Another step into the unknown: a video about a journey through Great Tartary was created by a team from Tomsk.
The video is based on the plot of a book by a Tomsk artist and book designer. Olga Nechaeva "Great Tartary and Her Seven Guests." She also created the concept, script, storyboard, and illustrations for the magical video.
“It all started in December 2023, — she said NotMoscow Olga. "My friends and I—artists in the broadest sense of the word: ceramicist and restorer Yaroslava Bespalova, her husband, director and musician Alexander Bespalov—were putting together the first exhibition based on the book. They're always open to experimentation, combining genres and different arts. And one day, just before the opening, Sasha suddenly sat down at the piano in the hallway of the House of Arts and announced, 'Song!' That's how we first heard what would become the basis for the music video a year later."
In the book “Great Tartary and its seven guests”, about which NotMoscow I told you in detail back in November 2022, eight main characters: herself Tartary (the territory now known to us as Siberia) and the travelers who came there with various goals. And in the video, Nechaeva explained, another character appears: a child traveler, just like many of the readers.
"He sees Tartary in a dream. Waking up, he decides to travel following the bird-vision from his dream and finds himself in a world where his dreams come true. Tartary, a symbol of the unknown and new paths, becomes his friend and grants him the ability to fly, as he did in his dream." — says Olga.
The main idea of the book "Great Tartary and Its Seven Guests" is a step into the unknown: new territory, new business, new people, new eras.
"In the first months after the book's release, there were book festivals, meetings, interviews, master classes, and lectures. Then the Tomsk House of Arts suggested putting on an exhibition based on the book—we created an interactive play space based on the book. — Nechaeva recalls. "And six months later, the exhibition left Tomsk and traveled to other Siberian cities: Tartaria set out to discover itself! We've already been to Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, and our immediate plans include Novosibirsk and Omsk."
Olga Nechaeva is currently designing a board game based on "Tartaria." It will be a cherished adventure for families or groups, with the ability to adjust the difficulty and depth of the game.
"We're already thinking about an animated series that would introduce viewers to the book's characters. After all, the book only includes brief mentions, and each of them has a story to tell.", says Olga.