Ahead of the 12th Charity Auction, the Cosmoscow Foundation announces the winners of its annual programs

On the day of the auction preview, the Cosmoscow Foundation announced the winners of its annual programs. The PROVMYZA art group was named Cosmoscow Artist of the Year 2025, the Ploschad Mira Museum Center, Krasnoyarsk was named Cosmoscow Museum of the Year 2025, and the Fabrika Center for Creative Industries, Moscow was named Cosmoscow Institution of the Year 2025.

Furthermore, a new project was announced: the BORK Collector of the Year Award, in collaboration with the Cosmoscow Foundation. The award aims to promote collecting for the development of the Russian art system, encourage Russian collectors of contemporary art by creating opportunities and favorable conditions for recognizing their contribution to the development of the art market, and enhance the social status of collectors in Russian society.

Cosmoscow 2025 Artist of the Year — PROVMYZA art group

The Cosmoscow Foundation’s Artist of the Year program is aimed at funding new work by contemporary artists. An expert committee, whose composition changes annually, nominates the artists they consider most outstanding. The final selection is made by the Cosmoscow Foundation’s Board of Trustees. The winning artist is given the opportunity to develop a new project that will be presented at the Cosmoscow fair, and their work will also form the basis for the issue's visual identity. The 2025 expert panel includes: Natalia Opaleva, Alisa Prudnikova, Zoya Galeeva, Daria Pyrkina, and Anna Fedina.

PROVMYZA (Galina Myznikova and Sergey Provorov) is a Nizhny Novgorod-based art group that works freely with various contemporary artistic practices: video art, arthouse film, photography, graphics, installation, performance, and theater. In their work, they follow the trend of blurring the boundaries between art forms and genres.

Their interdisciplinarity allows them, as they say, to “jump from one rooftop to another,” but at the same time, they can speak of a constant, reproducible, and powerfully empathetic imagery in each work, presenting the temporality of their work as an endlessly lived experience. Often, affect becomes a stunning anthropological lens in the artists' work, leaving no hope of remaining a detached observer.

The group’s portfolio includes participation in major international art events such as the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art and the Venice Film Festival, Focus PROVMYZA at the Centre Pompidou, and others, as well as top accolades for their work from experts at the national Innovation Prize and the Kuryokhin Prize.

PROVMYZA:

“The news of our selection as Cosmoscow 2025 'Artists of the Year was, on the one hand, inspiring news for us, and on the other, exciting. There are many ideas and concepts in draft form, but now it's important to formulate one, the most visually impactful one. We are grateful to the Cosmoscow team, its board of trustees, and its expert council for the opportunity to be inspired and to once again take a creative, close-eyed look at today's world.”

Cosmoscow 2025 Museum of the Year — Ploschad Mira Museum Center

The program is based on collaboration with museum institutions: the Cosmoscow Foundation acquires works by contemporary Russian artists and donates them to the Museum of the Year, supports the reorganization and modernization of existing collections, and supports the restoration of art objects. Furthermore, the nominated museum traditionally exhibits a special project at the fair.

The Ploschad Mira Museum Center is Siberia’s largest exhibition and presentation venue for contemporary art. The museum was founded in 1987 as the 13th branch of the Central Lenin Museum, but in the early 1990s, it reoriented itself toward contemporary art practices. The museum building is a monument to Soviet modernism. Its exterior echoes the Stolby Nature Reserve, its silhouette reminiscent of mountains, the Yenisei River flowing nearby, and its interior is a fascinating labyrinth with numerous halls and levels.

The museum is the organizer of the oldest biennial in Russia, the Krasnoyarsk Museum Biennial (held since 1995). Over the past 30 years, the Biennale project has become a vibrant international event, a calling card for the Siberian region and Krasnoyarsk in the global art community.

Sergey Kovalevsky, Artistic Director of the Ploschad Mira Museum Center:

“Becoming a winner is a great honor for us, and a significant precedent that Cosmoscow, Russia's largest expert contemporary art fair, and the foundation that forms its core, have taken notice of us this year. This is an important step, an indirect recognition by an art market institution and a charitable foundation of the important role and place of the Ploschad Mira Museum Center.

Building an identity as a museum of contemporary art is a rather paradoxical formula, contrary to the established traditional canon that a museum is about distance, art from the past, and so on. It's an even more special challenge to select works by artists who were created literally yesterday for our collection.

The Cosmoscow Foundation traditionally provides funds to the winners of its nominations for the acquisition of works by contemporary artists who, for one reason or another, are of particular interest to the museum. This is the first time we have received such a generous gift to expand our collection, and we are delighted that this truly open-ended history allows Mira Square to realize its specific collection concept.

The attention to museums speaks to its credibility and the fundamental nature of its strategy. It is a pleasure to work with such a partner.”

Cosmoscow 2025 Institution of the Year — Fabrika Center for Creative Industries

The Cosmoscow Foundation’s Board of Trustees also selects the best non-profit art institution based on a list of nominees proposed by invited experts. The winner receives funding to implement a project at the fair. The 2025 panel of experts includes: Anton Kozlov, Irina Kulik, Irina Korina, Anastasia Lobacheva, and Daria Epine.

The Fabrika Center for Creative Industries is an open and independent creative cluster established in 2005 to support contemporary art, non-profit initiatives, and social projects in contemporary culture. Over the past twenty years, the Fabrika Center has hosted hundreds of events of diverse themes and scales, including exhibitions, festivals, lecture programs, tours, conferences, public meetings, and more.

The primary activities of the Fabrika Center for Creative Industries include presenting experimental artistic projects, creating comfortable spaces and atmospheres for work and creativity, and supporting contemporary artists in their work. The cluster's key goal is to support the art community: Fabrika's programs provide artists with the opportunity to obtain a studio, implement their projects, conduct research, and exhibit their work.

Asya Filippova, founder and director of the Fabrika Center for Creative Industries:

“We are very grateful to the expert council and the Cosmoscow Foundation for their appreciation and recognition of our work; this was unexpected and joyful news for us. In our 20th anniversary year, as we evaluate the progress we’ve made, it’s especially gratifying to receive a sign from the artistic community that Fabrika’s work is visible and beneficial. We hope that the opportunity to present the Fabrika stand at the fair will allow us to expand our network and convey to visitors the essence of our space and the team's core values: open dialogue in art, respect for diverse perspectives, freedom of creativity and expression, mutual support, and humanity.”