Sergey Kuryokhin International Festival (SKIF) is a festival of modern art, based on the concept of Pop Mekhanika, the multicultural project of the outstanding Russian pianist, composer, writer and public figure who died untimely death in 1996. Kuryokhin's long-time partner cellist Boris Raiskin conceived the festival in New York City. SKIF-1 and SKIF-2 took place in New York in 1997 and 1998.

In October 1998 SKIF-3 moved where it belongs - to St.Petersburg, the city where Kuryokhin lived and worked. The four preceding festivals turned into multimedia events which featured more than 500 musicians, DJs, visual artists, photographers, dancers, movie-makers, authors, art critics and philosophers from the USA, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Ukraine and of course Russia. The highlights included performances of such world renown artists as "the father of minimalism" Terry Riley, British improvisers and prog rock legends Keith & Julia Tippett, founders of Krautrock legendary German group Faust, Sonic Youth's guitarist and leader Thurston Moore, "the Jimi Hendrix of accordion" Kimmo Pohjonen, American jazz legends Rashied Ali, Borah Bergman, Keshavan Maslak, Frank London, Shelly Hirsch and David Moss, Japanese turntable virtuoso Otomo Yoshihide, Tuvan singer Sainkho Nemchulak, leading Russian jazz players Vladimir Tarasov, Vladimir Chekasin, Vyacheskav Gayvoronsky, Vladimir Volkov, Misha Aleprin, Arkady Shilkloper.

Music performed defies stylistic and aesthetic boundaries. It both draws upon and challenges accepted notions of jazz, rock, classical, ethnic, world etc.

From the outset SKIF, in the true spirit its founder's "Pop-Mechanical" concept, aspired to maintain a truly multi-media nature featuring along with "pure" music dance, theatre, visual arts, film, video, performance art, electronic media and everything else that does not fit into any category.

The festival's venue - St.Petersburg Dvorets Molodezhi - Palace of Youth - is a perfect site for such a feast of arts. Self-contained building with a spacious concert hall, winter-garden type in the huge foyer, gallery, several smaller halls, and a club, it provides room and space for all possible kinds of performances. Everything moves at its own pace simultaneously, and the audiences are free to choose between scores of events - from panel discussions and readings in the afternoon, to various concerts and performances in the course of the night to post midnight rave parties at the foyer.

The festival gives enormous impetus to the cultural life in St.Petersburg, the city world famous not only for its classical heritage but for the traditions of the avant-garde and experimental art. It revives the spirit of St.Petersburg's great citizens: Diaghilev, Malevich, Mayakovsky, Khlebnikov, Kharms - and Kuryokhin. The combination of immensely rich cultural tradition and cutting edge art experimentation makes SKIF one of Europe's most interesting cultural events.

The Sergey Kuryokhin Foundation is supported by the City of St.Petersburg, foreign embassies and by the cultural organizations from different countries. The Project is expected to appeal to creative young people and general public interested in modern art. Its objective is support of the ideas of free creativity. The organizers hope the Festival will provide an active mechanism of communication for creative people of different countries.

See information on SKIF festival on www.kuryokhin.com, www.kuryokhin.spb.ru