Win-Win ARTWIN

Who: Madina Gogova and Marianna Gogova.

Age: 28 years old.

Where: Born in Stavropol, Russia. Moved to Moscow at the age of 4.

What: Gallerists

Quite soon Moscow high society set will come to the opening party of the ARTWIN gallery - 300-square-meter exhibition space in the centre of Moscow.

Madina and Marianna are young but already experienced art-worlders. After two years of watching influential galleries close and art works remain unsold, they now perceive a thawing in the art market and believes it to be the beginning of the next bull-run. In between frantic final preparations for the opening of the new gallery, I caught up with Madina and Marianna in Paris for their thoughts about starting a new gallery in desperate times. Madina and Marianna spoke with BONJOURIST about the feverish state of the art business in Russia.

Yana B.: Congratulations on the coming opening of your gallery. The contemporary art market in Moscow City is so ambiguous and there are already many galleries in neighborhood alone. Here you come with another one. Are you crazy?

Madina and Marianna.: Haha we definitely are, main challenge is not the big quantity of galleries in Moscow though. On the contrary I would say that the Russian art market is quite raw and underdeveloped, and it's undercoming some hard time, many big art collectors left the country. But I believe that it's very perspective, and we prefer to get ahead of it - those who overcome the difficulties now will skim the cream off in a decade. So the craziness is quite deliberate.

Yana B.: What prompted you to open new gallery space in Moscow when other dealers are closing their physical galleries?

Madina and Marianna: I guess we answered this one. Moreover we can of course try to sound logical but at the end of the day the main reason is that it's our passion.

Yana B.: Ok. Let’s start from the beginning. How did you get involved in the business? Tell me about your background.

Madina and Marianna: To my mind Russia is one of the most developed countries if we talk about culture, not only people read a lot, but it's a must to visit most famous museums and exhibitions, and we didn't make an exception. Thanks to our mom we were involved in art since childhood, we literally spent our whole weekends in Tretyakov gallery and Pushkin museum. By the way Russia has a long- standing tradition of private collecting which led to foundation of biggest museums and those created today will form a basis for future generations. Unfortunately contemporary art just doesn't exist according to school educational programme in Russia. Curiosity led us further. We graduated from MGIMO where we were studying international finance and languages- English, French, German, Arabic, our second education is Faculty of Arts at MSU. I think it's a perfect mix for a gallerist.

Yana B.: You've just traveled all over the world. Where have you found the most excitement?

Madina and Marianna: I love the diversity and differences in energy and preferences in art in different parts of the world. If we talk about excitement then I guess nothing compares to Miami Art Basel, great mix of good art and fun. I also love Venice during the opening of Biennale- one of the most beautiful and romantic cities is an ideal place for contemporary art and parties on international scale- it gives gives such a unique feeling

Yana B.: Who is your top artist?

Madina and Marianna: We are planning few big projects in the nearest future with some of our artists - Liza Haust, Olga Kisseleva, Dima Rebus, Katya Shkolnik. We also have few surprises in store for art society.

Yana B.: What does that mean to you "represent" the artist? How will you manage all that responsibility? What do you plan to do differently than other galleries?

Madina and Marianna: I think it's just normal part of a gallerist's work. I wouldn't say it' some excessive responsibility, promoting an artist in different ways, selling his works and uplifting his profile- things which a gallerist's job implies. We wouldn't like to compare ourselves with others, we're just doing something we believe in and fortunately we succed in it judging by our artists' achievements. Btw I think they also feel resposibility and get inspired when they see how our team works.

Yana B.: What type of artists do you most want to work with? What are the key parameters? #Young #Established etc

Madina and Marianna: As long as it's smth new and edgy we don't limit the media, and work with photography, painting, video art, etc. Of course it's always easier to work with established artists, but we love challenges and love curating young artists too, so there are two directions which we develop.

Yana B.: Who are your clients? Do you have your own pool of collectors?

Madina and Marianna: We do, these are both big collectors and those who started their art collections with our gallery, which is very flattering of course. Serious businessmen and young active people, anyway all of them have good taste for art )) With every our project the interest is growing, we're creating excitement about contemporary art.

Yana B.: You had another gallery during 2 years, why you have decided to change everything: name, location and concept?

Madina and Marianna: Yes we opened in June 2012 and after one year we were happy with what we had achieved but we realized we had to change some parts. So we changed the team, decided to move more cenral, and do rebranding, now it's Artwin Gallery with a different concept and we're getting the new space ready.

Yana B.: What have you learned about the Russian art scene since opening the first space?

Madina and Marianna: Russian art scene like everything Russian is very specific in terms of taste, preferences, even Russian art itself differs a lot from what you can see abroad.. We have friends dealing with art all over the world and most of them find russian market very perspective. Proper art world infrastructure doesn't exist, but I think positive, and rather see it as an opportunity to develop it. And the main thing is to believe in what you are doing.

Yana B.: With whom from Russians galleries you have the crossing path?

Madina and Marianna: We differ from all the galleries in Moscow and have our own vision and concept, though we are friends with many of them. We did few collaborations with Frolov Gallery, for example, not so long ago which were quite successful.

Yana B.: You make many collaborative projects, for instance with luxury brands (SHIRO) in shopping centers (Vremena Goda), then in museum (MMOMA). What is the gallery strategy for all that?

Madina and Marianna: Yes we love doing collaborations with our friends, if we talk about Shiro it was with Svetlana Zakharova, great person and art lover. MMOMA is the best institution for a russian artist to be shown at. Each project has its goal- to reach bigger audience, attract more attention to what our artist are doing. The main gallery idea is to promote national artists not only in Russia but also to take them to international market. We believe that overcoming more interesting challenges will bring commercial success as well.

Yana B.: What do you hope to achieve with the new spaces and how do you plan to realize your goals?

Madina and Marianna: Our goals are bringing great artists from Paris, London, NY etc to Russia, discovering talented artists here, presenting and promoting them at the international market and doing good sales both in Russia and abroad. Besides people are quite conservative and don't know much about contemporary art in Russia, so we are holding lectures and masterclasses.

Yana B.: Will be another ARTWIN Gallery, perhaps another city or country?

Madina: Hopefully.

Yana B.: In your opinion, how has the Russian art market developed in recent years and how does the launch of the new spaces in Moscow reflect these developments?

Marianna: I wouldn't say that launching new spaces is a trend, recent years were quite challenging for art market in Russia. So many galleries change the format, transition into noncommercial ventures, it's normal.

Yana B.: Many of my readers are professionals from fields not directly involved in the arts. They are, however, actively interested in the visual arts and trying to develop their understanding. Do you have any advice for people who want to purchase good contemporary art but aren’t yet sure of their own tastes?

Madina and Marianna: Masterpieces no matter which time period they belong to are a good basis for developing your taste for art. So we would recommend to visit museums, we always organize private views of good exhibitions for our friends and clients. Anyway buying art can't be compared to buying shoes or a car, it's an emotional purchase, based on personal passion, at the end of the day if you enjoy it you should believe your own taste, everyone has his own selection criteria.

Yana B.: If you could convince any living artist to exhibit with your gallery, who would you be most likely to ask?

Madina: Knowing myself if I answer your question I will have to plan the show for the next year!

Yana B.: Are you going to take part in any Art Fair this year?

Madina and Marianna: We are, Cosmoscow, Vienna Fair, maybe Singapore and Istanbul.

Yana B.: Few words about upcoming opening.

Madiana and Marianna: Something you wouldn't like to miss and will never forget. Haha can't tell you more at the moment!

#artwin #moscow #publicart #rebus #tretyakov #pushkin #miamiartbasel #shkolnik #lizahaust #mskeastside