The Message to Man International Film Festival is fast approaching—on 17–25 October, St. Petersburg will, for the thirty-fifth time, become a gathering place for cinephiles. Among the many arts traditionally represented at the event, the art of connection reigns supreme, and the anniversary is a perfect occasion to reflect on that.
To mark the celebration, St. Petersburg artists have created a series of drawings dedicated to the centaur—the Festival’s iconic symbol. The Imperial Porcelain Factory will release a unique limited edition of themed pieces featuring artwork by Leonid Tskhe, while the Rodina Cinema Centre will host a true Centauriad: an exhibition of Festival posters presenting the finest anniversary designs from a contest held in collaboration with the HSE Art and Design School International.
The Festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives, and the St. Petersburg Committee for Culture.
THIRTY-FIFTH CENTAUR
The centaur—the emblem of Message to Man, originally inspired by Nadia Rusheva’s drawing Little Centaur with a Wreath and transformed into the Festival’s main prize through the artistry of Dmitry Pakhomov—naturally takes centre stage in the jubilee celebrations.
Four young St Petersburg artists contributed to the creation of the 35th Festival’s poster. Sasha Kokacheva, Leonid Tskhe, Ilya Ovsyannikov, and Marya Dmitrieva offered their interpretations of this central symbol.
In a spirited creative contest, Sasha Kokacheva’s work prevailed. Her enigmatic centaur glimmering through the “transparent dusk of pensive St. Petersburg nights” will greet guests of the event from its official posters. Select works by these artists will be featured in the Festival catalogue and on the Message to Man website.
“The little centaur became the defining image—a symbol of liminality and duality, faintly emerging from the landscape, both part of its surroundings and transcending them. For me, it embodies the human search within the city, an attempt to bridge the inner and outer worlds, reality and myth. It’s an image of boundaries—between youth and strength, myth and reality, memory and the present. St. Petersburg unfolds here not through architectural details but through a chromatic atmosphere, where darkness and light, humidity and clarity craft an emotional portrait of the space. By weaving the centaur into the landscape, I speak of humanity, ever poised between the real and the mythological, the personal and the collective,” says Sasha Kokacheva, artist and creator of the official poster for the 35th Message to Man Festival.
“I must admit, it was both moving and flattering to be invited to collaborate with Message to Man. The Festival has grown alongside my own coming of age in St. Petersburg. As a schoolgirl attending preparatory courses at the ‘Mukha’ (Stieglitz Academy) and later during my studies, my route always took me past the Dom Kino on Manege Square, and during Festival days, my friends and I would gather after classes to watch the participating films. In my concept, I sought to expand and reimagine the centaur symbol through the lens of abstraction. I reflected on growing up, the expanding universe, icy asteroids, and the value of experience that fosters growth, no matter the obstacles,” says artist Marya Dmitrieva.
“The image I arrived at is more closely linked to the first part of the Festival’s name and the theme of transmitting information. In ‘Sirens of Titan’ by Kurt Vonnegut, there’s a character, an intelligent robot named Salo, tasked with delivering a message across the universe to distant worlds. In the end, we learn it’s a simple dot, meaning ‘Hello!’ in the language of the cosmos. This clarity and beauty of the initial impulse inspired my design, with the centaur becoming both messenger and message,” says artist Ilya Ovsyannikov.
HANDLE WITH CARE
The anniversary marks a return to perhaps the most refined collaboration in its history. In the 1990s, the renowned Imperial Porcelain Factory produced a series of original commemorative plates to mark the occasion of the Festival.
In 2025, porcelain and cinema will meet once again—participants, guests, jury members, partners, and members of the Festival Organising Committee will receive limited-edition gift plates featuring a centaur illustration by artist Leonid Tskhe. Produced by the Imperial Porcelain Factory, the series will be limited to just 200 pieces.
CENTAURIAD: FROM NADIA RUSHEVA TO TODAY
Throughout the Festival week, from 17 to 25 October, guests will have a chance to see posters from various years on two floors of the Rodina Cinema Centre. From drawings by the Soviet prodigy Nadia Rusheva to designs by Dmitry Pakhomov, the exhibition unfolds the many transformations of Message to Man’s central symbol—the little centaur with a laurel wreath. The display culminates in the posters created by young designers who took part in a contest held in collaboration with the HSE Art and Design School International.
The competition garnered 256 submissions, offering a wealth of creative interpretations of the Festival’s anniversary poster. Peace, connection, resilience, youth, the dream of a better world, and truth at 24 frames per second—young designers explored the central themes of Message to Man through diverse media and techniques. The main prize was awarded to Nikita Tarasov. Dasha Semenova received the award for Original Concept, while Vlada Lesovaya and Daria Levitskaya were recognised For Clarity. Pavel Shkvyra was honoured For Technical Excellence, and special jury mentions for illustration as an independent graphic art form were given to Gleb Shevtsov and Ekaterina Aleshchenko. The exhibition will also feature graphic works by Marya Dmitrieva, Sasha Kokacheva, Ilya Ovsyannikov, and Leonid Tskhe.
The Centauriade exhibition is presented with the support of the St. Petersburg A–Ya Society. The curatorial team includes Yulia Shulgina, curator at ROSPHOTO and the St. Petersburg A–Ya Society, and Nadia Kovaleva, independent curator and art mediator.
“The exhibition is a treasure trove of visual imagery reflecting the philosophy of Message to Man—a pursuit of freedom in artistic method and authorial vision, unbound by borders, driven by experimentation, and exploring the world. ‘Centauriad’ deliberately blends diverse visual forms across generations, creating a polyphony of interpretations of the Festival’s central symbol,” say curators Yulia Shulgina and Nadia Kovaleva.