Ten years ago, when Moscow’s domestic art market was attempting to find its footing, the city hosted a handful of international fairs. But the longest running, Art Moscow, founded in 1996, closed in 2014 as overseas exhibitors pulled out when sanctions kicked in. The glitzy Moscow World Fine Art Fair folded in 2009 after five editions, thanks largely to lack of funds.
Now, there is only Cosmoscow (8-10 September), Russia’s self-styled “only international contemporary art fair”, running just before the opening of the seventh Moscow Biennale (19 September-18 January). Held in the historic market building, Gostiny Dvor, the fair was founded by collector Margarita Pushkina with the primary aim of developing the national art market—an audience for which she believes is growing, having seen a nearly 15% increase in visitors with each edition. “This year we aim to have more than 20,000 people”, she says. “We rely on increasing interest from the Russian audience.”
Cosmoscow
Pushkina launched Cosmoscow in 2010 amid widespread sentiment that “the local market desperately needed a contemporary art fair of an international level.” Political odds have been stacked against the fair since then, with some overseas exhibitors deterred by continued sanctions from the west and fears about the difficulty of doing business in the country. “There is no doubt that the international situation has its impact on us,” Pushkina says, “but what we do is focus extensively on communication. We do our best to establish contacts with gallery owners and art professionals around the world.” The fair is aided considerably in these efforts by funds from main sponsor Credit Suisse, alongside three other partners; jewellers Messika, Bentley and Beluga Transatlantic.
Despite the US’s renewed sanctions against Russia, this year’s Cosmoscow is the biggest edition yet, with 54 exhibitors hailing from Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Georgia, Italy, Norway, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, the UK, the US and Bahrain. However, some are outposts of Russian galleries, and around 36 are based in Russia itself. The list includes XL Gallery (Moscow), Marina Gisich Gallery (St. Petersburg), Regina Gallery (Moscow), Tatjana Pieters (Ghent), 55 Bellechasse (Paris) and One Gallery, based in New York and Sofia.
Knight Webb Gallery and the artist
New sub-sections have been introduced: a Norway Focus (featuring five Norwegian galleries), Past Present (showing older Russian art) and Collaborations, in which a native gallery invites an international peer, often exhibiting in Russia for the first time, to share a stand. “The purpose is to create even more comfortable conditions for visiting galleries,” Pushkina says, “with Russian galleries acting as hosts and guides for them.”
After three years partnering with Christie’s, in aid of Naked Hearts Foundation, Cosmoscow has also switched partners for its Off White charity auction, handing the reins to Phillips, owned by Russian luxury goods conglomerate Mercury Group. Funds will go to the newly launched Cosmoscow Foundation for Contemporary Art to support Russian artists. Auctioneer Henry Highley will take the 8 September auction and helped compile the sale, which includes a Marc Quinn print donated by the artist alongside works by Russian artists including Evgeny Antufiev, Sergei Borisov and Tatiana Hengstler.