Magisc AltaiChivaja Woda - Magic Water -


was the name of a festival, which took place in July 2002 in Siberia. One day in Novosibirsk, the capital of Siberia, and three days in the Mountains, at a wonderful meadow near Tchemal, this discrepancy already shows the wide range of this festival, The program and the conception of the festival is online at etnofest.nsk.ru, in russian language, but some of the participating musicians are introduced in english language as well.

Map of Altai in Southern Siberia The Autonome Republic of the Russian Federation Gorno Altai is situated where the four countries Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and the Russian Federation meet, even more southern than the Autonome Republic of Tuva.


The Government of the Autonome Republic Gorno Altai hardly works to support the local and ethnic cultures. Since some years, a summer festival is organized to celebrate ethnic music. This year, our friend Nikolai Dmitriev was artistic director.
The Festival is organised by Fond Juri Kondratschuk and the Society Obedijenije 888, supported by the Institute Open Society of the Soros Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Altai as well as the Goethe-Institute Moscow / Novosibirsk and the Cultural Centre in Moscow.

The Festival Programme consisted of Open-Air-conzerts, Video-Shows of visual anthropolgy, the photo-exhibition People at the Border, a seminar on Art-Management and a Laboratory of Cultural Journalism.

I participated with a lecture on the subject The Internet as a Tool for Cultural Journalists (PDF) and I shot a lot of photographs. Some of my photos are printed meanwhile in russian magazines or will be printed soon.

Alexander Khan wrote the first article on this festival in the magazine "Jeshenedelnij Journal".
My photos illustriate this article. One more proof how useful digital cameras are!

the Website of the Festival Chivaja Woda


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