We invite those who are interested in making creative content and possess a set of relevant competencies. The contest is for you if you are a practising media artist, light artist, designer, multimedia specialist, sound designer, composer, architect, engineer, technologist, decorator, student or graduate of Russian and foreign universities and colleges, as well as creative associations, design studios, and more.

Applications for participation in the contest can be submitted both individually and by teams from Russia and abroad.

Participants' ages must not exceed 35 years. If the application for participation is submitted by a collective, the team must include individuals who are under 35 years of age.

The contest identifies and supports young people working in the field of media art and lighting technologies.

We help to unlock creative potential and gain new professional competences. We provide resources for the creation of new projects and present these projects to the professional community and a wider audience.
We establish new professional connections, form a community, and create a fertile ground for the emergence of new creative teams, alliances, and collaborations.

We cultivate an audience for the perception of light and media art, helping to foster an openness to new and progressive ideas.

In-person stages will take place at the territory of the State Museum-Reserve Gatchina, while other events will be held online.

For the first time, the competition includes a cultural research laboratory, whose participants will first theoretically attend online lectures and then literally walk around the city to study the multi-layered historical and cultural context of Gatchina. The laboratory will be curated by Lisa Savina, a teacher, curator and producer of cultural projects, co-founder of the Sparta Foundation for Cultural Initiatives.

We have included a large block of workshops to develop creative and technical competences. The lectures and trainings will be led by the most in-demand specialists in the creative sphere, whose work can be seen at the most famous venues.

During the first several months we will just periodically meet online, in zoom conferences, participation in the contest will not interfere with your work and other activities.

The main offline events of the contest will take place in the city of Gatchina, Leningradskaya oblast. There will be a three-day field lab in May, getting to know the city and the museum, forming concepts. And also the main step will be the 10 days long art residency in August, when the contest teams will be living in Gatchina together and on locations in the Gatchina Museum.

The results of the contest will be presented at the festival of light and media art “Light Nights” in Gatchina at the end of August. The jury will evaluate 20 works by the participants and select the winners in the categories ‘video’ and ‘objects’.

The laboratory invites participants to read several layers of the city:

• Historical: Every city has an author, which includes not only the royal family that significantly influenced the town's formation but also those who built and transformed the urban space –– both physical and semantic — leaving tangible or meaningful traces
• Emotional: This aspect is perceived when the viewer rejects “automatic perception” and allows themselves to experience the space as a reflection.
• Everyday: as a passive consumer, a leisurely stroller, or a resident who walks through the city, the citizen shapes the urban ornament, becoming part of this text. Through their behaviour — whether individual or collective — they form different patterns.
• Literary: each part of the city has its own legend, described or preserved in oral folklore. It allows for reflection on all layers through the lens of text — written or unwritten — and creates a personal vision of the space.

Applications are accepted until November 1, 2024, in electronic form through the application form.

The application must include:

1. A completed application form for participation in the Contest. The application can be filled out in either Russian or English.
2. A portfolio (individually or as part of a team) that allows for the assessment of the applicant's professional level and experience (it may include photographs and videos of completed works as well as sketches). The portfolio should be compiled into a presentation with active links to the works.
3. A motivational letter in free form. Please explain why you want to participate in the Contest and answer the following questions:

• Why is participating in the Contest important to you?
• What results do you expect from participating in the Contest?
• Are you confident that you are ready to go through the entire long marathon of the Contest stages and reach the realisation of your future project?
• How ready are you to collaborate with other participants in the Contest?
• How can your experience be beneficial to your colleagues, and what experience/knowledge/skills are you lacking that you would like to acquire during the Contest?