Maxim Kantor is a famous artist, writer, publicist, art historian, professor and academician of the Russian Academy of Arts. The Washington Post called him "a great man with a great idea." The artist's paintings are in 20 museums around the world, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), the British Museum, the Bochum Museum of Art, the Berlin National Gallery, the Canberra Museum, the Luxembourg National Museum, as well as in private collections around the world. Maxim Kantor graduated from the Moscow Polygraphic Institute in 1980. In 1983 he founded the underground group "Red House" in Moscow. In 1984, at the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, he was the organizer and speaker of a one-day exhibition of the group.

Engaged in art research to a greater extent, he often acts as a guest speaker at famous universities, libraries, and museums around the world. Maxim Kantor is an honorary member of Pembroke College, Oxford University, a visiting fellow at St. Anthony's College, Oxford University, a professor at Notre Dame University in Indiana, USA, an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts and an honorary doctor of the University of Turin.

In addition, Maxim Kantor is a famous writer. In 1993, he began his literary career with a collection of short stories "House in the Wasteland" with his own illustrations. The novel "Drawing Textbook" was shortlisted for the Big Book Prize (2006) and the Russian Booker Prize (2006). The novel "Red Light" (2013) was shortlisted for the National Bestseller literary prize (2013) and shortlisted for the Big Book Prize (2013), and was also translated into French and German. In total, Maxim Kantor has written more than 33 books.

The event was attended by representatives of the diplomatic corps, the creative intelligentsia of Kazakhstan, artists and illustrators of Astana, museum staff, book and literary clubs, teachers and students of universities and colleges, librarians and readers.