Published on: 2026-11-05
Source: Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Repeat broadcasts will start on July 30 Podcast.Lab““Contemporary Art: A User Guide” on Channel One.
Every Thursday after 00:00, viewers will be able to learn about key artists, significant works, and major events of Russian contemporary art from different decades. The host of the project is the founder of the Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art. Sofya Trotsenko.
First issue— from Victor Miziano, one of the most authoritative Russian and international curators, a prominent theorist of contemporary art, — is dedicated to what contemporary art is and why ‘contemporary’ does not always mean ‘relevant’.
About the post-war period and 1950s talks about the years Irina Gorlova, art historian, curator, the last head of the department of contemporary trends at the Tretyakov Gallery. The issue discusses the thaw, to which artists responded with experiments in surrealism, expressionism, and abstraction; the exhibition of masterpieces of modernist painting: at the Pushkin Museum — paintings by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, and at the “American National Exhibition” in Sokolniki — Jackson Pollock; as well as the works of Oleg Tselkov, Yuri Zlotnikov, Nikolai Vechtomov, Oscar Rabin, and other masters of that time.
Sergey Shablavin, a participant of the Venice Biennale, whose works are exhibited in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, and in private collections around the world, talks about the secret life of art 1960s in the USSR, about the division into official and unofficial art.
Artist Boris Orlov — about 1970s, a time of bold experiments when new artistic directions were taking shape in the Soviet Union, including social art and Moscow conceptualism, while nonconformist artists fought for the right to leave the underground and show their works to a wider audience.
About turning points 1980s recall InVictor Miziano and artist Grisha Bruskin — the star of the first Sotheby’s auction in Moscow, whose “Fundamental Lexicon” sold for a record 242 thousand pounds. They will tell how perestroika changed the fate of Soviet unofficial artists, how the underground emerged from the shadows into official exhibition spaces, to the “Musical Ring” and “Assa,” and how “other art” gained worldwide recognition.
Olga Sviblova, Honored Artist of Russia, Director of the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, speaks about 1990s and 2000s in the years — a time when art took to the streets, the first Center for Contemporary Art appeared in Yakimanka, Moscow, major festivals and biennales were held, and Russian contemporary art became part of the international cultural agenda, institutionalization of the art environment began: “ART-Strelka”, Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art, and the Garage Museum opened, art market and international projects developed.
Vladimir Dubosarsky in the episode about 2000s — about how the visual language of the 2000s developed, what the art market was like, and how artists existed within the new cultural reality.
Podcast.Lab: Contemporary Art: Instructions for Use
Sofya Trotsenko and the podcast guests talk about the key stages of development and directions of contemporary art, what shaped it, and how it influenced culture. In the studio: artists, curators, contemporary art theorists. Topics: the history of Russian contemporary art, significant works, key artists and major events in the art sphere across different decades, such as the Picasso exhibition in Moscow, the American art exhibition in Sokolniki Park, the scandalous demolition of the Manege exhibition by Nikita Khrushchev, the Bulldozer Exhibition, the historic Sotheby’s auction in Moscow in 1988, and many other iconic moments.
Please note; This information is raw content obtained directly from the information source. It is an accurate account of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.