The winners of the modern media art contest "Land of LIGHT" have been named

On December 6 and 7, the facade of the Guards Corps Headquarters on Palace Square once again turned into a giant light canvas: the final of the Country of LIGHT All-Russian Competition of Modern Media Art took place in St. Petersburg. The project, which is supported by the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives, brought together the best artists and video mapping studios from all over the country. People's love for the competition continues to grow rapidly: over 480,000 viewers watched the show on the Palace Square in 2 days, which was the maximum in 4 years of the project's existence.

The main intrigue of the evening is to determine the winners and provide an impressive prize pool. This year, at the request and suggestions of the contest participants, the mechanics of summing up the results were changed: for the first time, prizes were awarded not by the audience, but by a professional jury. The viewers who took part in the online voting have the right to determine the fate of the Audience Award. The prize fund was supposed to be 2 million 600 thousand rubles, but the participants showed such strong and impressive work that the judges increased the number of winners and the cash fund, as a result it amounted to 3 million rubles, which is a record amount for the competition.

The main prize and 1 million rubles were awarded to the team from St. Petersburg. Polina Khamraeva and Igor Domashkevich captivated the jury with their performance about St. Petersburg literary myths. The silver medalist was the team "Qazan.exe " with a modern interpretation of Tatar folk tales, the prize was 700 thousand rubles. According to the decision of the jury, the third prize was shared by 2 teams: Petrovich Brothers Studio (Vologda region) with a vivid journey through the village of Ustye and the media artist DIMAFLOOD with a strong and daring work about alternative St. Petersburg stories. Both teams won 400 thousand rubles each. The work of the team "Qazan.exe " It was appreciated not only by the jury members, but also by the audience, it was for her that the largest number of votes were cast according to the results of a two-day online voting on the official website of the project. The audience award was half a million rubles. Roman Karmanov, General Director of the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives, solemnly presented awards to the winners and finalists of the competition on Palace Square.

The jury of the competition included outstanding representatives of the cultural and professional community: Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director General of the State Hermitage Museum, Fyodor Boltin, Chairman of the Committee for Culture of St. Petersburg, Nikolai Burov, People's Artist of Russia, Latif Kazbekov, Honored Artist of Russia, Gleb Filshtinsky, director and theatrical lighting designer, Ekaterina Galanova, director and producer of socio-cultural projects; Andrey Mikhailovsky, author and producer of the Prosvet Festival of Light; Alexey Dimkov, Artistic director of the Vrubel Studio; Ilya Samokhvalov, Production Supervisor at the SILA SVETA International Interactive Media Studio and other experts in the field of visual arts and technology.

Out of 170 applications, 11 teams from eight regions of Russia reached the final.: Vologda, Tomsk, Omsk, Vladimir, Moscow regions, St. Petersburg, the Republic of Altai and the Republic of Tatarstan. Their three—minute light stories became declarations of love for their native places - from northern legends to Siberian legends and Altai myths. Each work in the designated theme "Fairy tales, legends, myths of a Small Homeland" is an independent universe, told in the language of light, rhythm and visual transformations.

The final of the Country of Light contest once again showed how rapidly Russian video mapping is developing. Artists, animation studios and creators of light installations have not only offered beautiful visual solutions, they have formed a new cultural agenda: bold, technological, daring and truly inspiring.