3D-mapping "Ball of History" in honor of the 250th anniversary of the State Hermitage

In honor of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the State Hermitage on December 6, 2014, on the initiative of the Government of St. Petersburg and with the organizational support of the Committee for Culture of St. Petersburg, a unique video mapping show will be held on the fate of the legendary museum, closely intertwined with the history of St. Petersburg and Russia.

Pictures of the “Ball of History" - the project is called this way - will unfold on the facade of the General Staff building, which will turn into a screen for a three-dimensional video performance for one evening. Viewers will be reminded of the most significant and dramatic episodes of Russian history, of which the Hermitage was a witness and direct participant. The events of past eras will come to life on the screen: the reign of the enlightened empress Catherine II, who laid the foundation for the assembly; the devastating fire that engulfed the Winter Palace under Nicholas I; the construction of the Hermitage buildings and the opening of the first public art museum in Russia… The hands on the rhinoceros watch will freeze on the night of the arrest of the Provisional Government and the frost of siege winters will fall on the gilding of the Jordan stairs to be replaced by a waltz of victory and the joy of a new meeting with the beautiful.

The epigraph of the evening will be the words of Boris Borisovich Piotrovsky: “If we do not save beauty, then how will it save the world?”

The main idea of the 3D-mapping project is to present the Hermitage and the masterpieces of its collections as an inexhaustible source of faith in the triumph of beauty and humanity. The combination of the latest 21st-century technologies with examples of eternal art will once again demonstrate the modernity of classics and the infinite invariance of museum space.

In addition to the vivid video sequence, the authors of the project pay special attention to the musical score. Especially for the “Ball of History”, an emotionally rich canvas, including fragments of classical works of different eras and styles, was created by St. Petersburg composer Anton Tanonov. The basis of the sound series will be composed by P.I. Tchaikovsky, S.S. Prokofiev, M.I. Glinka, D.D. Shostakovich, J.F. Rameau, C. Jenkins, F.P. Schubert, A. Piazzolla, and the final episodes of the video play will appear accompanied by A. Gorodnitsky’s song “Atlanta”, which has long been the unofficial anthem of the Hermitage.

Fragments of memoirs of contemporaries, verses by A. Akhmatova, M. Tsvetayeva and A. Blok performed by Nikolai Burov and Anna Geller will connect the musical and figurative narrative into a single multifaceted text that will allow viewers to experience the greatness and drama of the moments of history.

The development of the concept and scenario of the “Ball of History”, the creation of audio content, as well as the production of all aspects of the project - from the safety of the audience to the quality of video and sound - are provided by the DANCE OPEN festival’s creative team, led by stage director Ekaterina Galanova. For more than ten years, she successfully implements performances of concerts and celebrations of an international level, and is also the ideological inspirer, producer and operator of the largest cultural event - the annual DANCE OPEN ballet festival.

Creation of graphics and preparation of the broadcast of three-dimensional action is carried out by the creative team of the Cosmo AV agency (France), a recognized authority in the field of large-format video projections for world-class shows. The agency’s international projects are led by creative directors Pierre-Yves Tulo and Joseph Cristiani. Cosmo AV team owes its spectacle to the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games and the opening of the Paralympic Games in Sochi. The success of the Russian audience was scenographic shows “Ballet, Decor, Movement” and “Image of Russia”, shown on the facade of the Bolshoi Theater in the framework of the festival “Circle of Light” (2013, 2014).

December 6 at the Palace Square "Ball of History" will be held for you.

From 19.00 to 22.00 in the concert space of the Palace Square, sessions will be broadcast every half hour: 19.00, 19.30, 20.00, 20.30, 21.00, 21.30.

The duration of the show is 12 minutes.

Free admission.

Increased security measures will ensure the comfort of spectators in the conditions of free attendance of a mass event in the evening.