AGA TALKS fourth discussion

Fourth discussion of the project of the Association of Galleries AGA TALKS “Between the West and East: Russian contemporary art’s position at the international art scene.” was held on April 29.

Participants:

• Nikolay Palazhchenko - Head of the Department of Art Management and Gallery Business at the RMA Business School; one of the initiators of the creation of the Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art and the Perm Museum of Contemporary Art; curator of exhibition projects.
• Simon Rees - art director of the Cosmoscow International Contemporary Art Fair, curator, the first international member of the Innovation Prize 2013-2014 committee. # nbsp;
• Dmitry Khankin - co-owner of the Triumph Gallery, gallery owner, art dealer.
• Dmitry Aksenov - philanthropist, chairman of the board of the Viennacontemporary contemporary art exhibition.

Key quotes:

Dmitry Aksenov: “I believe that Russian contemporary culture has no other future than to be successful on the national and international market. The only question is how long it will take. Everything is changing very quickly, knowledge is power, technology is power, so the dynamics are very large. If you decide to take up culture, this is the right decision, because now a civilizational shift is taking place, the new technological revolution will leave everyone without a traditional way of life, without the need to get their daily bread under duress, and everyone will have to look for something to their liking. "

Dmitry Khankin: “Since 2014, we have been regularly losing our Western audience, exhibition projects, every year we are getting smaller and smaller in terms of income, opportunities, frequency and quality of cultural exchanges, etc. There is no demand for our art either inside the country or outside. I think that the lack of demand inside and the lack of even curiosity outside are related processes. I come to the conclusion that, globally, the problem is in the perception of Russian culture by the rest of the world, in the absence of a qualified spectator trained since childhood and the general idea that contemporary art is in no way separated from classical art. The time has come for all of us to think that we need a new discourse, not just about Russia, but about contemporary Russian art, and the discourse is not done in a second. It is still a collection of texts, dialogues, conversations, articles, which we have very little and which has a very low quality. "

Simon Rees: “Our job today is to enable all market participants to work with each other, whether in the public sector or in the private sector. There is great potential in the Russian art market because there are people there who create collections from a commercial and cultural perspective, and there are qualified personnel in museums and galleries. "

Nikolay Palazhchenko: “The artistic process, that is, that which is directly related to the creation of works of art and their representation, their perception and discussion, and the art market, that is, that which is connected with the turnover of money with certain works - they exist absolutely in parallel. And by no means always when the art market is on the rise, this means that the art process in general is somehow glowing. For example, Hong Kong has a very powerful art market, but there is a big problem with the art process. On the other hand, there are periods, cities, countries where the situation is the opposite: there is a very powerful artistic process, but there is no art market in general - in particular, in the history of Russia ”.

Media contacts:
pr@agarussia.art