“Sooner or later, a full-fledged turn to Asia and Africa will happen”
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art fair
The 20th Art-Moscow fair opened in Gostiny Dvor. Once it was the first and only one on the Russian contemporary art market, but since 2014 it has not been held for several years, and in recent years it has been experimenting with the format. Now it sells old and new art, designer jewelry and furniture. About how successful this approach is, about the turn to the art of Asian and African countries and forced self-censorship Igor Grebelnikov said the CEO of the Expo-Park company organizing the fair Vasily Bychkov.
“From the very beginning and for many years, Art Moscow has been a fair of exclusively contemporary art. Last year, it was thoroughly replaced by antique and jewelry art, and now they are represented in approximately equal proportions. Apparently, this format is justified for organizers and galleries, but what are its advantages for collectors?
— We embarked on such an experiment — to combine antique and contemporary art — back in 2018 at the Manege, when we held the RAAF, Russian Art & Antique Fair there. Even in the title, we wanted to emphasize the closeness of its format to the famous BRAFA (Brussels) and TEFAF (Maastricht) fairs, which in recent years have been actively combining old and new art, although initially these were high-quality antiques fairs. Judging by last year’s Art Moscow, each section has its own audience and its own media opportunities: they write more about contemporary art than about classical art, but antiques attract more affluent buyers. Such a symbiosis turned out to be effective: there are more visitors, the audience mixes up – those who came for the old art join the modern one, and vice versa. So we continue in the same format and even added a Design Gallery section, which contains works by masters of arts and crafts, furniture and interior items.
— And what about the international status of the fair? There are few foreign participants this year, while the selection of art from Nigeria looks unexpected. Establishing ties with “friendly” countries?
— It can be a stretch to talk about the international status of the fair now, but we do not refuse it and at the same time we take into account the current general turn of Russia to the South and East. We have three foreign participants: the Nigerian Embassy presents its collection of works by young Nigerian artists, one Iranian gallery and one gallery from Prague. As for the countries of Asia and Africa, sooner or later a full-fledged turn to these regions will occur, and we continue to look for new participants there.
— Art fairs like to “dress themselves up” with all sorts of parallel programs — exhibitions, educational events. What do you have with this?
– We have an interesting business program planned – 90 speakers, 22 events on the topics of the art market, collecting, modern and old art, and design. And with the Agency for Creative Industries, AKI, we launched a long-term program to promote promising young artists who have already received education, but have not yet found their own gallery owners, have not entered the art market. The Expert Council of AKI, which includes me, selected fifteen such artists – three people from five educational institutions. A four-day intensive course was held with them, where they were told about the important nuances of the art market – how to conclude agreements with galleries, about copyright, and so on. All these artists will be presented in a special section of the fair, their works can be bought, and on the other hand, gallery owners or patrons will look at these artists, who will be able to cooperate with them in the future, promote them at other fairs, not only Russian, but also foreign .
— The market success of an artist is determined according to the standard scheme: the collector focuses on which gallery the artist is represented in, in which museum exhibitions or international biennials his works participated, in which large collections they are. Now many of our artists are cut off from foreign projects. What should potential buyers look for now?
— You have to look at the fair filters: where and with what these or those artists participate — this is already at least some kind of expertise. But I am sure that sooner or later they will again participate in foreign fairs and other projects.
– Our artists now and at home have to be more careful – not to say something superfluous. Surely you, too, began to be careful about the exhibits. How do you explain the restrictions to artists, gallery owners?
– Now we are more interested in what they plan to exhibit. We look at works not only from the point of view of compliance with the law, but also from the point of view of possible allusions that viewers may have. Times are tough right now, and we encourage everyone involved to be more restrained. The world is huge, the galaxy of meanings that modern art operates on is huge – it’s not necessary to go into those areas where you can offend someone, why?
Doesn’t that limit creative freedom?
“Now is the time. If earlier it was possible to walk, as they say, along the edge, now only up to the edge.
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