We publish excerpts from international discussions of the Young Art Biennale educational program on our syg.ma page.

In the fall of 2020, the Seventh Moscow International Biennale for Young Art announced the launch of an educational program in collaboration with the Winzavod Foundation for the Support of Contemporary Art. 

The program includes: a series of five international discussions "Salon of Rejected Categories" (curated by critic and art historian Andrey Shental), "Biennale Diary" (curated by art historian Boris Klushnikov), bringing together a community of art theorists and critics, and a practical part: a series of master classes from print shops (curated by the print shop association Taste of Paper).

The principles of the program's organization were an interdisciplinary approach and the involvement of cultural self-organizations in the intellectual exchange. The Biennale, as one of the most important events in Russian culture, has great potential for bringing together different communities, supporting emerging professionals and discovering new names in culture. The creation around the Biennale of a multifaceted dialogue on current topics will provide an opportunity for experts and representatives of cultural communities to speak freely and attract the attention of a wider audience.

The Winzavod Foundation for the Support of Contemporary Art and the MyBook subscription book service are opening a virtual bookshelf with recommendations for what to read and learn about digital art and theory. Ahead are book reviews, raffles for MyBook subscriptions, and a new literary galaxy.

The rubric was opened by Michael Rasch's book New Media in Art, translated and published in Russian in 2018 by Ad Marginem, so brings us to the dilemma of the real/virtual: "the new reality is the digital world, it is much more complex than the non-linearity of cubism and requires a new critical and aesthetic language."  
 
Edward Maybridge, Robert Rauschenberg, Bill Viola, Pipilotti Rist, and a dozen other must-know world art personalities of the 20th century are closely mentioned in the book, and the author himself is affectionately called an "innovator" in the field of digital art theory by critics. 

Access to each book is open for 14 days.

Get access here.

On February 24th, the first general meeting of members of the Association of Galleries (AGA) took place at Winzavod. Leading Russian gallerists discussed the problems of the art industry and outlined the strategy of the Association.

At present, the Association includes 20 participants, including the XL Gallery, Triumph Gallery, pop/off/art, Ruarts, Marina Gisich Gallery, Anna Nova Gallery, 11.12 GALLERY and others. During the meeting, the issues of systematizing the art market, pricing, and the problems of museum purchases, as well as the presence of Russian contemporary art in the international arena and building dialog with the government, were all discussed.

Sofia Trotsenko, President of Winzavod Fund for the Support of Contemporary Art, noted the importance of professional dialog in gallery environment: "Collective realization of ourselves as one art industry and development of basic principles of art business will let the industry become visible for the state and international community".

Since its launch in October 2020, members of the Association united into working groups led by board members. Each group worked in one area:

• government relations;
• Standardization of the activities of art market participants;
• pricing in art and building a transparent art market;
• international activity;
• relations with museums in terms of organizing purchases;
• Logistics and customs issues.

At the meeting, gallery owners discussed and approved a strategy of action, which each group had been working on for several months on its block of questions. 

The AGA is working both to improve conditions for the industry as a whole and to develop its own project program. At the end of 2020, the Association of Galleries signed a cooperation agreement with the Moscow government to develop the art business. Among future projects the Gallery Association plans to launch a series of public and closed discussions on AGA Talks, develop projects for group exhibitions of member galleries in Russian cities, as well as jointly participating in international fairs.

Meeting participants: Sofia Trotsenko (Winzavod Contemporary Art Support Fund), Sergei Popov (pop/off/art gallery), Alexander Sharov (11. 12 GALLERY), Ksenia Podoynitsyna (InArt Gallery by Ksenia Podoynitsyna), Marina Gisich (Marina Gisich Gallery), Elena Selina (XL Gallery), Emelyan Zakharov (Triumph Gallery), Irina Solntseva and Julia Manusevich (Cultproject Gallery), Vera Pogodina (Pogodina Gallery), Georgy Tashker and Marina Tsurtsumia (Totibadze Gallery), Polina Askeri (Askeri Gallery), Mikhail Krokin (Krokin Gallery), Alina Krukova (a-s-t-r-a), Anna Barinova (Anna Nova Gallery), Lucine Petrosyan (Artstory Gallery of Contemporary Art), Catherine Borisov (Ruarts Gallery), Alexander Omelchenko (Omelchenko Gallery).


About the Gallery Association 

The Association of Galleries is a professional organization of Russian galleries created to represent the interests of the art business on the local, national and international level and to develop the art market.