📷 Fairy Tales of the Ostankino Park. Part 1

For several years in a row, the International Festival of Arts "Inspiration" was held in Moscow in the summer. Creative people from different parts of the globe and cities of the world gathered at numerous venues to share and be inspired by art. During the festival, many installations, art objects were opened, and numerous performances took place on various theatrical stages of the city. This continued until the 5th, anniversary festival, held in July 2019. It was canceled last year for obvious reasons, and despite the fact that it was scheduled this year, it seems that it will not take place. It's a pity, I was planning to visit it this summer, but it will not prevent me from remembering and showing you a small part of how it was in one of the years :) Let's see what miracles were happening on one magical summer night.

So, in July 2017, the Moscow park "Ostankino" for some time turned into a fairy forest, colored with bright lights and full of unusual creatures. The entire space of the park was used and organized into a circular route for the convenience of people movement. After entering, I found myself on a path leading to a fairy tale: the laughter of sylphides was heard on the paths, horses were galloping somewhere in the distance, fish were flying over the surface of the lake, and birds were swimming under the water.

It so happened that I started to walk in the park when it was still light outside, and when dusk fell on the city, and the light that transformed everything in the blink of an eye turned on in the park, I was already at the installation "Star Movement". Thorny celestial bodies revolved in the crowns of the trees ...

... and light rays smoothly painted stars on the foliage.

An interesting start, what a star garden it turns out!

I went back to the beginning of the path as long as it was possible — number of people on the paths kept increasing. Next were the Sylphides, statues that came to life, escaped from the Friendship of Nations fountain. They were projected onto screens stretched between trees. Girls emerged from sparks, hovered, laughed and disappeared. Their laughter caused a strange feeling of anxiety and unreality of what was happening.

A statue of a forest spirit stood nearby. Just a white statue. Nothing interesting, I thought and was going to move on, but then ...

... he came to life, turning into the spirit of winter.

Then the wind blew, eyes closed, and numerous branches pierced the stone.

A moment later, young leaves unfolded and the eyes of the spirit opened again.

He smiled, looking at the squirrels running over him and invited us to go further.

People walk along the paths, and the guards hide in the dark and forbid everyone to leave them. And I really want to do it!

After all, magic glowing mushrooms grow here. Take a bite of this and become small, very small — like Alice.

It is clear why such beauty is fenced off — they care about the safety of careless curious people :)

I was looking at the mushrooms and then I heard the clatter of hooves not far away ...

Against the backdrop of the setting sun, a horse galloped, indicating the direction ... Well, go ahead, follow it!

Strange cocoon lamps hung over the trees.

Under them you can sit on a bench, take a breath and look around.

Beautiful! They look very natural, like some kind of nests or cocoons of giant insects — except for the glow, of course.

But people basically go on in a continuous stream.

These lights run along the trajectories prepared for them, turning into an animal running through the night forest. It is, however, difficult to photograph this.

And ahead of us is a whole field of flickering lights.

Thousands of LEDs are located among the branches.

It would seem that such simple things, but how many interesting things you can do with them, having some imagination.

Further, behind the luminous field of lights, the howling of wolves and the flapping of wings was heard.

And the forest shimmers with different colors.

I wonder what they have prepared for us next? I'll show you in the next post :)

It's better to watch the photo in high resolution.

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OLYMPUS E-M1 Mark II
Exposure time: 8 sec
Aperture: F 5.6
Sensitivity: ISO 200
Focal length: 12 mm
35 mm equivalent: 24 mm

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You can also see my photos in my blog LJ and in my profile on NatGeo. You can read a short interview with me here.

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