Post-Soviet Art Museums in the Age of Globalisation

International Conference
Organised by Graz University, in cooperation with the Kunsthaus Graz.

Friday, 18th June/ Saturday, 19th June 2010
18th June: 10am – 6pm, 19th June: 10am – 3pm
The language of the conference is English.

After 1990/91, with the sudden end of Communist cultural policy, art museums in the post-Soviet countries were faced with an almost insoluble task. They had to contend with great financial problems, the overwhelming challenge of a market economy introduced overnight and the pressing need to reposition themselves as institutions. The catastrophic economic situation was tempered by a series of positive achievements – an undreamt-of degree of artistic and intellectual freedom, open frontiers, unimpeded access to information hitherto censored or unwelcome, and direct contact with the western art world. With the end of the guidelines imposed by the Party, new contexts, new systems and new fields could be explored. Museums took their bearings from global trends.

The interdisciplinary conference is the first worldwide to investigate the fundamental transformation process that took place in the field of contemporary art, from the legendary Sotheby’s auction in Moscow in 1988, which contributed to the political reassessment and commercial appreciation of art hitherto largely associated with political dissent, via the long, hard road of the Yeltsin and early Putin era to the encouragement of contemporary art by the new economic elite.

Program

Friday, June 18, 2010
Session I: Entering the Global World
10:00 – 13:00
Chaired by Peter Pakesch, Graz
 

Peter Pakesch, Graz: Welcoming address
Waltraud Bayer, Graz: From Perestroika to the Present – the Process of Institutionalization of Contemporary Art in the Post-Soviet World
Alla Rosenfeld, New York: National Identity vs. Globalization in Contemporary Art: The Russian Dilemma
Coffee Break
Marek Bartelik, New York: Dissemination and Reception of New Russian Art on a Global Scale: The Case of Ilya and Emilia Kabakov
Lunch Break 13:00 – 14:30

Session II: From Underground to a New Territory of Contemporary Art
14:30 – 18:00
Chaired by Sandra Frimmel, Vaduz

Valerie L. Hillings, New York: Reconciling Two Histories: Post-1953 Official and Unofficial Soviet Art in RUSSIA!Konstantin Akinsha, Washington DC: Culture Wars: Art vs. Religion in Post-Communist Russia
Coffee Break
Yuri Avvakumov, Moscow: Post-Soviet Museum and Exhibition Architecture
Anna Zaitseva, Moscow: Art Institutions 2005-2010: From the Moscow Biennale to Apartment Exhibitions

Saturday, June 19, 2010
Session III: Museum Development: Government, Business, People
10:00 – 15:00
Chaired by Marek Bartelik, New York

Nikolai Molok, Moscow: Private or Public: Collectors vs. Museums
Sirje Helme, Tallinn: Museum Politics in Independent Estonia, 1990-2010: A Period for Adaptation
Coffee Break
Closing discussion: Sustainable Museum Infrastructure in the Post-Soviet Context, chaired by Waltraud Bayer, Graz
Tour of Kunsthaus Graz 14:00-15:00

Sponsoring/funding:
FWF, Austrian Science Fund
bm.w_f, Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research