The Ship of Tolerance

The Ship of Tolerance project by the famous artists Ilya and Emliia Kabakov will be launched at Pioneer Pond in the Gorky Park on September 7th, 2013. This international project has been previously done in Siwa (Egypt), Venice (Italy), St. Moritz (Switzerland), Sharjah (UAE), Havana (Cuba), Miami and will be launched in New York in late September, 2013. In 2010 the Ship of Tolerance was awarded a prestigious Cartier Prize for the best artistic project of the year.

From the beginning of May till the beginning of September more than 300 school students will be taking part in the creation of the sail for “The Ship of Tolerance”. During this period lectures, master classes and open workshops based on the issues of peace and tolerance in the modern society will take place in the Multimedia Art Museum and in the Garage Center for contemporary culture, and also in the city schools. After the events are over, an 18-meter wooden ship will be built in Gorky Park, and its sails will be painted by Moscow schools’ students.

A series of interactive lectures titled “Lessons in tolerance” will take place in the Multimedia Art Museum (MAMM) on the 25th and 26th of May. During these “Lessons” Moscow students will draw pictures themed with tolerance on the special canvas. One of the tolerance lessons will be held by MAMM at the VIII Moscow international open book festival.

On the 19th of May and on the 1st of June publishing house Samokat will conduct the tolerance lessons. Samokat is known for its aspiration to establish the link between cultures and generations, and for that purpose it searches the world for new authors and artists and holds numerous festivals and workshops.

In the framework of the project a teleconference will be held between MAMM and a school of New York during which children will be able to communicate with their peers and share their drawings as they are working on creating the Ship of Tolerance in both Russia and the United States. “The ship of tolerance” event will take place in New York, like in Moscow, in September this year.

Moreover, this summer a series of animation workshops will be organized in MAMM and conducted by Ekaterina Gavrilova on the subject “How do I understand tolerance”. They will result in a creation of a short animated film.

Detailed information on the lessons, workshops and lectures of MAMM and the terms of participation can be found on www.mamm-mdf.ru in the “Events” section (in Russian).

Open weekend workshops will be held in the Garage Center for contemporary culture from the 13th of July till the 25th of August. The Garage teachers will speak with the workshops participants about friendship, the diversity of cultures and the concepts of “US vs Them” On the practical lessons children will create their sails which will become parts of “The Ship of Tolerance”. At the same time children will have a chance to view videos from the previous locations of the Ship of Tolerance.

Open workshops will take place in the Garage Center in Gorky Park at Pioneer Pond on Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00 to 16:00. Details can be found on the website of the Center: www.garageccc.com

The opening of “The Ship of Tolerance” on the City Day on Saturday, September 7 at 14:00 will be a culmination of the program. All the participants and guests of the project who care about our future will gather at Pioneer Pond of Gorky Park.

On the 6th of September, a concert will be held in the Moscow International House of Music; children musicians from different countries (the USA, Cuba, Switzerland, Russia) will take part in it. The program will include compositions by A. Glazunov and G. Venyavskiy, I.S. Bach and S. Prokofiev, F. Schubert and S. Rachmaninoff, F. Liszt and A. Piazzolla, as well as Russian folk songs. The evening will end with a performance of «All We Wish Is Peace». The concert is held with the assistance of the Spivakov Foundation.

“The Ship of Tolerance project is a public art project and a dialogue. It is meant for everyone, not only for the chosen ones,- say Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. – The most important subject here is tolerance, the understanding that we are all the same people.”

Press-release.pdf.

The organizers

                    

The partners of the project