Guelman, a former political spin doctor, returns less than six months
after closing his Moscow gallery and after a period of semi-exile
in Perm, where he attempted to make the Urals city a cultural
powerhouse.
His new project, called Cultural Alliance, currently showcases Kazakh
art and is an attempt to unite modern artists from different areas.
"Working in Perm, I acknowledged that you can't organize a full
cultural life in the city by using creative minds only from the city.
It's impossible. You need a constant cultural exchange," Guelman said
in an interview.
Guelman shut his gallery earlier this year, he said, because the gallery model had changed.
"The market model in Russian art that was launched in the '90s has
already ended. That time it was created just for a small group
of oligarchs," he said.
"New rich people in Russia, who frequently are connected to the
authorities, now hide their money rather than show it. Now the people
who are interested in art for real are from the middle class. They are
well-off but not very rich. They will not buy a picture for 50,000
euros," he said.
Guelman said he had decided to tap this new market by showing artists
from outside Moscow, who are more affordable for this new breed
of collectors.
"Russian art must stop being a clique of just 30 oligarchs," he said,
"We want it to become a big, active and creative life with
communication between artists, between cities. We want to double
the quantity of artists on the Moscow artistic stage."
Guelman says his prices have fallen to a range of about 3,000 to 8,000 euros per work.
"These artists were outside the Moscow art market. This is the real
price from their own town," he said. "In the future their works will
become more expensive and we will bring new ones."
For his return, Guelman is concentrating on new Kazakh art.
"Kazakh art is very powerful. Of course I wanted to amaze everybodyby showing something new," he said. "Kazakh art is terra incognito."
One of the most prominent Kazakh artists in the exhibition is
Yerbossin Meldibekov, whose sculpture of four horse legs and a ball has
drawn much attention, although the most popular work was a video that
showed a couple copulating while riding a horse.
"After Kazakhstan I will astound even more — our next exhibition will
be held in Izhevsk," Guelman said, referring to the Udmurtian capital,
which is most famous for being the home of the Kalashnikov rifle and a
group of singing grannies. "Nobody expected that Izhevsk would have such
an interesting cultural life."
Cultural Alliance, Marat Guelman Project runs till Dec. 12. 1 4th
Syromyatnichesky Pereulok, Bldg. 6. Metro Chkalovskaya, Kurskaya. Tel.
8-495-766-4519
Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/arts_n_ideas/article/guelman-returns-with-kazakh-contemporary-art/472281.html#ixzz2DlEOZXVq
The Moscow Times
The Moscow Times