The 15th International Fair of Contemporary Art ART MOSCOW concluded on September 25 at the Central House of Artists. More than 20,000 people visited the Central House of Artists during the Fair. Thanks to the 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art being held concurrently, art life in the capital intensified noticeably.
ART MOSCOW is an integral part of the Russian art scene for Russian art dealers and collectors. This year Fair left foreign participants with vivid impressions and many valued its positive atmosphere.
Participants, art critics, and experts commented on the substantial changes that could be seen at ART MOSCOW this year. The 15-year-old fair continues to be updated. This was not a result of new works, names, and galleries alone. Each year changes are introduced which serve to substantially advance the project. In particular, the structure of the exhibition space was changed this year. Following international practice, ART MOSCOW offered participants a system of equal showcases. The Fair Expert Council was expanded to include foreign specialists from Great Britain and Germany. In 2011, the Fair strongly announced its plans to become a full-fledged player in the international art community: ART MOSCOW presentations have been held as part of foreign events at the most important venues of the global art scene in Berlin, Cologne, Madrid, and Basel. Consequently, the number of foreign participants and partners of the Fair has increased: 8 new galleries and 18 media partners. A press tour was also organized for foreign journalists.
The Fair financial indicators are comparable to results of previous years.
Total sales at the 15th ART MOSCOW amounted to $4.603 million, of which $2.84 million were direct sales and $1.843 million were deferred payments (reserve). The foreign galleries surpassed domestic galleries this year in the total share of profits at 69% ($2.42 million) versus 31% ($1.083 million).
Among Russian galleries, the three leaders in sales are the Frolov Gallery, the Fine Art Gallery, and the Marina Gisich Gallery. Among foreign galleries, they are Art & Space (Munich), Barbarian Art (Zürich), and Tatiana Mironova (Kiev).
The 15th ART MOSCOW evoked a broad response in the press. The capital's newspapers covered the event:
Fedor Astafiev (RBK Daily, 23 September): "The organizers of Art Moscow have logically decided to focus on western art trading schemes and on western collectors. The Moscow fair presentation was held this year in Berlin, Basel, Madrid, London, and Cologne...Art Moscow persistent orientation toward the West is very plain to see. The most tell-tale sign is the increase in the number of special projects."
Yulia Vinogradova (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, September 23): "Thanks to the successful layout, the Russian galleries were well intermingled with the foreign guests."
Marat Guelman (for RIA Novosti, September 20): "In terms of the presentation itself, very strong and professional art is on display and museum pieces can be seen. One can observe that in course of its existence, passing the various phases of development, Art Moscow has become a business fair."
Participants
20 domestic and 20 foreign galleries took part in the Fair.
Eight new galleries from Salamanca, Havana, Bucharest, Tallinn, Munich, Miami, Turin, and Zürich took part in the Fair for the first time.
The GAGLIARDI ART SYSTEM gallery (Turin, Italy) presented the ironic monumentalism of Italian artist Fabio Viale, creator of the famous marble boat. The ANCA POTERASU gallery (Bucharest, Romania) combined two Romanian art schools of different generations, as represented by the artists Florin Mitroi, Suzana Dan, and Zoltan Bela. The ADORA CALVO (Salamanca, Spain) exhibited works by six Spanish and Latin American artists: Félix Curto, Diego del Pozo, SUSO33, Fernando Sinaga, Anaisa Franco, and Beth Moyses.
We were also joined this year by the COLLAGE HABANA Gallery (Havana, Cuba), bringing the number of Cuban galleries participating in the Fair to two. The Habana gallery exhibited Coincidencias de un Género (Gender Coincidences), which consists of photographies by three Cuban artists.
Among the newcomer galleries promoting Russian artists abroad were the NADYA BRYKINA Gallery (Zürich, Switzerland), the BLACK SQUARE Gallery (Miama, USA), and the ART & SPACE Gallery (Munich, Germany).
The NADYA BRYKINA Gallery exhibited works by famous, non-conformist Russian artists. The BLACK SQUARE gallery brought Dream Catchers project, which includes works by young artists from Switzerland, the Ukraine, Argentina, Japan, and the USA. The exhibits from the ART & SPACE Gallery included a multimedia project by Frieder Weiss, a famous, independent expert in interactive computer systems, working with many media, artists, and collectors around the world. The TEMNIKOVA & KASELLA Gallery (Talin, Estonia) presented a Jaan Toomik video, paintings by the Chinese artist Kaido Ole, and a young artist from Estonia, Merike Estna.
As usual, the distinguished Moscow galleries M&Y GUELMAN, AIDAN, and XL displayed the works of well known Russian artists.
According KROKIN GALLERY (Moscow) curator, Aleksandr Petrovichev, "this year's fair was much more interesting than last year's both in terms of the works and the galleries. A more serious approach can plainly be seen." The KROKIN GALLERY exhibit was rolled out simultaneously across two showcases: a "representative" showcase and an "experimental" showcase. The first presented new works by high-profile creators: Konstantin Batynkov, Alexander Djikia, and Vladimir Semensky. The second showcase was a designer project by the Moscow artist group OPEN GROUP, having been successfully displayed at the last ART MOSCOW. This time the project, named I like it, which consists of a series of paintings, offered a socially interactive experiment with involvement from the public to evaluate specific works of art.
The TRIUMPH Gallery (Moscow) presented part of a new project Allegoria Sacra by the AES+F art group. The distinctive surreal remake of the classic canvas, Allegoria Sacra (Sacred Allegory), by Giovanni Bellini renders a metaphor for modern civilization with its relative values and unified models.
Paintings by Dmitry Shorin, Irina Drozd, Serzh Golovach, Timofei Smirnov, Sergei Shablavin, and Galina Emelina were presented at ART MOSCOW by the FINE ART Gallery (Moscow). The POBEDA Gallery (Moscow) exhibited works using various print technologies by photographers–Charles Grogg, Alexey Titarenko, Irina Polin, Henry Leutwyler, and others – and also an impressive new photo project by The Fourth Height and Urs Bigler art group, which, in the words of the gallery owner, Nina Gomiashvili, evoked the greatest interest from the public.
According to RUARTS Gallery (Moscow) art director Katrin Borisov’s, the gallery "was very pleased to announce its participation in the Fair, having presented eight new projects in all." "Self-portraits" by the Japanese artist Kimiko Yoshida, works by Alina and Jeff Bliumis, a series of paintings– Living Iron by Semen Agroskin, Team by Vita Buyvid, Ifallil by Evfrosina Lavruhina, and miniatures by Alexander Zaharov–and also the The Impossible Love project by the Dutch photographer Cornelie Tollens and photos by Sergey Borisov.
The FotoLoft gallery (Moscow) prepared Katy Belkinà’s project for ART MOSCOW, consisting of two photo series: Empty Spaces and No Man's World. The GLAZ Gallery (Moscow) displayed photographs by Alexander Rodchenko, Tim Parchikov, Harry Gruyaert, and others.
The MIRONOVA Gallery (Kiev) showcased the works of four of the world's leading creators at ART MOSCOW – the American conceptual artist David Datuna, the classic of modern photography Roger Ballen, Andy Warhol's associate William John Kennedy, and the Ukrainian sculptor Anatoly Rotar.
Additionally, three Russian galleries made their début at ART MOSCOW: GREEN ART (Perm), KultProekt (Moscow), and GALLERY 21 (Moscow). GREEN ART first decided on a bold experiment to promote the works of actual artists in the province. Among other artists, the gallery displayed paintings at the fair by Rinat Voligamsi, known first of all for his provocative Unofficial Album, the apocryphal photo-biography of Vladimir Ilyich. The KultProekt included in its exhibit sculptures by Igor Shelkovsky and paintings by Vladimir Nasedkin. GALLERY 21 presented works by young Russian artists.
Special projects. Programme
The Fair's main exhibition spaces was heralded by the sculpture exhibit L’etat Des Choses from the collection of French collector Pierre-Christian Brochet and the New Rules Foundation, which contains the work of both recognized artists and young creators who are just beginning.
Personal exhibits could be seen at the fair this year, such as New York photographer Jeff Cowen (covered by Eric Schlosser), a virtuoso of analog photography as described by the critics, 12 works consisting mostly of large murals (silver prints) from different periods of his life and creative work (portraits and street photography); an installation by the Moscow conceptualist Vitas Stasyunas – Artmol; and the 3D visual-acoustic project supervised by Lisa Plavinsky – Parallax of Good and Evil. Dualism of the Construction of Volume.
The industrial project Kitchen Laboratory by Raphael Reno was presented at the café, embodying the perpetual process of food consumption in the form of vivid interweaved wires, pipes, and air passages.
The exhibit Translate/Transcribe, supervised by Ian Gonczarow, combined various artistic practices of young British artists whose works have already been exhibited in major western galleries. The name of the exhibit was inspired by the universal process of absorbing and redistributing ideas, information exchange, and the observance of traditions.
The Saint Petersburg Tajiks Art post-modern group prepared for ART MOSCOW an original and provocative tour of live art performances – Art for Millions! Before the eyes of the visitors, specially hired migrant workers replicated the works of stars from politics and show business for a charity auction: Pattern by Vladimir Putin, Snowstorm by Valentina Matviyenko, and a photograph taken by Dmitry Medvedev.
Master classes and seminars involving experts of contemporary art from Los Angeles and London were held during the Fair. Artist and teacher Ian Gonczarow organized lectures on the theories and studies of contemporary art with participation by a teacher from the British Higher School of Design. The fair also included a speech by Mexican artist Carlos Amorales with Adrian Notz, the exhibit curator and director of international projects at the legendary Zürich club Cabaret Voltaire. Photographer Jeff Cowen also gave a well received and enlightening lecture on working with analog photography. The magazine ARTCHRONIKA organized a round table on the topic Art Schools: How to become an avant-gardist. The artists and curators invited by the magazine–Aristarh Chernyshev, Arseniy Zhilyaev, Kadinsky Prize nominee Taus Mahacheva, and others–discussed where and what contemporary artists are learning and the difference between a Russian and foreign education in contemporary art. A round table How Art Travels was held with support from the Goethe Institute wherein the issues of contemporary art in Germany and Russia were discussed by ART MOSCOW expert Anna Mayer; art dealer Volker Diehl; curator of the 4th Moscow Biannual Festival of Contemporary Art Peter Waibel; and artist Alexei Kostroma.
Participants of the discussion organized by Christie's auction house considered the question "What does it mean to be a socially-responsible private collector?" including Thomas Solomon, owner of the Thomas Solomon Gallery; Loic Gouzer, Christie's international specialist on contemporary art; Christina Steinbrecher, art director for the Art Moscow fair; and other specialists. The managing director of Christie's Russia, Matthew Stevenson, led the discussion. The experts assessed the role of foreign collectors in modern Russian art, analysed changes in the field of collecting which have transpired over the past decades, and discussed the current prospects for progress in the field. Examples from the private collection of famous British collector Peter Norton were used as illustrations in the discussion.
The organizers wish to thank the Fair participants and guests of the 15th edition, and extend an invitation to take part in ART MOSCOW in 2012, to be held September 19-23 at the Central House of Artists.
