Vladimir Gabbe

THE FOUNDER AND THE ART DIRECTOR OF PARAJANOV MOSCOW THEATER

You should possess a boundless courage and great sense of tact to take a chance at least to touch the bright, festive and unknown world of Parajanov. You must have the Courage because only the depth of a talent and the interconnectedness give the right to take such an important step. You should possess the Tact because our world is as much infirm and breakable as the pattern on the wings of a butterfly, and have a thing about the careless, raw touches...

Parajanov Moscow Art Theater was founded in 1994. It became the only one in a class by itself laboratory in the world, which devoted its long artistic way to the Figure of a great master.

The invisible magic of the substance is embodied by VLADIMIR GABBE in his artistic plans and ideas. His theater, contrary to the conventional wisdom, starts not from a hanger but from the lobby. We cross the invisible border and get into the different world - bright, festive, foreign, amazing like pattern on the wings of a butterfly. PARAJANOVGRAD ... collages, dolls, assemblages which are dedicated to images and myths of S. Parajanov. Glass beads, pieces of porcelain, lace, dried peel of pomegranate, peacock feathers, pearl shell, hats which look either like luxurious cakes or like graceful birds with unearthly plumage. Any object that can be found here is a direct reason to start a game, to provoke a carnival. And then the usual one glove with a precious ring becomes amazingly beautiful object, which is glad to open us the doors into the new fantastical dimension that will help us to set ourselves up for Parajanov Wave.

So, what is PARAJANOV THEATER and how does it look like? But what if Maestro has planned to create it himself? But did not do that. Did he think about that? No, he didn’t, simply had no time for that. He played! Played, generously endowing us with a string of images. He left us a priceless legacy – a Fantasy which was lifted up into the Shape, Image, Figure!

HIS whole life was focused on the eternal theater with its multi-syllable polyphony and its dependence from the everlasting forces like God, Fate, Destiny and Nature…He left angrily slamming the door to his "country". He left ironically smiling to crowds of "pilgrims" who wanted to make a desperate journey to this country - to the place of mystical tales, magical mirages and ancient collision of truths. Maybe this is what does the Vladimir Gabbe Theater confess...

Which niche among the motley advertising space will take the Theater born from the myth?.. The Theater which didn’t adjoin to any of the existing artistic movements?.. But how frantically does it entice! How greatly does it excite and energize those who remained on the other side of “PARADZHANOV” geography... The space which has return the pristine value of TEMPLE. This theater is not a theater of the bored satiety’s entertainment, but the Theater of participation in the enlightenment.

Stages, which combine in themselves the magic of the cinema and the charm of the theater gives the audience the amazing feeling of reality and life-participation in acts and scenes. The Theater, being not confined by frames of stage or auditorium and following other, even better to say, its own rules and traditions, extend its magical aura onto each of Guests and Visitors of the Theater, involving each of us into the dizzying journey inside OURSELVES...