Nastas'ya Kydryashova is a filmmaker, photographer, writer, theatre director, Art Director of the Chevle Charity Festival, and former Gallery Director of Nehudozhnik Gallery. Her activities and research on the Chuvash people was featured at a conference at Princeton University. Nastas'ya’s recent achievements include her film SÂMAX receiving accreditation at the Cannes Film Festival and was included in the long list of the Short Art Films nomination, serving as the art director of the Shevle art festival as well as orchestrating as the creative director for multiple theatrical and musical events.
The photography and films of Nastas'ya Kydryashova typically focus on the folk customs and arts of the Chuvash people, an ethnic group who mostly reside in Chuvashia republic of Russia. Shot with an arthouse documentary style, Nastas'ya Kydryashova captures the evocative folk dances, tribal body and face markings, as well as the landscape of the Chuvash. These traditional folk dances captured in the film stills and photography contained with the article may remind the viewer of contemporary dance which highlight sensuality and emotive motions. The figures, captured in traditional tribal dress, have a deeply expressive quality based in rich history because the Chuvash people are descendants of the ancient Volga Bulgars, a civilization based on semi-nomadic warrior tribes residing within the Pontic–Caspian steppe between the 5th and 7th century. In these images, the viewer will find not so much figures as fictional actors, but an artistic documentary capturing the poetic musings of these noble people.
With high contrast typically captured in daylight, the Chuvash figures reenact their ancient dances and present their traditional customs based on linear bodily markings shaping the face and body similar to a feline. Their intricate dresses and jewelry contain spikes and spherical shapes, as if representing spears and shields of ancient warriors. The skillful panoramic and theatrical display of the Chuvash actors contained within the photography and films contain a remarkable nobility of a proud, mysterious, and ancient people whose story remains shrouded by remote, mountainous landscapes as the people of the steppe. Some of Nastas'ya Kydryashova’s photographs capture the various cultural musical and artistic festivals celebrating Chuvash culture. These particular photos reveal an enchanted heritage, a series of dances and poses which reflect poetic musing in historical identity rich in mysticism and celestial-like traits, as if these people were one with their environments, at one with the universe.
Festival V. 1 depicts a group of dancers and musicians engaging in cultural posture and celebration. The photograph captures an intense mystical theatrical light resembling intense daylight which brings the main dancer dominant within the space. Motioning with her linear bodily jewelry, she is frozen in a moment of hypnotic jubilee. The remaining musicians act as ‘anchors’ towards the positioning against the raising of the arms of the primary dancer.
An astonishing arthouse documentary filmmaker and photographer, Nastas'ya Kydryashova represents one of the very finest documentative artists within the entire catalogue. Her noble and inspired high-contrast and theatrical display of traditional Chuvash ethnic culture reveals a subject which requires further study. As if she were an archeologist, through her meaningful and artistic capturing of Chuvash dance, body and face markings, actors, and theatrical customs, Nastas'ya Kydryashova reveals an ancient, mysterious culture who engages in artistic expressions which imply connections to other-worldy dimensions, a connection not only to the land but also the universe. Through their unique cultural costumes, tattoos, jewelry and celestial dances, the Chuvash people are immortalized in these thoughtful and accurate portrayals combined with a unique theatrical capturing based on integrating the natural landscape and architecture of this culture combined with evocative motions reminiscent of contemporary dance but based in tradition. Nastas'ya Kydryashova’s photographs and films are case studies in how documentary art can be elevated for conceptual purposes, such as raising the symbolism of individual cultures to have meaning beyond our initial impressions or associations.