Contemporary Art Market under post-Soviet Capitalism in Russia

CBEES Advanced Seminar with Ilja Viktorov, PhD in Economic History, Research Fellow at the Department of Economic History and International Relations, Stockholm University, and Researcher affiliated with CBEES

Contemporary Art Market under post-Soviet Capitalism in Russia: Main Tendencies, Actors and Developments, 1990-2020

Speaker: Ilja Viktorov, PhD in Economic History, Research Fellow at the Department of Economic History and International Relations, Stockholm University, and Researcher affiliated with CBEES

Discussant: Mikhail Suslov, PhD, Associate Professor of Russian politics and history, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen

Abstract:
The article deals with political economy of contemporary art in Russia. Its developments are considered within a broader theoretical framework of the varieties of capitalism approach. The 1990s and 2000s are viewed as a failed attempt to create a dependent market economy (DME) in Russia, which had a deeply negative impact on imitation of Western institutional solutions on the Russian contemporary art market. The 2008 global financial crisis and the 2014 geopolitical crisis led finally to emergence of state capitalism in the 2010s. The systemic failure of the Russian art market and its supportive institutions to transform art creativity into economic value depends on the failure of Russian elites to integrate the country into global economy. The article demonstrates that the market infrastructure of the Russian contemporary art scene has been closely connected to elite groups that promoted DME regime. They were incapable to support financial survival of an art gallery system in Russia. The role played by the social network around gallerist Marat Guelman is discussed within this context. The outcome means that contemporary art became an alien element within the new system of state capitalism. Democratisation of art market is suggested as a possible solution of the deadlock.
Keywords: contemporary art market, emerging markets, Russia, state capitalism, art gallery, networks

About the speaker:
Ilja Viktorov, PhD in Economic History, is a political economist and a research fellow at the Department of Economic History and International Relations, Stockholm University, and researcher affiliated with CBEES. His main research interest concerns political economy of Russia, with a special focus on its financial markets and central banking. Viktorov's most recent publications include articles in journals such as "New Political Economy", "Post-Communist Economies" and "Competition & Change".

Join the seminar on campus: MA 796

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https://sh-se.zoom.us/j/66441955093?pwd=MkNkbEJTV3g0WkU3MHQxRndrWkJYdz09
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