June 24, 2008

Mr Greenaway highly evaluated the project’s idea. To his view, a letter is a live organism. The movie director pledged to participate in the exhibition in September and organize the retrospective screening of his films which will make the project more expressive and prove calligraphy is not a “dead art”. Mr Greenaway was quoted saying that “Typography is prose, and calligraphy is poetry. And we all need it”.

May 30 - June 1, 2008
In the Moscow Country Club there has taken place one of the most unusual and prestigious Russian exhibitions – Elite Life 2008 . This event has attracted the interest of guests among whom there were businessmen, representatives of embassies from the whole world, management service members of the diplomatic corps, and representatives of creative elite of Russia.

The MGIMO University welcomed the evening of Slavic music and writing “Kaleidoscope of cultures: when a dialogue gives birth to unity” organized by the MGIMO Graduates association jointly with MVK and the Bolshoi Theater of Russia. Thus the event has united many people who value the Russian culture. A special guest of the presentation master Chen Wen-Fu was a centre of the exhibition – he showed his unique skill of writing calligraphy.

The head of the International Exhibition of Calligraphy Alexey Shaburov, Petr Chobitko and Andrey Kostrov visited the saint spring “Gremyachiy” of the Sergius of Radonezh. It is very hard to get to this holly spring, but it was important to go there so as to get new powers for realization of MVK’s patriotic project. Ancient legends tell that the Saint Sergius while going from Troitsa to Kirzhach six centuries ago stayed here for a long time. Everyday he prayed the God to give the Russians power and will, and enlighten them. The God heard him and as a symbol of his goodwill a spring came from a crevice…

The project participants have signed a written document establishing a union of calligraphers. The Union of Russian calligraphers will unite the masters from all over the world, and lay the foundation for the development of this beautiful art in Russia.

The framework of the International Exhibition of Calligraphy Presentation at the Euroexpofurniture-2008 included a master-class of the famous Chinese calligrapher Chen Wen-Fu. He pulled out all the stops by his unique skill "Ming Shu". In a "calligraphic rage" to the strains of Chinese music and in the odour of oriental fragrances master Chen Wen-Fu was writing with his eyes closed. His act sparked a furor and caused many interviews and dozens of questions.

The framework of the EEM'2008 exhibition included a official presentation of the International Exhibition of Calligraphy. The project initiator Aleksey Shaburov, Director general of MVK International Exhibition Company , and Andrei Lapshin, the President of MVK, led the opening of presentation and the exposition of the leading world calligraphers.The ceremony was attended by many honoured guests. Calligraphers from different countries could communicate and discuss the related issues. The first laser show was organized in the framework of the International Exhibition of Calligraphy.

A new MVK International Calligraphic project was introduced in the framework of the Russian Educational Forum. For 3 days a Chinese calligrapher Chen Wen-Fu has been presenting his art works. The Master broke the record by creating 150 calligraphic works which he presented to the willing visitors. Mr Chen Wen-Fu was bestowed with the Diploma for participation in the Russian Educational Forum and active project support.

Meeting of project team

March 31 - April 1, 2008
Aleksey Shaburov, the Head of the International Calligraphic Exhibition, and his team visited St Petersburg. The main purpose of the meeting was signing the rental agreement with the owner of the exhibition grounds. The team got an opportunity to meet Petr Chobitiko, who granted his recently published Azbukovnik to the fund of the Exhibition, and Dmitry Petrovsky who spoke about the difficulties of calligraphers’ training. Andrei Kostrov granted his collection of writing utensils.