The 11th Cosmoscow International Contemporary Art Fair was successfully held in the Forum Pavilion of Expocentre Fairgrounds on Krasnaya Presnya
— The Cosmoscow Fair in 2023 was visited by a record number of guests — more than 31,000 people
— Cosmoscow 2023 presented 80 stands where the fair's guests could see the works of about 300 contemporary Russian and foreign artists
— The 11th edition of the fair brought together galleries from different cities of Russia on one site: St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladivostok, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Voronezh
— As part of the discussion program of the Cosmoscow 2023 Media Forum and Lecture Hall, more than 20 discussions were held, in which 83 experts in the field of contemporary art and journalism took part
— The stand of the Ruarts gallery was chosen as the "Best stand" of Cosmoscow 2023
— The online fair on the TEO by Cosmoscow platform will last until October 15
The 11th edition of Cosmoscow was held in Moscow at a new venue — in the Forum pavilion of the Expocentre Central Exhibition Complex from September 29 to October 1 with the support of the general partners of Sberbank and First, 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.
In total, the 11th edition of Cosmoscow was attended by more than 31,000 people, which became an absolute record in the more than 10-year history of the fair.
As part of Cosmoscow 2023, 80 galleries from different cities of Russia presented their stands at the fair. In addition, as part of the Cosmoscow Foundation's non—profit program at the Cosmoscow 2023 "Artist of the Year", Artem Filatov presented the project "Everything will Disappear!" - a series of hand-drawn graphics drawn using diamond green, a dye known more as "zelenka"; "Museum of the Year" 2023 PERMM presented a stand dedicated to the unique renovation of the former building of the automobile center for the new space of the museum, which was designed with the participation of the architectural bureau Alexander Leonov and artist Vasily Kononov-Gredin; at the stand "Institutions of the Year" 2023, the ZAMAN museum told 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.
The "best booth" of Cosmoscow 2023 was chosen by the stand of the Ruarts gallery, which presented the installation of Alexey Luka — within the framework of this project, a dialogue was heard between the works of Alexey Luka and Grisha, artists exploring different artistic practices and materials. Ruarts Gallery got the opportunity to participate in the next fair for free.
Katrin Borisov, Art Director of the Ruarts Gallery and Foundation: "By creating the stand, we tried to show as much as possible the capabilities and talent of our artists: Alexey Luka and Grisha. Total installation, departure from the usual patterns gave us this opportunity. We are glad that Cosmoscow experts appreciated our efforts. And that the participation of the Ruarts gallery next year is already predetermined. This will be the tenth anniversary fair for us."
Cosmoscow 2023 demonstrated strong sales. Some stands were sold out entirely on the first day of the preview, and therefore they completely changed the exposition. In total, more than 500 works of contemporary art were sold during the fair in the price range from 4,000 rubles to 6,000,000 rubles. The top of the most expensive works sold during the fair included: the work of Ernst Neizvestny "In the Womb of Kronos" for 6,000,000 rubles (Vellum Gallery), the work of Evgeny Mikhnov-Voitenko "Composition" for 4,500,000 rubles (pop/off/art), the work of Kerim Rahimov "Human Project. Episode #74" for 4,350,000 rubles (Marina Gisich Gallery), the work of Igor Skaletsky "Slow Rider" for 3,630,000 rubles (Alina Pinsky Gallery), the work of Anton Konyukhov from the "Present" series for 2,070,000 rubles (PA Gallery), the work of Alexey Morozov Caryatid_Supersonic PH_MPHKS for 1,560,000 rubles (a-s-t-r-a gallery).
COSMOSCOW CONTINUES ON THE TEO PLATFORM
The fair on the territory of the Forum pavilion of Expocentre Fairgrounds has been completed, but Cosmoscow 2023 continues online on the TEO platform and will be available until October 15. TEO by Cosmoscow is an online platform for the sale of contemporary art and art consulting, founded in 2020. TEO unites more than 60 galleries, 500 artists and 3,000 works, thanks to which it covers almost the entire market of contemporary Russian art. All works are subject to expert selection. In addition to purchases, there is an opportunity to get acquainted with prices on the platform, get a quick consultation, order a preview and fitting, bargain for works, offering their price online. You can choose and purchase art on the teodorus.art website
COSMOSCOW 2023 SPECIAL PROJECTS
First: "Digital Garden of 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 encouraging consumption, the first invited the fair's guests to his garden in the space of the Cosmoscow Collectors' Living Room. In addition, in the central area of the fair, unique designs of SBER cards were presented, created by the "Artist of the Year" Cosmoscow 2023 Artem Filatov and the Kandinsky 2.2 neural network. Having long been working with the theme of the fragility of nature, the artist came up with the design of maps in the form of a neural network-generated animation of the change of seasons.
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 SberFirst could not ignore the main art fair, in which they presented the garden. A special program of events was provided for Cosmoscow VIP guests and privileged clients of the bank.
MR Group
MR Group presented 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 was responsible for the development of the menu.
MR Group also presented the projects MOD and SYMPHONY 34, which are united by a close connection with the cultural context and sustained support for contemporary culture and art. The stand was dedicated to the theme of rhythm and dynamics: it is a total meditative installation of dozens of metronomes, where the audience was invited to reflect on the harmony of time, its sound, rhythm, tempo.
HUTTON: "LUNAR Apartment"
The HUTTON development company, a long-term partner of Cosmoscow, invited the guests of the fair 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 was 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 were greeted by a portal referring to the interior of the iconic Discovery spacecraft, which symbolized 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, helped to make another leap forward. Together with the outstanding audiovisual artist Evgeny Zor and the team of the Svetoform studio, EXEED turned his zone into a real art object and presented a unique three-minute show created at the intersection of technology and fine art specifically for Cosmoscow. The main character of the show was 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: each viewer had the opportunity to "enter" Grieg's canvas and, having been photographed against its background, become part of the work.
The journey began in the white and clean space of the Ultima Salon. It was designed in such a way that visitors could 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 has prepared 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 was 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"
For the first time, Cosmoscow has a navigation partner. The new RUVIKI Internet encyclopedia has prepared more than 70 articles about galleries and 130 about artists and artists. The history and artistic concept of each participant of the fair could be read through the encyclopedia's QR code, and navigation steles helped guests navigate the exhibition space.
Especially for Cosmoscow, RUVIKI presented an installation by artist Anatoly Akue, in the center of which was 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 visualized the data streams surrounding us. He turned a QR code into a sculptural element, reading which, it was possible to get detailed information about the fair from RUVIKA. In addition, it was possible to recharge a smartphone in the exhibition space and read about the participants of the fair. All the knowledge was embodied in a clear and vivid sculpture, simultaneously visualizing the values of the RUVIKI Internet encyclopedia and Cosmoscow.
SIBUR x Lydia Ruskova-Khasaya
SIBUR Company presented two projects by the artist Lydia Russkova-Khasaya, designed to push the viewer to self-knowledge and reflection on time.
The Chamber Experience I installation is a cube outside, a sterile white domed space inside, in the oculus of which video art is projected: the sky captured in different parts of the world. It is a safe place for meditation and solitude. Among the materials used to create the work was polycarbonate, the only manufacturer of which in Russia is SIBUR. Polycarbonate is widely used in architectural and design solutions both in Russia and abroad.
The Cycle installation was inspired by the artist's reflections on time, its flow, the desire to turn it back, the cyclical nature of processes and cause-and-effect relationships. The transparent frame is filled with Vivilen granules (polymer with the addition of recycled plastic) instead of "grains of sand of time". The innovative Vivilen pellet from SIBUR contributes to the transition to a closed-cycle economy.
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. The project was implemented with the support of PA Gallery.
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. The guests of the fair were able not only to get acquainted with them, but also to 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, the guests of the fair tried practices that were used equally by some and others. Catalogued the trash from the nursery, turned the routine schedule into an art object, created music out of thin air, assembled a playground following the example of Westland.
SOUND UP: Canto Ostinato for orchestra of Russian folk instruments
On September 30, the SOUND UP festival opened the concert season in the space of the Cosmoscow fair. Especially for this event, the curators prepared an extraordinary premiere in the fusion style: for the first time, the composer Simeon ten Holt's Canto Ostinato piece was performed by an orchestra of Russian folk instruments.
The SOUND UP special project was timed to coincide with 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, in which academic minimalism and Russian folk music met, was the composer and pianist Igor Yakovenko, well known to Moscow listeners.
SPECIAL PROJECTS AT COSMOSCOW 2023
Limonov Art Foundation
The Limonov Art Foundation Foundation for the Support and Development of Contemporary Art presented 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 was 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 presented 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, presented 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 presented 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 included discussions on how the institutional system of art in Russia has changed over the past two decades, as well as 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? All these issues were discussed by experts within the Cosmoscow Lecture Hall.
Cosmoscow MediaForum
Traditionally, the MediaForum presented 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 topics of the discussions were formed around the points of intersection 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 were based on real cases and with the participation of key experts in their fields.
This year's program included 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.
