“Sharvili” (2023) is an immersive audio route with an ascent to Mount Kelez-Khev in the largest village of Dagestan — Akhty. As you progress along the route, you become acquainted with fragments from the poetic epic “Sharvili”, traditional Lezghin chants and musical instruments that are still played by local ashugs to this day, as well as adats and the peculiarities of the mentality of local residents.
The audio performance is a weave of sensory experience linked with the direct passage of the hero’s individual path, on the one hand, and living characters appearing here and there, in the form of living people, material objects or natural forces, on the other hand.
The project consists of an audio guide, printed handmap, mural on the wall in front of the Akhty museum with the special “apple” signs on the streets for route orientation and sound art installation with 19 bells, which symbolize 19 audio guide chapters.
Director: Sofia Melikova
Script writers: Zabit Rizvanov, Bayram Salimov, Sofia Melikova
Sound design: Lev Petrov
Reader: Mikhail Movchanyuk
Musical accompaniment: Akhty folk ensemble of ashugs “Sharvili”
Visual Art: Polina Shumkova
Sound recording was made at the Akhty Center for Traditional Culture and “B4 Sound” recording studio.
Project presentation at the North-Caucasian branch of the State Pushkin Museum in Vladikavkaz, July 2023.
Mentors: Nailya Allahverdieva, Anna Shcherbakova
Festival director: Galina Tebieva
Coordinators: Liliya Galazova, Maria Filatova
PR manager: Lolita Ailyarova
Technical support: Vladimir Skoda, Konstantin Tebiev
Proofreader: Natalya Kodzaeva
Editor of photo and video archives: Evgeniy Ivanov
Text: Anastasia Khaustova, Anna Shcherbakova
The project was implemented within the “Alanika” Contemporary Art Festival with the support of the Presidential Grant Fund in January — June 2023.
Special thanks to the head of the National Museum of the Republic of Dagestan “Akhtyn Local History Museum” Akhmed Daglarov and the head of the Municipal State Institution of the Department of Culture, Sports, Youth Policy and Tourism of the MR “Akhtyn District” Kister Ganieva.
