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What is the BezGraniz festival?

The BezGraniz festival (full name “BezGraniz: body, society, culture”) by the social BezGraniz (NoBorders) project  is social initiative that struggles to change the views held by society regarding people with disabilities. This year’s BezGraniz festival is dedicated to the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games. The festival starts on on March 11. It’s main goal, — just like the main goal of the whole BezGraniz project, — is to try and change the society’s habit of treating people with disabilities as if they were invisible, — as well as to try and change the habit of Russian press to treat disability as an invisible issue.

This year’s Bezgraniz festival goes beyond the scope of the disability issue and deals with the great variety of themes regarding the relationships between body and contemporary society. We are sure that everyone who is interested in modern culture, technology, art, fashion and other hot topics will find something to see, hear and discuss on the versatile list of BezGraniz-2014 events.

 

What is the festival’s program?

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This year’s BezGraniz festival will be built around three major activities: a unique photography exhibition named Acropolis, a diverse program of  free public lectures from some of the Russia’s most prominent researchers in the field and a workshop on creating clothes for people with disabilities.

•    The Acropolis photography exhibition will take place in DI Telegraph on Tverskaya str., in the very heart of Moscow. Its central mural – a major 2×3 square meters piece – was created for BezGraniz project by a great contemporary artist Irina Bordo. On this photo, the bodies of models with disabilities replicate the famous figures of the ancient Acropolis statues. Backstage photos from the photoshoot, as well as various additional content elements, form an exciting unique art project showcasing the many-sided understanding of Beauty and the variety and complexity of it’s forms in the contemporary world.

•    At the same venue an impressive line of festival events will take place, including  public lectures, master-classes, activities for children and conferences, — all exploring the diverse topic of body/society relations from different perspectives;

•    A workshop will be held to teach both professional designers and those who have interest in fashion: this will give the workshop guest a chance to understand the specifics of cut, fabric, aesthetics and logic behind the fashion for those with special needs.

Who stands behind the BezGraniz festival?

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The BezGraniz festival is held by the BezGraniz social project – an international initiative working with multiple issues related to the public perception of disability. As well as offering practical solutions for people with disabilities, — for example, a special headhunting agency, — BezGraniz regularly creates large-scale social projects aimed to change the ways people see, perceive and treat a ‘different’ body.

BezGraniz makes an effort to reduce the irrational fear and disbelief people feel towards a different body, — fear and disbelief that mainly exist due to the lack of information and understanding. On the other hand, we try to help people with ‘different’ bodies to stop feeling excluded, marginalized and rejected by society. Using a variety of approaches, we try to make disability and disabled people more visible in the Russian society – in both literal and symbolic meanings. That’s why we constantly introduce projects that center on ‘visibility improvement’ and ‘attitude correction’. One of such projects is our large-scale BezGraniz Couture International Fashion Biennale that supports those fashion designers designers who create clothes and accessories for people with special needs. The biennale years alternate with special-project years, and multi-genre BezGraniz festival is our newest project of the kind.

The Acropolis festival brings together scientists, artists, enterpreneurs, journalists, designers, writers and other public figures. Together we form a unique team that tries to make as many people as possible aware and supportive of our goals.

 

Quotes and comment about BezGraniz festival

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Here are some things that Acropolis friends and partners and participants share in regards with the BezGraniz festival and with the central mural of the Acropolis photography exhibition.

And here are some things press and bloggers wrote on BezGraniz:

The BezGraniz team would like to express their deepest gratitude to all those who write about us and, in general, support us in so may ways.

 

Getting in touch

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Would you like to get in touch/get involved in the BezGraniz festival? Here are some ways to do it:

E-mail: press@acropolis-now.org
Tel: +7 926 845 12 60
Adres: 115191 Moscow, 4th Roshinsky pr-d, 19, 903

See you at the Festival!

 

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