The Student Team
 

Anastasia Belogortseva, Anna Varankina, Alexandra Golovina, Valeria Davydova, Darya Zinovskaya, Vadim Issers, Alyona Kupriyanova, Vladislav Lobko, Yegor Maksimov, Inga Nellina, Dmitry Podlyagaev, Nadira Sardarova, Polina Timoshenko, Danil Tkachev, Maria Fomina, Yelizaveta Sharipova

 

Guides and Magical Helpers
 

The expedition took place on the island of Kilpola – a spot not far from the place where Roerich once lived on a smaller neighboring island. Here, it’s easy to encounter a moose, wild boar, or hare, to be startled by the nighttime silence, to see stars and the northern lights, to feast on blueberries, and to fill a basket with chanterelles within minutes.

 

One of the skerries hosts the retreat center “Ostrov” (“Island”) which served as the workshop’s base camp. The center offers a modest asceticism well-suited to the expedition’s purpose: the menu is meat-free, there’s almost no cell reception or Wi-Fi, facilities are outdoors, and you’re expected to wash your own dishes. Yet only a hundred meters from the cabins, you’re surrounded by wild forest, and without an offline map, it’s easy to get lost in it. Under the guidance of the center’s founder, Alexander Argelander, the participants ventured into the most remote parts of the forest. Such walks showed that the sacred remains inaudible in a crowd; it requires solitude and silence.



Contrary to the harsh northern stereotype, the Karelian Isthmus dazzles with an incredible variety of colors and landscapes. Landscape engineer Evgeny Levin – a highlight of the trip – helped the group of students appreciate the genius of evolution and the divine beauty of natural forms. Walking kilometers along trails (and often off-trail as well), they frequently stopped to admire nature’s designs. Here, a boulder with a sloping edge forms a platform for a delicate composition: fern fronds grow through a moss carpet, yellow birch leaves scatter gracefully, a red berry adds a focal point, and a mushroom balances the arrangement. Symbiosis, beauty, and harmony – a beautiful name for a new chapter! Moving on, they find marvelous wetland meadows that filter heavy metals from water, and smooth stone basins within granite – Jun’ya Ishigami’s work is impressive, but even he cannot match the natural perfection of the shapes created by the waves. Nearby, colorful lichens resemble a fisherman’s camouflage jacket. Succession, root systems, material cycling, fungal networks – the group eagerly scribbled notes. Evgeny’s enthusiasm was infectious, connecting what they saw with real-life applications: sponge cities, shade and rain gardens.



The packed schedule included not only forest hikes but also lectures, qigong, plein air painting sessions, and various workshops, ensuring no one left without answers. Victoria Gavalidi acted as a catalyst for the group’s mental explorations, keeping everyone on their toes with questions that sparked discussion. With each hour, ideas about the sacred multiplied, definitions grew more complex, sometimes gaining clarity, sometimes losing it. Grigorios Gavalidis, a skilled moderator, helped keep thoughts grounded, guiding and refining them. Yet, at one fireside “meeting”, he observed, “We won’t find the sacred. First, you need to understand who you are, define the person”.

Perhaps he was right – understanding the sacred is a journey, one that may never reach a definitive truth. Yet there is great value in the search itself.



There was also space for leisure – an essential part of the creative life. Free time was used in myriad ways: some of the students painted, others climbed hills to commune with the local spirit, or floated on paddleboards in the cold waters of Lake Ladoga, feeling like explorers landing on untouched islands. Many rose before dawn to greet the sun from the water. They drank tea with Vasily. And in these quiet moments, perhaps, they best heard their own inner voice.



Where the Moose Goes

Talking about the sacred in the language of nature proved to be quite simple: participants frequently referred to roots, cycles of life and death, adaptation, and symbiosis, all while gazing at the endlessly diverse patterns around them. At one point, the moose became a symbol for their discussions. Where is it headed, and what is it thinking? Grigorios shared his experience of encountering this creature on a forest path – it seemed to an urban dweller like an alien being, its eyes reflecting the wisdom of the universe. The tale of the moose even made its way to Sergey Kuznetsov upon their return to Moscow.



As a result, each participant found their own sense of the sacred, which they will express through drawings and text for the collective book. The students also collected various artifacts during the expedition to create a unified panel. A third outcome of the workshop will be a film that intersperses reflections on the sacred with scenes of the Karelian landscapes. Given the intensive work of two cameramen, it promises to be visually stunning.

The festival’s final exhibition, which will showcase the outcomes of the Karelian expedition, will take place in November at the “Ruin” wing of the Shchusev Museum of Architecture.

This journey was made possible through the support of like-minded companies, including Tegola, Arkhitail, and the Timeless project.