Archstoyanie is a festival of landscape objects, taking place in the Nikola-Lenivets park in the village of the same name, located 180 kilometers from Moscow. Every year, masters of landscape architecture gather here, creating their amazing works, attracting numerous guests to this place.
The festival dates back to 2006. The guests and participants loved the event so much that they began to hold it regularly. The festival is held annually one (in summer) or two (summer and winter) times a year. Archstoyanie was founded by Nikolai Polissky, who later stopped working on this project.
The place for the festival was not chosen by chance. Nikola-Lenivets is a unique open-air playground. It is believed that it was here that the famous standing on the Ugra took place. Now Nikola-Lenivets is a picturesque park that inspires architects to create their masterpieces.
Archstoyanie invites its participants to show their imagination. The compositions presented at the festival are not separate objects, they do not oppose themselves to nature. The sky, fresh air, the surrounding landscape - all this becomes part of the created object of art. It is impossible to imagine these same structures in another place, they fit so perfectly into the landscape. Art objects are created from various natural materials: grass, straw, wood, snow, vines. Some of them are just decoration, but others are quite functional - swings, rafts and even art toilets. Compositions interact not only with nature, but also with the viewer. Most of them can be climbed, rolled.
Most of the works presented belong to the once fashionable direction of land art. This type of landscape design originated in the United States in the sixties of the last century. The essence of this trend lies in the fact that the landscape becomes part of the work. An artist can leave his work outside for a long time, and then natural forces also participated in the creation of the composition. Gradually in the West, the popularity of land art faded away. Archstoyanie is one of the few places where you can admire works made in this style.
