Highlights of the COSMOSCOW fair program in 2023
The 11th Cosmoscow International Contemporary Art Fair, which will be held in the Forum Pavilion of the Expocentre Central Exhibition Complex from September 29 to October 1, 2023 with the support of the general partner of the Savings and Savings Bank, MR Group, HUTTON, EXEED automotive partner, Ultima Yandex Go, BORK, Beluga and Beluga Botanicals, Tête de Cheval, 12 STOREEZ, navigation partner of the new RUVIKI Internet Encyclopedia, SIBUR Company, Algorithm School, LIVE SOUND technical partner and BLACKSQUARE media partner, announces a program of special projects.
As part of Cosmoscow 2023, 80 galleries from different cities of Russia will present their stands at the fair. In addition, as part of the non-profit program, the Cosmoscow Foundation will present the projects of the winners of its 2023 programs: "Museum of the Year", "Institution of the Year" and "Artist of the Year" at the Expocentre Fairgrounds. "Artist of the Year" 2023 Artem Filatov will present the project "Everything will disappear!" — a series of hand-drawn graphics drawn with the help of diamond green, a dye known more as "zelenka". "Museum of the Year" 2023 PERMM will present a project dedicated to the unique renovation of the former building of the automobile center for the new museum space. At the stand of the "Institutions of the Year" 2023, the ZAMAN Museum will tell about its research and exhibition projects created over the past two years and concentrated on the territory of the national republics — Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, Mari-El and neighboring regions — Perm Krai, Orenburg, Chelyabinsk and Samara regions.
COSMOSCOW 2023 SPECIAL PROJECTS
SberFirst: "Digital Garden of the Sber"
The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus gathered disciples and followers in his garden in Athens. Inspired by epicureanism, the main value of which is reasonable and development—pushing consumption, SberFirst invites the fair's guests to his garden in the space of the Cosmoscow Collectors' Living Room. In addition, the central area of the fair presents unique designs of savings cards created by the "Artist of the Year" Cosmoscow 2023 Artem Filatov and the Kandinsky 2.2 neural network.
We came to the topic of epicureanism when we thought about how we would like to talk and think about spending today. It seemed to us the only right way to look at spending as a statement, as a tool for education, learning about reality and getting closer to the best version of ourselves, which helps us improve the quality of our lives, as well as, hopefully, the lives of customers and the environment.
Immersion in the field of art is a pleasure, and undoubtedly develops. Therefore, the team of the First could not ignore the main art fair, within which it decided to present the garden. It provides a special program of events for Cosmoscow VIP guests and privileged clients of the bank. In the central area of the fair there is a gallery of digital designs of savings cards developed by Artem Filatov together with the Kandinsky 2.2 neural network. Having worked with the theme of fragility of nature for a long time, the artist came up with the design of maps in the form of a neural network-generated animation of the change of seasons.
MR Group
MR Group presents a pop-up cafe at Cosmoscow under the auspices of its SLAVA project, one of the most innovative and ambitious projects of the company — a complex located on the territory of the former Slava watch factory. The concept of the cafe is inspired by the DNA of the SLAVA project, and the duo of food artists Culina Studio is responsible for the development of the menu. They present a special set of snacks and pastries that guests can try during the entire period of the fair.
MR Group also presents the MOD and SYMPHONY 34 projects, which are united by a close connection with the cultural context and sustained support for contemporary culture and art. The stand is dedicated to the theme of rhythm and dynamics: it is a total meditative installation of dozens of metronomes, where viewers will be able to reflect on the harmony of time, its sound, rhythm, tempo.
HUTTON: "LUNAR Apartment"
The HUTTON development company, a long-term partner of Cosmoscow, invites its guests to travel in space and time and find themselves in a space apartment of the premium residential and business quarter LUNAR (Leninsky Prospekt, 38).
The design concept of the large-scale architectural installation is inspired by the films of romantic directors of the 1960s who dreamed of deep space and the conquest of new worlds - Stanley Kubrick's "Space Odyssey" and Andrei Tarkovsky's "Solaris". At the entrance, guests will be greeted by a portal referring to the interior of the iconic Discovery spacecraft, which symbolizes the transition from apartments to apartments of the LUNAR project.
EXEED: "The Art of Technology"
Cosmoscow always presents art that expands the usual boundaries of visual perception and inspires to conquer new horizons.
An exciting technological performance from the fair's partner, the premium automobile brand EXEED, will help to make another leap forward. Together with the outstanding audiovisual artist Evgeny Zor and the team of the Svetoform studio, EXEED turns its zone into a real art object and presents a unique three-minute show created at the intersection of technology and fine art specifically for Cosmoscow. The main character of the show is the new EXEED RX cross-coupe. The car is the embodiment of the "Art of Technology" concept and demonstrates the latest design solutions.
Ultima Yandex Go: "The journey begins"
This year, multidisciplinary artist Vladimir Grig created his first collaboration with the Ultima Yandex Go premium travel service — a three-meter canvas "The Journey Begins".
Fairy-tale characters go in search of adventures against the backdrop of the landscape of the XVIII century. There is also a place for the viewer in this work: everyone will be able to "enter" Grieg's canvas and, having been photographed against its background, become part of the work.
The journey begins in the white and clean space of the Ultima Salon. It is designed in such a way that visitors can take a break from a busy program and reflect on inner peace — a special resource state important for creativity and new achievements.
Preservation of internal resources and comfort in travel are the main priorities of Ultima. Therefore, the service is preparing another premiere for Cosmoscow: new executive sedans and electric cars with especially spacious interiors, panoramic roofs and multimedia systems. Some models have massage seats.
BORK: "The philosophy of perfect purity"
In Buddhist philosophy, "purity" is a deep concept symbolizing a person's difficult path to perfection. This is the key idea of self-denial and renunciation of all attachments and passions. This is absolute freedom, which fits on a small stand, but encloses the whole world.
Laconic space is the embodiment of the very purity that BORK technology creates. And who will stay with us when "everything disappears". The idea of perfect purity, subtly passing through the philosophy of eastern austerity, is reflected in the design of the installation. The stand is made in the aesthetics of minimalism using the main material of BORK — metal, while the orange shade of the curtain, similar to the robes of Buddhist monks, corresponds to the brand's signature color.
RUVIKI: "The Art of knowing"
Visitors can learn more about all Cosmoscow participants, as well as about the art they represent, at the stand of the new Internet encyclopedia RUVIKI, the navigation partner of the fair. There is also an installation by Anatoly Akue, in the center of which is the symbol "A": the first letter of the alphabet, which opens a portal to knowledge and sets the beginning of the entire system of the Russian language.
The artist visualizes the data streams surrounding us. He turns a QR code into a sculptural element, reading which, you can get detailed information about the fair from RUVIKI. In addition, in the exhibition space, you can recharge your smartphone and read about the participants of the fair. All knowledge is embodied in a clear and vivid sculpture that simultaneously visualizes the values of the RUVIKI and Cosmoscow Internet encyclopedia.
SIBUR x Lydia Ruskova-Khasaya
SIBUR Company presents two projects of the artist Lidia Russkova-Khasaya, who produces art objects from environmentally sustainable materials. One of them is the work Chamber Experience I, conceived as a sacred space for self—discovery and transcendent experience. Polycarbonate was chosen as the material, the only manufacturer of which in Russia is SIBUR.
The second art object is the Cycle installation, symbolizing a portal to the future. The object was inspired by the artist's reflections on time, its flow, the possibility of turning it back, the cyclical nature of processes and cause-and-effect relationships. The installation functions as a vessel for Vivilen pellets from SIBUR. This innovative polymer contributes to solving the problem of an overabundance of plastic in the environment.
12 STOREEZ: "Silhouette"
12 STOREEZ — collections of women's and men's clothing, which make up a concise and thoughtful wardrobe out of time.
Especially for Cosmoscow 12, STOREEZ and artist Anna Acorn created the Silhouette installation, in which the outlines of wardrobe items and interior details are guessed, fading in their perfectly geometric shape.
In recognizable products of the brand, the artist blurs the line between the imaginary and the real, focusing the viewer on the interpretation of their relationship with the material world. The idea of the project is close to the brand concept — the ability to see the beauty of simple and concise things, to fill every moment of life with it.
COSMOSCOW Kids x School "Algorithm": Schooltopia
For the Cosmoscow children's program, the Algorithm school explored the best practices and cross-cutting ideas of art and education of the second half of the twentieth century. Guests of the fair will not only be able to get acquainted with them, but also try to create posters in the style of university Paris workshops, where manifestos were printed in May '68, go out for an educational walk and feel like a Baudelaire who saw a Delacroix painting for the first time, build a playground in the Wasteland style or feel like a member of the Fluxus association.
Following the participants of art associations and teachers, we will try practices that were used equally by some and others. We catalog the trash from the nursery, turn the routine schedule into an art object, create music out of thin air, assemble a playground following the example of Westland.
SOUND UP: "Canto ostinato" for orchestra of Russian folk instruments
On September 30, the SOUND UP Festival will open the concert season in the space of the Cosmoscow fair. Especially for this event, the curators have prepared an extraordinary premiere in the fusion style: for the first time, the composer Simeon ten Holt's piece "Canto ostinato" will be performed by an orchestra of Russian folk instruments.
The SOUND UP special project is dedicated to the centenary of the Dutch minimalist Simeon ten Holt. Adopting the method invented by American minimalists, the composer returned to music an undisguised nostalgia for melodic beauty and euphony, thereby inscribing his name in history. The quiet revolution of an ascetic and provincial from a Dutch village has been maturing for decades: ten Holt found his unique style when he was over fifty. Turning to the rehearsal technique, ten Holt began to compose giant minimalistic canvases, including his magnum opus "Canto Ostinato".
This piece is written for keyboard instruments, but the composer does not specify a specific performing composition. "Canto ostinato" became a hit among pianists and percussionists around the world, but the SOUND UP curators, avoiding formulaic solutions, decided to sound the score with Russian folk instruments. The author of the new version of the score, which will meet academic minimalism and Russian folk music, will be composer and pianist Igor Yakovenko, well known to Moscow listeners.
SPECIAL PROJECTS AT COSMOSCOW 2023
Limonov Art Foundation
The Limonov Art Foundation for the Support and Development of Contemporary Art presents a non—profit project within Cosmoscow - the pavilion of Ilya Grishaev, one of the most virtuosic graphic artists, the author of the finest installations. His special object is placed inside the stand — a book collected in collaboration with a like-minded poet, sewn with patterns of a graphic series of recent times. This project is a continuation of the history of the myth-making of the artist, who creates his own type of writing, recognizable in his every gesture: the language of semi-abstract ornamental figures, intentionally repeated and detached, is found in each of the media from drawing and sculpture to sound and fresco painting. The artist's book with filigree, transparent graphics includes fragments of a poetic text, at first glance illogical and meaningless, in the spirit of the zaumi of the beginning of the last century. He, like any form born by Grishaev, points to the sacred, existing outside of time.
"Through the eyes of a collector"
Topic: "Careful relations"
Curator: Alexey Maslyaev
The exhibition "Through the Eyes of a Collector" in 2023 presents the collections of Mikhail Tsarev and "Street Art Storage", launched in St. Petersburg by INLOCO Initiative and the Institute for Street Art Research. Careful relations is an approach that characterizes both collections, the prerequisite of which is the understanding of art as a form of evidence of time. A work of art is a visual-figurative equivalent of modernity, conditioned by the presence of the author in the present. And getting the work into the collection is seen as a way of saving it — snatching it out of the clutches of decay and oblivion — so that there is no lost time or white, blind spots in the fabric of the historical and artistic narrative. Being in the public field or initially acting as a public institution, these collections become part of the public discussion, because they make the experience of the current moment a collective event, and act as the most valuable material for future research.
TEO by Cosmoscow
The online platform TEO by Cosmoscow, together with the Naked Hearts Foundation for Children, founded by Natalia Vodianova, presents at the fair a stand with rare works by famous artists: Semyon Faibisovich, AES+F group, Alexander Vinogradov and Vladimir Dubosarsky, Timofey Parshikov, Peter Belenko. The proceeds from the sale of the works will be used to help families raising children with special needs. In addition, TEO by Cosmoscow together with the Syntax Gallery TEO presents a stand "In support of Valery Chtak". The proceeds will be used to treat the artist, who now needs expensive medical care.
Masters Journal x Cosmoscow
A special issue of the analytical magazine about art and culture Masters Journal is dedicated to the creators and main characters of the 11th issue of Cosmoscow. It includes an interview with the founder and director of Cosmoscow Margarita Pushkina, a detailed guide to the fair program, as well as materials dedicated to the "Artist of the Year" Artem Filatov and the "Museum of the Year" PERMM.
DISCUSSION PROGRAM
Cosmoscow Lecture Hall
Subject: "Save Mode"
Curator: Victor Misiano
This year, the curator of the Cosmoscow Lecture Hall program with the general theme "Conservation mode" was Victor Misiano. It involves discussing how the institutional system of art in Russia has changed over the past two decades and what awaits it in the future.
Over the past two decades, the institutional system of art in Russia has passed the stage of formation and rapid development. She grew and expanded, sometimes outstripping her artistic resources and expert capabilities. Recently, it seems that its development has moved to a different stage. Its tasks today are no longer expansion, but preservation of what has been achieved. Is this transition caused only by external reasons? Or are there internal reasons for this? And if so, which ones? How to survive this stage correctly? And how to use its capabilities?
Cosmoscow Media Forum
Traditionally, the Media Forum will present a series of discussions with the participation of media personalities and representatives of iconic publications for whom contemporary art is an important component of success. The topic of the discussions is formed around the intersection points of current artistic practices, advanced technologies and the main challenges faced today by media, business, the world of art, design and high fashion. All discussions are conducted on the basis of real cases and with the participation of key experts in their fields.
This year's program includes discussions of new media, the interaction of business and culture, the provenance of works of contemporary art, the peculiarities of interaction between different participants in the art market and many other topics. The first day of the forum is traditionally held under the auspices of UMagazine, a long-standing media partner of the fair.
