Last week was a big one for Moscow’s art scene. From September 19-21, Cosmoscow (Russia’s only international contemporary art fair) opened its doors for three days of events, talks, auctions and art viewing. The fair was held at the Manege in central Moscow and featured 26 galleries, primarily from Russia, but also New York’s Michael Werner, Milan’s Massimo de Carlo, and London’s Campoli Presti in collaboration with New York’s Reena Spaulings. The fair featured a number of collaborations, like a site specific work co-commissioned by nonprofit organization YARAT and a children’s education program run with Garage.
In other Russian art world news, Garage founder Dasha Zhukova, director Anton Belov, and chief curator Kate Fowle, announced last week that the space is set to open a new, permanent location in June 2015. The new Garage Museum of Contemporary Art will be housed in a renovated version of the 1960s Vremena Goda (Seasons of the Year) restaurant located in Gorky Park in Moscow. Rem Koolhaas, along with his firm OMA, will undertake renovations and have designed a state-of-the-art façade for the building that will be constructed of two layers of translucent polycarbonate.
Cosmoscow directors Margarita Pushkina and Sandra Nedvetskaia
Photo courtesy of Cosmoscow
The museum will open with an installation by Russian artist Erik Bulatov and five exhibitions on the first floor including a project by New York-based artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. In the meantime, Garage Pavilion and Garage Education Center will continue programing with a number of exhibitions including “Russian Performance: A Cartography of its History,” “Grammar of Freedom: Lessons from the Arteast Collection 2000+,” and the annual “Art Experiment.”
