Maker Faire Moscow, Russia’s biggest festival bringing together cutting-edge technologies and traditional crafts, was launched three years ago by the FabLab digital production laboratory based at NITU “MISA”. This year the festival will be held at Gorky Park, in collaboration with Garage Museum of Contemporary Art.
Maker Faire Moscow is a festival embracing people who create something new from scratch, initiate new trends in the fields of design, education and urban development, and organize groundbreaking start-ups and experimental laboratories, while working at the intersection of art and technology. Anyone is welcome to become a “maker”, if they are willing to create handmade things using traditional or modern tools.
In 2018, the celebration of Moscow city’s 871st anniversary will make the involvement of artists working with technology-savvy mediums alongside DIY inventors, i.e. Maker Faire Moscow participants possible. With the history of Maker Faire dating back to its inaugurate, 2006 Californian edition, today Maker Faire has become the world’s most famous festival of technologies and popular science, whose main mission is bringing attention to the infinite opportunities for self-fulfillment and creativity.
The mission of Garage and Gorky Park as the festival’s partners is to support diverse initiatives and experimental endeavors, as well as laying the foundation for creating an infrastructure for self-fulfillment within a comfortable creative environment. Coinciding with Garage’s 10th and Gorky Park’s 90th anniversary, this year will also see the opening of the historical entry to the park via Leninsky Avenue, that will literally connect the partners with Maker Faire Moscow’s original venue—NITU “MISA”.
The festival’s program addresses audiences of all ages and doesn’t demand any special skills or knowledge, as any visitor will be able to find an area of interest to them, listen to Russian and international speakers, view presentations of innovative products, or demonstrate their own inventions. Throughout the weekend, over 200 participants, or “makers”, will have the chance to display their achievements and reveal the nuances of their mastership.
Included in this year’s program are presentations of 3D printers and mechatronic dinosaurs; experiments with “intelligent” lights; the introduction of traditional blacksmith and jewelry crafts, media artists, and digital artworks.