. For more information please visit http://russiaonscreen.blogspot.com/ and e-mail russiaonscreen@hotmail.co.uk

Tretyakov Gallery
This issue is dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the Tretyakov Gallery, Russia’s most famous art museum which contains the national collection of Russian art.

Tretyakov Gallery
This issue is dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the Tretyakov Gallery, Russia’s most famous art museum which contains the national collection of Russian art.