The Kavkaz.RF stand at the KIF will creatively reimagine the infrastructure of the Mamison resort.
The plywood art pieces on the large mountain range will feature not only artifacts from the Mamison Gorge but also domestically produced cable car equipment, including the country's first detachable clamp, a control and automation cabinet, and software from the Ruslet company. The stand was developed by a team of contemporary artists from the newnow association, whose main goal was to connect industrial development and natural beauty through art.
"People come to the mountains hoping to escape the digital world. That's why we're prioritizing 'physics' in our exhibition—ammonites from Elbrus, sand and shells from the Caspian Sea. Even the texts are printed simply on plywood, so nothing distracts from the essence. We'll invite visitors to listen to Mamison's voices, recorded during a research expedition to the ancient village of Lisri, and also to create their own summer route calendar." On the mornings of April 28th and 29th, we'll be organizing a mediation session for the exhibition and booth for KIF participants. Its goal is to help them look at investment projects and the region's economic development holistically and from a new perspective," explains Tatyana Baeva, Communications Director at Kavkaz.RF.
Investors will also have plenty to do at the booth: Kavkaz.RF's own lecture hall will host presentations of new products from the team—the construction company Kavkaz-Engineering, the Association for the Development of Human Resources of the North Caucasus Federal District, the career portal, the Certification Center for Cable Car Systems, and the investment hub. Participants will also be able to learn about the main ideas of Kavkaz.RF's new strategy through 2030, which is currently in the final stages of development.
"Kavkaz.RF isn't an exhibition in the traditional sense. There's no time for prolonged contemplation; it's a space for quick reading. And yet, within it, a complex story must be told: about the location, the infrastructure, the resort, and the cultural layers." And here the challenge arose: how to capture the sense of Mamison's multilayered nature within a very organic, physical space. We quickly realized that a linear narrative wouldn't work, so we began thinking spatially. We presented the pavilion not as a stand, but as a fragment of the landscape. Not an illustration of mountains, not a decorative reference, but a structure you can enter. And the key metaphor here is a gorge, where you can't see everything at once, where the image is constantly fragmented, and there's no way to anticipate the final picture until you've completed the route. This is the main idea: the viewer becomes not an observer, but a participant in the movement," explain Margo Makarova and Ulya Savich, artists from the newnow group, the authors of the concept.
The Caucasus Investment Forum will be held from April 28 to 30 in Mineralnye Vody. Kavkaz.RF has been the event's general partner since its inception. The Development Institute is organizing five discussion sessions dedicated to the company's key areas of expertise: mountain resort construction and import substitution, development of special economic zones, personnel training and labor productivity, attracting investment, and working with creative industries.
In addition, agreements are planned for joint personnel training with the Rosa Khutor resort, cooperation with Headhunter, and the joint development of an investment hub with several banks operating in the North Caucasus Federal District.