Hot borsch.
The children's Railway
New Year comes!
Dr. Matthias Nowack take an interest in Natascha's Handicraft
Our friends and competitors
Speyer. Christmas Fair - 2000
|
Hot borsch.
The children's Railway
New Year comes! |
Dr. Matthias Nowack take an interest in Natascha's Handicraft |
Our friends and competitors |
It was not so long ago since one of the best handcrafters in Kursk Skornjakova Natasha returned from Speyer, Germany. She works as a hohloma painter. It had been a half of a year before her invitation to Germany that our town had been visited by a German official delegation. The delegation estimated her work very high and invited her to Speyer to introduce the Old Russian folk painting art to the Germans. We are very grateful to the Glotovs, Sergey and Natasha, for their help in managing that trip. Apart from her own works Skornjakova Natasha took the works of her mother Tinkova Raisa. Tinkova Raisa draws still lives and landscapes of the Kursk region. The paintings were very popular in Speyer as well as the works of Natasha. So now we can say that Natasha and her mother became famous in the distant country, Germany. We are very glad to know that the Germans expressed their hope to see Natashaās and her motherās works again and again in Germany. If you donāt want to wait for too long you can order the works right now. Any of the works are unique and have their own authorās autograph.
Was it difficult to take part in the fair? Yes, it was. Hohloma is widely introduced in Germany; moreover our towns are the partners. Any business (hohloma, for example) has its two parts:
ö the biggest part has the aim to provide the simplest and cheapest product for mass. Such product can be copied in a mass way;
ö the smallest one is for people who estimate fine art. Unique things cannot be mass.
Any of Natashaās work is unique. That is why it did not seem strange that the German press (Die Rheinpfalz of 18.12.2000 and 19.12.2000) expressed such a great interest to Natasha and her art. Association with the Germans was not a great problem for Natasha because she speaks English quite well. So people coming to the fair to see her by the work were able to hear the story of the ancient history of the Old Russian folk art. It seems to us that one of the most important things is good association among the ordinary people of the different countries. During the fair visitors were able to get the answers to their questions.
Now, we want to say a few words of the fair itself. The Christmas fair is an annual fair in Speyer. It begins 4 weeks before the Catholic Christmas and lasts almost till the Christmas Eve. Every week two towns ö the partners of Speyer make exhibitions of culture and art of their countries. We were lucky, as our exhibition was the last one, the closest to the Christmas. Managing the fair Speyer provided us great help. Our special thanks to Mr. Ernst Frank and his wife Ms. Inga Frank who did all their best to provide a roomy place for the exhibition of the Kursk ö Speyer society and good conditions for our presentation. We are also very grateful to Rudi and Ingrid Kolbing for their help in managing Natashaās performance in the fair and the supermarket. They were very kind and hospital to us. We would like to greet all our friends who were there with us. Our personal thanks to Dr. Mattias Novak for the cooperation. During the fair our group was supplied by free food, which was very important for us; we were able to taste different food of different countries. Nevertheless, on my point of view, Russian cookery is the best. I am proud of the Russian girls (although they live in Germany, they are still Russian deeply inside) who prepared so unbelievably tasty hot borsh (hot soup) and home made cakes. It was unforgettable.
In conclusion, we want to say that the fair was just unforgettable event in our life. There so many friends now in Germany that nobody of us had expected!
Our best regards to all our friends in Germany!
