The XVIII International Media Forum "Dialogue of Cultures", which was held in the Hermitage, has come to an end in St. Petersburg. This year more than 300 talented journalists, photographers, designers, bloggers and filmmakers from Eurasia, Africa (Arab League) and Latin America took part in the forum events. St. Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design was a partner of the event.

The bright moment of the opening ceremony was the fashion show, where young designers Gunel Abbasova, Kira Orlova and Alina Berezina presented author's costumes with national motifs of the participating countries: napkin-collars, prints of oriental carpets and ring gear made of lids became an atmospheric addition to the "Dialogue of Cultures". In total there were 14 images inspired by the cultures of Russia and Asia. The models walked down the stairs of the Hermitage Main Staff during the opening ceremony of the exhibition "Eurasia. A New Generation of Dialogue."
Designer Gunel Abbasova (Institute of Costume Design Ƶ) combined in her collection historical costume motifs of medieval Azerbaijan, the source of which are miniatures on the poetry of Nizami Ganjavi. Her costumes are free silhouette forms of products, wide and long pants, characteristic headdresses. Colorful drawings of oriental carpets, painted columns and walls formed the basis of the collection's prints. It is in miniature that the costume is presented not only as a separate sample of a distant epoch, but also demonstrates its local originality, manner of wearing, accessories.


Designer Kira Orlova (Institute of Costume Design Ƶ) is from Kaluga. Inspired by her childhood memories, illustrations by Bilibin and paintings by Vasnetsov, she created an authentic folk-style capsule made of recycled materials with her own stories. The folk spirit and love for fairy tales can be felt in things such as ringlets made of broken casket lids, accessories made of shards of grandmother's Dulevo porcelain. Forgotten Palekh caskets from her dresser have found new life as bases for handbags and clips. Memories of grandmother's patchwork quilts, characteristic colors directly refer to the origins and memories that connect people. That is why the collection is called "Soul".


Alena Berezina (Institute of Costume Design Ƶ) was inspired by the motifs of folklore style, namely Russian folk traditional costume. In particular, embroidery, lace, the shape of sleeves, the cut of shirts and telogereki, kokoshniks. And also the Russian culture of the end of XVIII - beginning of XIX century. The collection consists of colors of different shades of red, white, dark gray. Their choice is not accidental, the colors had their own meaning in Russia, for example, red - fertility, and white - purity. The collection uses antique cushions, tablecloths and lace, napkins as elements of collars, inserts on sleeves, decorations of dresses and shirts. All this creates a harmonious and holistic perception of the collection, conveys the "Russian spirit", warmth and memory of our culture.

"The collections of our designers played a unifying role in the opening of the exhibition and in the subsequent exposition. Models in national costumes, but in a modern interpretation dispersed afterwards around the hall and accompanied the guests. This is the first time that the State Hermitage Museum has used such a playful and creative element of the exhibition opening and, in our opinion, it is an excellent experience," commented Taisia Sorvina, Head of the Scientific and Educational Department of Ƶ.
Also students of the Graduate School of Press and Media Technologies of Ƶ participated in the forum as journalists, photographers, videographers and SMM-specialists. Media volunteers promptly wrote journalistic materials, filmed interviews with forum guests and conducted blitz surveys.

"For me, such events are a great opportunity to prove myself, gain new experience and understand what it is like to be in the center of events," commented Maria Sorokataya, a student of the Graduate School of Press and Media Technologies of Ƶ.
Darya Dobrova, a graduate student and assistant of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications of Ƶ, and Anastasia Golovko, head of the sound laboratory of the educational media center of the Graduate School of Press and Media Technologies of Ƶ, headed the press service of the forum. The main tasks were to maintain social networks and prepare text, photo and video materials. It was important not only to create content promptly, but also to gather information for the preparation of major journalistic materials at the end of the forum. It started a few weeks before the event.
SMM specialist Alina Ermoshina (Advertising Department, Ƶ) developed a content plan, according to which she and students of the Journalism Department of Ƶ prepared and published posts. Journalism students Daria Pronzhilova, Maria Sorokataya, Valeria Filosofova and Anna Korobitsina promptly wrote extended notes on the results of each block of the program and took blitz-interviews in a team with cameraman Svetlana Lipilina. A group of photographers and cameramen worked separately. Ruslan Timerbayev and Dmitry Oseev (Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, Ƶ) shot photo and video materials. From them, editor Pavel Ivkin from the Department of Information Technologies of Ƶ prepared video content. The materials created by the students of the Graduate School of Printing and Media Technologies of Ƶ are published on the official resources of the Forum "Dialogue of Cultures" and its partners.
In preparation for the forum, students of the Institute of Spatial Environment Design of Ƶ worked on the development of a system for hanging works of art in the public spaces of the Hermitage General Staff, where the largest multimedia exhibition of visual projects "Eurasia. A New Generation of Dialogue. It brought together 50 authors from 20 countries, covering Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. The exhibition includes works in various visual formats: photography, motion design, animated films and other art forms.




"The students were faced with the task of acting within the framework of the provided technical assignment and the special requirements of the Hermitage representatives for the use of the premises. From the available equipment it was necessary to develop a plan for hanging the works, taking into account the special structure of the spaces, the light and the logic of movement of guests when viewing the exhibition. There were three spaces for planning: the green and red halls - transformers and the Anfilade courtyard, each of which was intended for a specific part of the exposition. Under the guidance of teachers, the team took all the necessary measurements and in the conditions of limited time they managed to achieve a special effect - an impression of the works on display, logical, understandable and convenient movement of the viewer in the exposition space by placing the Hermitage equipment in a special way, as well as stands of different types with a certain geometry specially created for this exhibition in the Anfilade courtyard. After all, the task of organizing the layout is that the viewer, when viewing the exhibition, should pay special attention to the works on display, understand and feel the sequence of movement through the exposition," comments Alexander Feshin, Head of the Department of Spatial Environment Design at Ƶ.
The students and their mentors discussed possible layout options the day before with Ashot Dzhazoyan, chairman of the Media Congress "Commonwealth of Journalists" and Olga Emelyanova, coordinator of the "Dialogue of Cultures" forum. The team of the Institute of Spatial Environment Design included students Angelina Smirnova, Daniil Alyabiev, Karina Smoleva, Sofia Yakovleva, Anastasia Sitnikova, teachers Alexander Feshin, Remigijus Shvabauskas, Anastasia Kiseleva.
The media forum included the opening of the International Multimedia Exhibition "Eurasia. New Generation of Dialogue", which was attended by 50 young authors of visual content, winners and laureates of international and all-Russian competitions from China, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Belarus, Greece, Georgia, Egypt, Spain, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, France. Among them was presented the work of Snezhana Krotova, a student of the Department of Monumental and Decorative Art of Ƶ, which clearly reflects the interaction of cultures.
- I presented a monumental sketch-project of the design of the painting of the theater space. The frieze composition, revealing the diversity of the world theater - from cheerful onion traditional images to lyrical heartfelt and sublime. In addition to glorifying the diverse and vivid Russian acting, the plot reflects respect for other cultures, because in addition to Russian folklore motifs, the theater plays scenes of Italian comedy, Japanese kabuki and many others, which allows the audience to discover new things and get acquainted with the traditions of different countries, - says the author.


