XVIII Moscow International Festival-salon of hand-drawn stories "Commission"

Dates: from October 30 to November 7, 2019.
Location: Youth Library, ul. B. Cherkizovskaya, d. 4/1, metro station “Preobrazhenskaya Square”; Museum of Moscow, Zubovsky Boulevard, house 2, metro station “Park Kultury”.

From October 30 to November 7, the Museum of Moscow and the Russian State Library for Youth will host the 18th International Festival-Salon of Hand-Drawn Stories “Commission”.

The KomMissiya project supports young domestic comics artists and is one of the key events aimed at popularizing the culture of comics in modern Russia.

The theme of the festival in 2019 is a comic book as a social tool: the relationship of “drawn stories” and world history, acutely social themes and interactions between the needs of the mass audience and the current agenda of contemporary art.

KomMissiya will offer its visitors many activities: exhibitions, lectures, presentations, seminars and meetings with foreign authors, competition results and master classes, where everyone can learn about the nuances of the profession of a comic book artist and screenwriter, try to make their own publication and learn the secrets of creative skill at the masters.

Under the project, the Museum of Moscow will open an exhibition of the Soymultfilm film studio about the cult characters of Soviet animation, an exhibition of the GULAG History Museum and BBDO Moscow creative agency “YOU LIVING”, which will show graphic novels about mass repressions in the USSR. In addition, guests of the “Commission” will see the “Collection of the Century” exposition, which will present objects related to the history of comics in Russia and abroad: original publications, figures, graphics, production documents with more than a century of history. Some of the objects were provided from the funds of the Museum of Moscow.

Visitors will also see three personal exhibitions: Olga Lavrentieva, the author of the graphic novel “Survillo”, Konstantin Komardin, who will present works related to the history of comics in the Urals in the 1990s and Moscow in the 2000s and an exposition dedicated to Khikhus, the founder of the festival and a legendary person who dramatically influenced the development of the comics industry in our country.

The Russian State Library for Youth will present a unique “Open Library” space in the Museum of Moscow, where you can read comics, see a gallery of original graphics from Russian comics and vote for the top 10 Russian comics.

The Comics Marathon is another project of the Library, the final of which will take place at the Commission 2019. Comicists from Moscow, Kaliningrad, Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, Syktyvkar, Khanty-Mansiysk and Nizhny Novgorod painted a continuation of the end-to-end story “The Funnels of Time”, which was set in their cities. The last pages of the novel will be finished on November 3 in front of visitors.

In addition, meetings will be held with artists from Belgium - Jeroen Janssen and Dennis Marien, Serbia - Alex Gayic (Aleksa Gajic), Armenia - Shamiram Khachatryan and the group MAYRO Comics, which presents its sensational comic strip “Velvet Revolution ”Dedicated to the events of Yerevan in April 2018. With the support of the Polish Cultural Center, there will be a presentation by Pavel Timofiejuk, head of Timof Comics publishing house. Director of the African Comic Center Adedotun Salu will talk about modern African comics. The problem of preserving the culture and language of the small nations of Russia will be revealed at the Living Language exhibition by the artist Sanna Hukkanen from Finland, and a meeting with Craig Thomson, author of the graphic novel, will be held in the Conference Hall of the Russian State Library for Youth Blankets. "

Also, visitors to the KomMissiya are waiting for master classes for children, meetings with publishers, a comic flea market where anyone can sell or exchange their comics and summarize the results of the Russian contest among young comic artists. You can get acquainted with the competitive exhibition and vote for the best comic in one of the halls of the Museum of Moscow. Competition entries are available for viewing on the project website.