Viktor Misiano, Oleksandr Soloviov: “The Collector: Between Curator and Artist” talk // M17 Art Collectors’ Forum. Day ІI [video is available]

On July 8, 2021, at 17:00 in the M17 CAC, on the II Day of the M17 International Art Collectors’ Forum, there will be a “The Collector: Between Curator and Artist” talk held by Viktor Misiano and Oleksandr Soloviov.

Languages of the event: Ukrainian and Russian
Event format: mixed (videoconference Ukraine-Italy organized in the M17 CAC)

About speakers:

Viktor Misiano, curator, art theorist. Founder and editor-in-chief of Moscow Art Magazine dedicated to contemporary art issues. From 1980 till 1990 he was a curator of contemporary art at the Pushkin National Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, from 1992 to 1997 he was a curator at the Soros Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow. From 2010 to 2014 he was a Chairman of the International Foundation Manifesta (Amsterdam). Founder and first editor-in-chief of the international Manifesta Journal: Journal of Contemporary Curatorship (Amsterdam). He was the curator of the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1995 and 2003, and in 2005, he curated the first Central Asian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. A three times winner of the Innovation Prize (Russia) in the categories of “Curatorial Project” (2006, 2011, 2016). In 2016, he won the Kandinsky Prize in the nomination “Scholarly work. History and theory of contemporary art” and the Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory. Among other things, Misiano curated art exhibitions in Austria, Italy, France, Turkey, Brazil, and other countries. Author of numerous articles and two monographs “Other” and Divers (NLO, 2004), Five Lectures on Curatorship (Ad Marginem, 2015), editor of art catalogs.

Oleksandr Soloviov, one of the most Ukrainian’s reputable art historians and art critics, curator of the project An Open Opportunity at the M17 Contemporary Art Center, Curator of Contemporary Art at Mystetskyi Arsenal. Worked as a curator at the PinchukArtCentre. Curated the Ukrainian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2003, 2007, and 2013. He was the organizer of many exhibitions and large-scale projects, among which the ART-KYIV Contemporary annual forum, Independent group exhibition, and The First / The Second Kyiv International Biennale of Contemporary Art ARSENALE at Mystetskyi Arsenal. Participated in the experts’ sessions for the selection of Ukrainian contemporary art for the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou.

Moderators:

Natalia Shpytkovska, director of the M17 CAC, art consultant, a researcher at the Modern Art Research Institute of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, head of the project An Open Opportunity.

Eugenia Gavrylenko, art manager, editor, and Communication Coordinator at the M17 CAC, contemporary art researcher.

The full schedule of Forum events can be found at this link

UPD: A video of the event is available for viewing on our YouTube channel!

Abstracts of the talk:

• The institution of private collecting of contemporary art is actively expanding in post-Soviet nations, although it has not yet realized its full potential.

• Today, there is a vast array of diverse art, and the collector has to create his collection in a very precise manner in order to have a clear concept and avoid being dispersed.

• Collecting is a form of creativity, and at the same time, it is related to curatorial work.

• Ydessa Hendeles, a Canadian collector, organizes vibrant public exhibits of contemporary art from her own collection. Her curatorial abilities and aptitude to produce a great display are outstanding. Ydessa Genedeles successfully defended her work on collecting and curating. She exemplifies how a modern collector combines the roles of a researcher, collector, curator, and many others.

• The modern art collector differs from the classical art collector in that he employs a variety of approaches; his activity is broad and not restricted to collecting.

• Only in the 1990s, the notion of collecting art did develop in post-Soviet countries. It all began with corporate collections. Only a decade later, some people began to collect modern art on their own. At the same period, the curatorship institute was founded.

• The art world used to be quite tiny. Collectors are in a similar predicament. These planets are now incredibly big and scattered, but they each live in their own section.

• The new sort of collector is an accomplice in the creation of art since they have become a part of the modern art ecosystem. There will be no biological cycle without their sponsorship and often curatorial views.

VIDEO OF THE EVENT:

M17 International Art Collectors’ Forum was organized jointly with the Ukrainian Club of Contemporary Art Collectors and the Modern Art Research Institute of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine within the “An Open Opportunity: Ukrainian Contemporary Art from Private Collections” project.