Travel blog

Big Argish Festival 2018. Photos and just a trip report

At the invitation of the Department of Public Relations of PJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel visited Norilsk at the «Big Argish» festival, which took place on November 16 - 18, 2018. And here is a detailed report with photographs about the festival itself and my impressions of the festival, Norilsk and Taimyr.

Argish is almost the only word present in the languages of almost all the peoples of the North, meaning the movement of reindeer teams across the tundra, nomadism, and many kilometers of treks. I heard it from the Nenets during our February expedition to Yamal. When we stopped in the tundra near a large number of deer tracks, our Nenets guide would certainly say, “The argish has passed.” and named the family's surname, unmistakably identifying the Argish. This is the tundra for us – huge empty space — cold, almost lifeless and frightening, for the northern peoples – home and driving hundreds of kilometers from their camp, any of them knows whose reindeer are grazing here or whose argish has moved to a new campsite.

Yamal and Taimyr – territories where the traditional way of life of the northern peoples is best preserved and where their traditions and culture are important not only for their bearers, but are also closely intertwined with the lives of all residents of the region. Today the topic is especially relevant, since the life of the northern peoples is in conflict with the active development of the lands of their traditional habitat by the oil and gas industry and other types of mineral extraction.  The subsoil of these empty and, in our opinion, lifeless, endless territories turned out to be especially rich in everything that is so in demand by a “civilized society”. And that is why dialogue and the search for compromises at all levels – the only possible way for the northern peoples to survive. Popularization of their life and culture – one of these types of dialogue.

The main idea of the festival "Big Argish-2018" – manifestation of the "genius loci" as the movement of the energies of nature, man, traditions, time and creation. To some, all this will seem like loud or meaningless words, but for those who are “in the know,” a very deep and multi-valued meaning is revealed. This is where – At the intersection of cultures, traditions, languages, interests, a new world is being born, which will determine the lives of people in the country in the coming decades or even centuries.

This may be an incomprehensible or seemingly abstruse introduction to many. Further text will be simpler.

Norilsk greeted us with quite invigorating, but moderate frost for these places – minus 22 degrees. After a few hours of rest on the bus with the press, we went to the opening of the festival in Dudinka. I was also given a “Press” badge, which allowed me to move freely in front and behind the stage, to film what was happening – Despite the status of a festival guest, the instincts of a photo hunter cannot be ignored :) The result is a small photo report.

Then we all visited the exhibition created in the Taimyr Museum of Local Lore about the life of the indigenous peoples of Taimyr especially for the festival. There was a performance by a folk group, several short speeches by officials and a treat with northern delicacies.

The next day in Norilsk there was an open screening of the film “Genesis 2.0”, a young and extremely talented Yakut director and cameraman Maxim Arbugaev, followed by a creative meeting. The film impressed everyone so much that the cinema administration had to move the meeting to another hall, since the questions to the author of the film did not end, unlike the time allotted for the meeting – the audience for the next session stood outside the doors.

The film is truly outstanding. Personally, I haven’t seen such a beautiful and deep documentary film for a very long time. It's about two worlds – primitive and “progressive”, their interpenetration and the fate of tomorrow’s humanity – neither more nor less. This is almost the same conflict that exists today between the traditional way of life of the northern peoples and the oil and gas workers who are advancing on it, only brought to the global and universal level. The film asks many deep and important questions and conveys the authors’ concern for the overly scientific and industrial future of humanity, some of whose representatives are beginning to try on the role of God.

I highly recommend watching this movie, at least this link to Youtube, since most likely there will be no distribution in Russia, unlike many countries in Europe and the USA. For some reason, the local distributors assessed the film's distribution potential much higher than the Russian ones, despite the fact that it is not anti-Russian, rather the opposite.

After the film, with a group of local and visiting photographers, we tried to arrange roofing – filming the city from the roofs of Norilsk houses. It turned out goofy, but a lot of fun. The roofs were closed, we made forced marches from one end of the city to the other, walked along the entrances and technical floors, scared the residents and pigeons huddled under the roofs, and when we finally found a roof that we could get on, there was such a snowstorm that the desire and the opportunity to shoot was reduced to zero for everyone except Andrei Stepanov – photographer from Chukotka, he is no stranger to snowstorms and poor visibility :)

The last day of the festival was very eventful for me. And it started with an interesting event – excursions to the workshops of the Norilsk Nickel Copper Plant. For a person who has nothing to do with metallurgy or industrial photography, such an excursion may be only once in a lifetime (or maybe not at all), so it will be remembered for a long time – not only with the photographs taken, but also with the impressions.

The excursion begins with a 10-minute film on safety precautions at the plant, then we change into overalls and shoes, which were prepared in advance in sizes for each of us. Out of habit, all this seems funny and even I, not a big fan of selfies, can’t resist taking pictures of my beloved in uniform.

And immediately – to the foundry. Where there are stoves, heat, gas pollution and... where you can take the most spectacular shots. Shooting with a mask, hard hat and goggles is not very easy, but no one promised that it would be easy. As a result, here are the frames:

Further movement around the plant no longer brings the same aesthetic pleasure, but, firstly, it reveals the entire technological process of copper production, which is interesting in itself, and secondly, it gives a lot details for photo report:

Well, then there were performances by our small group, which is why we came to the festival.

The first speaker was Andrey Stepanov – photographer, photo artist, co-author of the photo projects “Wildlife of Chukotka”, “Geography of Impressions” and “The History of Everyday Life”, publisher of photo albums and postcards about Chukotka. He was born and raised in St. Petersburg, but lived in Chukotka for 14 years, and this year he moved to… Magadan, in order to study and film the nature of this region, neighboring Chukotka, but completely different in terms of natural diversity, in the same detail and detail. I had already seen many of the photographs he showed somewhere – they were featured on magazine covers and photo exhibitions.

Afterwards, scientists anthropologist Alexandra Terekhin and archaeologist Alexander Volkovitsky, who study the life and way of life of the indigenous peoples of the north, spoke. As part of my research in 2015 – In 2016, they quit their jobs and went to Yamal for the whole calendar year – live and roam with a Nenets family, not as guests, but as members of a family of Nenets reindeer herders. They bought Nenets clothes, backgammon, managed an argish, learned the Nenets language and took equal part in all the affairs of the Nenets family, and Alexandra Terekhin also worked as a teacher in a nomadic kindergarten in the summer. As a result, the Yamalexpedition project was born, which allowed many people to look at the life of the Nenets in a completely different way and learn a lot about this life.

They were followed by your humble servant with a story about travel, climbing and filming in difficult hiking conditions.

And the evening of educational lectures ended with Alexander Makhorov – the founder of world roofing. He was one of the first to begin climbing the tallest buildings in Russia, and then the world, taking stunning photographs and videos there, one of which, for example, from the Shanghai Tower, has 73 million views on YouTube. All these adventures (and climbing any tower without permission – that’s the only way roofers act – is always a real, and sometimes simply unreal, adventure) was his story.

In addition to what was described at the festival "Big Argish" there were a large number of other events: famous artists, DJs came, there were performances and competitions, reindeer sled rides through the city streets, there were stunningly beautiful fireworks, but, unfortunately, I didn’t see all of this – it is impossible to embrace the immensity.

Well, finally, a small adventure happened to me, which could have become big, but... not fate. All festival participants from other cities flew from Norilsk the next morning, and almost simultaneously – all flights from Norilsk to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk depart at the same time with a difference of 5-10-15 minutes. At the time of check-in and the start of boarding, the airport was full to capacity, faces familiar from films and TV series flashed by, but my flight turned out to be the last and by the time I boarded, the airport was empty, only 40-50 people remained, everyone else had already departed. We were delayed in boarding for about 30 minutes, but were still put on the plane. The plane taxied to the runway and stood in a long hesitation. Through the window we could see a strong snowstorm (when we were driving to the airport everything was quiet and calm) and a strong side wind. Perhaps the crew decided – fly or not take risks and postpone takeoff – We stood there for a long time, provided that our plane was the last and only one here, no one interfered with it. But they still took off. The feeling was not comfortable. But everything worked out and after 4 hours I was in Moscow. And upon arriving home, I learned that a “black blizzard” had begun in Norilsk. - this is when the snowfall and wind are so strong that not only the airport, but also the roads are closed, even city public transport does not operate. Another 15-20 minutes of flight delay and I would have stayed in Norilsk for a very long time :)

But I will definitely return to it! There are warm and sincere people there, there is the Putorana Plateau, which I have long dreamed of visiting, there is the Taimyr Peninsula, along which I want to make an autonomous hike. Taimyr pulled me to him and doesn’t let go.

And in the end, a short film from the Northern City television company about the festival, where even I found a place (according to the timing from 10:46 they show me there):

P.S. Many thanks to Elena Lebedeva - Head of the Center for Image Projects of the Public Relations Department of MMC Norilsk Nickel! It was thanks to her that I ended up at the Big Argish Festival.