The city's newest club has just been launched in the notorious art bohemian hangout at 10 Pushkinskaya Ulitsa.
The Art Clinic operates from the Salvador Dali Art Gallery, which was founded by Russian artist Kirill Miller in 1991. Soon after its opening, the club turned into a center for artistic nightlife, drawing more than the 50 or 60 people that the place can actually hold.
The club's owner urges the public to come early or even buy tickets in advance which are available from the Rock Castle music shop on 47 Ligovsky Prospect. The new club was conceived not as an ordinary music club, but as what Miller calls a "rock cabaret." Apart from rock band performances, Art Clinic organizes its trademark theater shows directed by Aleksei Merkushev, which feature actors of the Formal Theater and Terra Mobile company. These shows are the club's main speciality. A considerable percentage of the audience comes primarily for the performances, not so much to see bands play. The shows, which are partly improvised, include everything from clowns and juggling to dramatic routines.
Miller is aiming for an expensive club, because he considers a current entrance cost of 10,000 roubles inadequate for these kind of shows, but he decided to keep the fee low at first to let more people see it in its early days. In future the club will play host to a more well-heeled audience.
Well-known art critic Mikhail Trofimenkov compared the place to the long-forgotten cafe theaters which existed in Paris in the beginning of the century.
The music program is also well thought out by the club's managers, who prefer "more gentle stuff, nothing too rough." Such local bands as Voices of Youth and Black Angels have already played there. Exhibitions, which are held in the same room as the concerts, consist of works made by Miller himself, but he plans to organize other artists' exhibitions in future. Currently one can see Miller's series of paintings called "Russian Erotic Attractions," which is based on the painter's impressions of erotic theaters in Hamburg. The exhibition will continue until May 1. Art Clinic has its own "Chemist Shop" -- an "art bar" where customers are welcomed to improve their health by beer or stronger liquors! It is open throughout the week, during the gallery's working hours.