In Conversation with Art & Culture Izba Arts

Zsolt Bodoni is a Romanian artist, who experiments with a range of media in his paintings to create dimension. His latest venture are semi-transparent multi-layered works with light. In late 2021, his exhibition viewed in darkness at David Kovats London, introduced the artist to the UK. We were really excited to talk to him about his process, the evolution of his practice and what comes next.

Find Zsolt:
https://davidkovats.com/artist/zsolt-bodoni/
https://www.instagram.com/zsoltbodonid/?hl=en
https://davidkovats.com/artist/zsolt-bodoni/

Find Ksenia:
https://www.instagram.com/essentialaspects/
https://kseniakazintseva.wixsite.com/fineart

Find us via:
https://www.russianartandculture.com/
https://www.instagram.com/rusartculture/
https://twitter.com/RusArtCulture
https://www.facebook.com/RusArtCulture/

Music by Alexandr Solodchenko

Irina is from Moscow and takes much of her creative inspiration from Russian cultural references that she discusses in this episode, especially film, art, and literature. Irina got her MA in graphic design at the Stroganov Academy of the Applied Arts, the alma mater of Rodchenko and Mayakovsky. She moved to Antwerp, Belgium to study Dutch and then to Moscow to work as a designer and art director at magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar and Empire. After 10 years in the industry, she took the leap in 2020 to set up her own business, a sustainable e-commerce brand called Kikina Designs aimed at Gen-Z and Russian culture lovers. On her website you can expect to find futurist manifestoes hand-painted on silk scarves, post-Soviet cult classic movie heroes on t-shirts, and silver age poetry on hoodies. In this episode, Irina describes her favourite Russian food, films, and literature with a passion that would make anyone want to eat, watch, and read all of the above.

Find Kikina designs here: https://irinakikina.com/ and here: https://www.instagram.com/kikina_designs/
Find Zviagintsev’s quote here: https://www.indiewire.com/2004/02/return-of-the-prodigal-father-andrey-zvyagintsev-talks-about-the-return-79164/
Find Pozner’s interview (in Russian) with Zviagintsev here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS7oTyY__zs
Find the film “I am Twenty” part 1 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5NzS4h4MOg
Find the film “I am Twenty” part 2 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFmPXhadAHk
Find the film “July Rain” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohakjwIYkrE

Find us via:
https://www.russianartandculture.com/
https://www.instagram.com/rusartculture/
https://twitter.com/RusArtCulture
https://www.facebook.com/RusArtCulture/

Saffy talks about her research into the influence of literary legend Fyodor Dostoevsky on African American literature and the Blackness of Alexander Pushkin. Saffy talks about her favourite novels and recommends the best way for newbies to Russian literature to get into Dostoevsky. She also discusses the existential themes of suffering, salvation and oppression that appear in Dostoevsky’s work and subsequently relate to African American slave culture in African American literature. Saffy also explains why it is argued that Pushkin had an affinity to black culture through his own suffering and feeling like an outsider due to his heritage. Tune in to hear more of Saffy’s fascinating perspective on Russian literature and her and recommendation on how to get a well-rounded insight into Russian culture. Saffy is in her second year of her PhD and hopes to contribute a valuable piece of scholarship to an otherwise not hugely written about topic. She has ambitions to pursue either academia or creative writing or both once her thesis is done.

Find Saffy here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ssees/saffy-mirghani
Find Slovo, UCL SSEES’s academic journal here: https://student-journals.ucl.ac.uk/slovo/
Find Nabokov’s lecture on Dostoevsky here: https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/23/magazine/nabokov-on-dostoyevsky.html
Find the SRB podcast here: https://srbpodcast.org/

Find us via:
https://www.russianartandculture.com/
https://www.instagram.com/rusartculture/
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This episode is about Music and War.
While preparing I came across an mazing work by Brent Thomas Yorgason who wrote a dissertation on the subject in 1997 for Utah State University. I found it very informative and complete, so todays episode is based on this work.

War has always had a powerful influence on music. At times it has the ability to motivate composers even more than love, religious belief, or money. Throughout the ages, both war and music about war have changed dramatically. The destructive power of war has reached its ultimate capabilities -- the potential to eliminate all life. As war has become more and more horrible, and has caused unprecedented amounts of needless deaths, the world's view of war has changed completely. This change in attitude toward war is evident also in the development of war music.

Find Olga:
https://www.facebook.com/OlgaJegunova
https://www.olgajegunova.com/
https://www.instagram.com/olgajegunova/

Find us via:
https://www.russianartandculture.com/
https://www.instagram.com/rusartculture/
https://twitter.com/RusArtCulture
https://www.facebook.com/RusArtCulture/

Jess is a Canadian born and raised, Elmira a Muscovite. Both currently reside in Vancouver and met for the first time when they became flatmates. Jess is an illustrator and Elmire a piano teacher and copywriter. Jess had lived in Siberia for a few months and speaks Russian, meaning that Elmira and she would talk often about Russian language and culture, including swearing. Together over lockdown they decided it would be fun to create and Instagram account of the most inventive Russian swearwords to entertain their friends. Suddenly their account became an internet sensation and people from all corners of the globe were sharing their content.

Now, the pair have released 3 volumes of their favourite curses and are working on volume 4. Listeners beware, there will be a fair amount of effing and blinding on this week’s episode so if that’s not your cup of chai, move on to episode 3. However, we strongly suggest you get acquainted with the most creative swearing you’ve ever heard and enjoy the curses in all their glory.

Follow @curselikearussian on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curselikearussian/
Purchase Curse Like A Russian volumes 1-4 here: http://jesspollard.squarespace.com/new-products
Watch a clip from Не горюй! here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=198965181961597
Find Jess here: http://jesspollard.squarespace.com/
Find Yuri Dud here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMCgOm8GZkHp8zJ6l7_hIuA
Find Redaktsiya here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1eFXmJNkjITxPFWTy6RsWg
Find Ivan Bilibin here: https://visualmelt.com/Ivan-Bilibin and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Bilibin

Find Yuri Dud here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMCgOm8GZkHp8zJ6l7_hIuA
Find Redaktsiya here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1eFXmJNkjITxPFWTy6RsWg
Find Ivan Bilibin here: https://visualmelt.com/Ivan-Bilibin and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Bilibin

Find us via:
https://www.russianartandculture.com/
https://www.instagram.com/rusartculture/
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Many of Rita’s students remember her luminous nature, her laughter and positivity, which is very rare amongst music teachers. Often, too often teacher’s authority is based on fear, humiliation and suppression of a student. But how is it related to Rita? 

In this episode I’ll tell you how Rita (probably totally unconsciously) broke a cliché of dominant teaching method and introduced a loving, kind and patient approach. You will also hear various people talk about Rita: amongst them pianist sir Andras Schiff, cellist Steven Isserlis and her students. At the end you’ll hear a composition dedicated to Rita by classical pianist and composer Prach Boondiskulchok. 

Find Olga:
https://www.facebook.com/OlgaJegunova
https://www.olgajegunova.com/
https://www.instagram.com/olgajegunova/

Find us via:
https://www.russianartandculture.com/
https://www.instagram.com/rusartculture/
https://twitter.com/RusArtCulture
https://www.facebook.com/RusArtCulture/