The 15th Art Moscow opened

The oldest Russian art fair this year welcomes more than 40 galleries from different countries to the Central House of Artists, putting them in new conditions - now at Art Moscow, as under communism, everyone is equal and each dealer has a stand of the same size. This has not had a significant impact on sales, although gallery owners generally note an increase in interest in art. VALENTIN DYAKONOV reports.

“Of course, we need more space,” says Dmitry Khankin, director of the Triumph gallery, sadly. “I would like to show four powerful projects, not just one.” “Triumph,” which usually spans hundreds of square meters, had to limit itself to three large computer collages from the AES+F group. But now no one will compare their stand with a tumor devouring the fair. The surreal prints of “aes” for €40 thousand have not yet found buyers, but Triumph managed to sell several works by foreigners such as Damien Hirst.

The old-timers of the fair are also doing well. A sculpture by Boris Orlov and an interactive work by the duo Aristarkh Chernyshev and Alexey Shulgin, in which the windows of the Moscow White House act as a ticker for SMS messages sent by everyone, left the XL Gallery stand. A suprematist circle of black false nails from Elena Berg found buyers at the Aidan Gallery stand. A video about Lenin from the Blue Noses, mounted in a replica of the collected works of the leader of the revolution, left the Gelman Gallery stand. Foreign old-timer Finnish gallery owner Kai Forsblom is also extremely optimistic about the current “Art Moscow”. His gallery sold seven works by the young artist Tatyana Akhmetgalieva. The first names of Western art - abstractionists Peter Haley and Donald Sultan - are of interest, but they do not intend to stay in Russia yet. Forsblom is still pleased: “In Russia, the enthusiasm of collectors depends on oil prices. Apparently everything is fine with them." A domestic gallery owner explains the attention of collectors to the upcoming elections: “Nobody knows what will happen next, so why not buy? Art is an investment!”

True, the further from the entrance to the fair, the more modest the dealers' income. The Italian Gagliardi Art System did not find anyone willing to purchase the small sculptures of Fabio Viale, who recently exhibited with pomp at the Garage. The Japanese gallery Whitestone brought dear guests from the Land of the Rising Sun. The most expensive work at the stand was an abstraction from the legendary Yayoi Kusama for €320 thousand, but so far Russian collectors have only been eyeing the much cheaper prints.

This year, the art director of the fair, Christina Steinbrecher, presented a broad parallel program - the “Festival of New Culture”. On the mezzanine floor of the Central House of Artists, curator Ian Goncharov showed the exhibition Translate-Transcribe. New technologies triumph here. London College of Fashion professor Helen Storey demonstrates the world's first dress made from water-soluble polymers. The fashionable thing looks like Ophelia’s robe from the painting of the same name by the Pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais. The environmentally friendly exhibit is followed by the politically correct one. A group of Austrian designers invites everyone to play the 3D game “Frontiers”. The plot is simple: you are either an illegal immigrant trying to get into Europe, or a customs officer who catches an illegal immigrant. The Kommersant correspondent spent only two minutes in freedom, but he got the same adrenaline as two hours of walking around the fair.

Galleries have posted price tags