Photography in contemporary Russia – Art Radar speaks with curator Olga Sviblova, AES+F and Igor Moukhin

MOSCOW PARIS CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION MUSEUM SHOWS

With France-Russia Year 2010 in full swing, Maison Européene de la Photographie (MEP) and the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (MAMM), formerly the Moscow House of Photography, partnered for the photo exhibition “Photography in Contemporary Russia, 1990-2010“, currently on display in Paris. Art Radar Asia spoke with Olga Sviblova, curator and director of the MAMM, along with reknowed photographer Igor Moukhin and artist Tatiana Arzamasova of AES+F.

Vlad Loktev, '1:0', photograph, 1999. Image courtesy of Maison Européene de la Photographie.

Olga Sviblova has achieved almost superstar status in the art world for her documentary filmwork, numerous curatorial endeavors and tireless dedication to the arts, especially Russian photography. Art Radar Asia managed to catch up with the busy Sviblova who answered questions about the state of contemporary Russian photography, it’s growth since the early 1990’s and the pervasive misperceptions of Russian contemporary art.

“Russian photography, like Russian contemporary art, is quite unknown in the world,” Sviblova says frankly. “It is much less present when you compare it with photography or contemporary art from another country like America, from European countries like France, like Germany, like Britain.” Such statements seem to contradict the international fame that some Russian artists have achieved such as rising stars AES+F and established names like Oleg Kulik and Igor Mukhin. For Sviblova, however, widespread acclaim for Russian artists is still the exception, not the rule. The curator elaborates further on the effects of the economic downturn on Russian art:

“Russian art was forgotten. And also for Russian art and photography, there were not institutions that could support it … there was also the question that the Russian market inside the country was not constructed.”

It was in this climate that Sviblova founded the Moscow House of Photography, now know as the Multimedia Centre for Contemporary Art, in 1996. That same year Sviblova organised Russia’s first photobiennale, followed by the first Moscow International Photography Festival in 1999. Efforts such as these changed the climate of the art scene.

“So now we have in Russia a completely different situation … we have instutions for art and photography, we have our museums. In another sense photography has started to be open in the Russian region, photography started to be popular and contemporary art started, in the beginning, to be popular.”

Exploring the popularity of photography

For Sviblova, there is no boundary between art and photography, they are part of one another, and photography has always been art. However, photography as a medium has exploded in popularity and is, according to Sviblova, one of the “most important arts today”.

Igor Moukhin, 'Moscou', photograph, 1988. Image courtesy of Maison Européene de la Photographie.

Factoring into the success of photography in Russia are the new freedoms afforded to artists. This new freedom which allows photojournalistic, “street” photography to “show the face of Russia”, a truthful representation of the people, society and Russian life.

“You really can tell that today photography is an extremely popular media. Today nobody asks me if photography is art or is not art; it’s really extremely popular in Russia.”

Russian photographer Igor Moukhin echoed the same ideas when we asked him if photography was being embraced within Russia.

“People have ceased and to look [at] and trust the TV. There is no independent press. And on the Internet  [there are] a lot of photos, photos about today, yesterday, about life, and these photos discuss.”

Moukhin uses the term “direct photo” in reference to his photographs of Soviet youths and comments on the subjectiveness of his photography, saying that it is not universal since context is necessary. To artists such as Moukhin, context and knowledge of Russian history are necessary to grasp the messgae of his “direct” photography. Yet not all Russian photography is specific to Russian experiences. Communication between countries is another factor when examining the popularity of Russian photography. Acknowledging a lack of communication between Russia and other countries, Sviblova highlights the importance of photography as a method to dispel misconcenptions, and to speak about what has happened in Russia in the past and what is happening now.

Nikolai Polissky, 'La Tour', photograph, 2000. Image courtesy of Maison Européene de la Photographie.

As Olga Sviblova states, the MEP exhibition in Paris presents yet another chance “to show what kind of new photography was born in that time [1990-2010] … we can show what has happened in Russia: on a social level, emotional level, economic level, and political level”. Images of revolution from the first and second Chechen wars also make up an important part of the exhibition and Sviblova stresses how photographers began to tackle issues outside of Russia, on an international level.

“We tried to show history … we tried to show the first and second Chechen wars, what was the Russian strategy … we tried to show the best photographers working at the time … At the same time, we tried to show what happens in the country, we tried to show the youth generation, the old people.”

While some artists use documentary photography to focus on Russian experiences, others use documentary photography to create ties to the rest of the world.  As the birth of “new Russia” took place, contemporary street photography captured it from every angle.

Russian photography, international issues

Although it is one of the most popular types of photography in Russia, the exhibition includes much more than just documentary-style images. What Sviblova calls classical art photography and fashion photography make up the remainder of the show and include names such as Oleg Kulik and Arsen Savadov.

AES+F, 'The Islamic Project: New Liberty', 2003, lambda print. Image courtesy of the AES+F website.

Sviblova also speaks in length about the popular artist collective AES+F, a group that uses photography as a tool to address universal, and often controversial, concepts.  In reference to images from “The Islamic Project” series Sviblova remarks:

“After September 11 their images started to be so famous, distributed through the Internet and often given out without the signature of the artist because it was like popular art. It was not the mirror of reality, but also the magic mirror of the future … AES+F is one of the most sophisticated, one of the most complicated, and at the same time one fo the most magic artist [groups].”

In a brief Art Radar interview with AES+F’s Tatiana Arzamasova, the artist sheds some light on the collective’s use of photography in recent series such as “The Last Riot” and ‘”The Feast of Trimalchio”. “We use photography as a tool,” she remarks.

On the artists’ website they make no attempt to hide their process, showing how they use assorted images as a starting point for the final product. As a collective,the artists of AES, with the exception of Vladmir Fridkes, do not consider themselves “traditional” photographers. When asked if the international community still had misperceptions about Russian art and Russian photography, Arzamasova indicated that the idea of Russian photography as socialist media is still present. “[People] think of Russia as poor…they still think of the Cold War” Arzamasova states. Undaunted by such stereotypes, AES+F continues to stretch the boundaries of what Russian art and photography is considered to be. Olga Sviblova concludes:

“Great photography is not just image and document of reality, it’s much more metaphoric. If you know the language of the artist, you can read the message and through this message you can see not just today, or the past, you can see our future”

Other stand-out artists featured in the exhibition, which will run until 29 August this year, include the Fenso group, Sergui Tchilikov, Vladmir Kupriyanov, Georgy Pervov, and Vladmir Fridkes.

EH/KN

Related Topics: Russian artists, photography, curators

Related Posts:

• World premiere of AES+F photo collages at Moscow’s Garage Center- video– August 2010- Russian artist collective opens solo exhibition with brand new images
• Russian curators prosecuted for showcasing banned art – media round up – August 2010 – trial of two Russian artists a sign for some that cultural oppression still lingers in Russia
• What is happening in Russian video art? Find out with Olga Chernysheva at ICA and Whitespace London January 2009 – January 2009 – insight into Russian video art through London exhibition from Olga Chernysheva
• Dasha Zhukova experiments with exhibition of 12 leading video artists on giant outdoor screen- Moscow Times, Reuters – December 2008 – Garage Center for Contemporary Culture shows AES+F’s Last Riot on the jumbotron in Moscow
• Russian collective AES+F talks to the Art Newspaper about their meteoric success over the last year – August 2008 – the collective discusses inspirations, concepts and newly exhibited work

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World premiere of new AES+F photo collages at Moscow’s Garage Center – video

RUSSIAN ARTIST COLLECTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY VIDEO

Made up of artists Tatiana Arzamasova, Lev Evzovitch, Evgeny Svyatsky, and Vladmir Fridkes, internatinoally acclaimed Russian collective AES+F returns once again to Moscow’s Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in the center’s newest exhibition, “The Feast of Trimalchio“.

AES+F, 'Triptych #1. Panorama #2', 2010, digital collage. Image courtesy of Garage Center for Contemporary Culture.

Curated by Olga Sviblova, the collective’s interpretation of Satyricon, a work by Roman poet Gaius Petronious Arbiter, features a nine channel video installation of a hotel resort paradise threatened by disaster. The artists’ website states:

the atmosphere of ‘The Feast of Trimalchio’ can be seen as bringing together the hotel rituals of leisure and pleasure … On the other hand the ‘servants’ are more than attentive service-providers. They are participants in an orgy, bringing to life any fantasy of the ‘masters’.

The show, which runs from 19 June to 29 August, features both the video installation as well as several brand new, never-before-seen panoramic digital collages.

Watch Garage Center’s short preview of “The Feast of Trimalchio” here (video length, 1:07 mins)

EH/KN

Related Topics: AES+F, Russian, photography, video art

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• Russian curators prosecuted for showcasing banned art: media round-up – August 2010 – an overview of the viewpoints of art professionals, the church and the government as portrayed in the media
• Cause and Effect: London solo for Macau-Russian artist Konstantin Bessmertny – May 2010 – a contemporary Russian painter exhibits in London
• Art Dubai 2009- who sold what to whom? 15 galleries talk to Art Radar – March 2009 – AES+F resonates with Middle Eastern collectors at Art Dubai
• Dasha Zhukova experiments with exhibition of 12 leading video artists on giant outdoor screen- Moscow Times, Reuters – December 2008 – Garage Center for Contemporary Culture shows AES+F’s Last Riot on the jumbotron in Moscow
• Russian collective AES+F talks to the Art Newspaper about their meteoric success over the last year – August 2008 – the collective discusses inspirations, concepts and newly exhibited work

Subscribe to Art Radar Asia for more on AES+F and contemporary Russian art

Sa Sa Gallery and Art Project, new artist-run initiatives in Cambodia

CAMBODIAN EMERGING ARTISTS ARTIST-RUN SPACES PHOTOGRPAHY

In 2009, a group of artists and photographers called Stiev Selapak founded Sa Sa Art Gallery, Cambodia’s first artist-run gallery. The programming focuses on emerging Cambodian contemporary artists. With the idea of wanting to promote the Cambodian contemporary art by supporting emerging Cambodian artists, Stiev Selapak started a new non-commercial initiative in early 2010, the Sa Sa Art Project.

Art Radar Asia spoke with Vuth Lyno, manager of Sa Sa Art Gallery, to find out more about this remarkable and influential group, gallery and project.

Chhin Taingchhea, 'Untitled', "Old Building" series, 2009. Image courtesy of the artist.

Stiev Selapak formed to share ideas

Artist group Stiev Selapak was formed by six Cambodian artists and photographers in 2007, after meeting at a photography workshop. The ideal behind the group is to share, to communicate and to learn together. Three of the members graduated from the Royal University of Fine Arts and the other members came from various backgrounds.

Vuth Lyno, Sa Sa Art Gallery’s manager, for example, began his career in the arts as an information technology and communications specialist. In his work, he was required to take photographs for promotional communications which lead to a desire to explore artistic photography.

“Later on I realised that photography is not just about taking photos of happy people. I wanted to show real lives of people. For me that was the entry point.” Vuth Lyno, speaking with Art Radar Asia.

Vuth Lyno, 'Untitled', "Reflect" series, 2007. Image courtesy of the artist.

Each of the members implement their projects individually, but also work together. As Lyno elaborates: “Sometimes we would go out, take photos and document, review and show them to each other, comment and share what could be improved in a way where we could reflect [on] our personal inner perspectives.”

Sa Sa Art Gallery is founded

Stiev Selapak opened Sa Sa Art Gallery in early 2009. Significantly, Sa Sa is an abbreviation of Stiev Salapak, who are also known as the Art Rebels. For the group, the name Art Rebels did not find meaning in rebelling, but saw it more as wanting to do something new. “We want to introduce contemporary photography to people here and promote it to a wider audience,” Lyno divulges.

In the beginning, the group wanted to find a space which they could work in. Having some support, they could start having exhibitions. Mostly these events showcased photographic works, but the group soon realised that it was not only about Stiev Selapak, it was also about Cambodian artists and Cambodian contemporary photography.

“I believe that we contribute to the local art scene. When we had finished our creation of Sa Sa [Art Gallery] we had attended a one year photography workshop; we had group exhibitions together from all the students graduating from the class. That for me was the big step into the scene, when we look at it from the contemporary photography side.” Vuth Lyno, speaking with Art Radar Asia.

In Cambodia, most of the galleries are foreign-owned. Being artists themselves, the members of Stiev Selapak felt that Cambodian artists did not have a productive and equal relationship with these galleries. They commonly felt they needed a space that was Cambodian-owned, independent and that helped other artists.

Creating the gallery, the founders did not only exhibit their own works, but also work from other local artist groups. Though the size of the gallery is limited, they can still present and sell a decent-sized body of work. ”It’s a matter of how we can present that. So far we’ve exhibited a lot of photography, but we also show paintings and drawings,” Lyno elaborates.

Kong Vollak, 'Untitled', "Building 2" series, 2009. Image courtesy of the artist.

Sa Sa Art Project – a haven for experimental art practice

Earlier this year, Stiev Selapak founded a non-commercial initiative called the Sa Sa Art Project. This project is dedicated to experimental art practice and can accommodate installation art, residencies, meetings, and classes. The main goal is simple – to create opportunities for young artists to realise new ideas, to share their experiences and knowledge, as well as to educate the next generation about art.

One of the main activities of the project is inviting new and emerging artists to live and work at the Sa Sa Art Project’s space. Here they can experiment with new ideas free of any of the limitations normally encountered in commercial galleries. Each residency ends with a short exhibition. One drawing class every week is also held under the project which caters to students and local artists.

Both the Sa Sa Art Gallery and the Sa Sa Art project were created and founded by  Stiev Selapak, but what sets them apart from each other is that the gallery is operating commercially, hosting artist talks and welcoming students. The gallery focuses on showcasing emerging Cambodian contemporary artists’ bodies of work. The art project’s aim is to foster a community of knowledge sharing among artists. It tries to create opportunities for new artists, but also works as an educational program.

Funding and support in the Cambodian art industry

Finding spaces for the gallery and the project was easy, but the more challenging task was finding sustainable funding. In early March this year, Stiev Selapak organised a fundraiser so that they could continue with the programming of the gallery and to expand activities for the art project. Though they sometimes depend on the support from the public, most of the time the founders fund the gallery themselves. Since it is run with minimal funding and minimal resources, their communication and marketing are limited as well.

At the moment, the Sa Sa Art Gallery doesn’t operate on the same scale as other galleries in Cambodia, who represent a number of artists. Sa Sa is limited to representing the founders of Stiev Selapak and a few other artists they have close relationships with. One of the founders, internationally-known artist Vandy Rattana, is one of the more exposed artists in the group, exhibiting his works in Asia and in the U.S.

Vandy Rattana, 'Untitled', "Fire of the Year" series, 2008. Image courtesy of the artist.

“We have a new wave of artists and photographers coming now, continuing their practices in contemporary photography.” Vuth Lyno, speaking with Art Radar Asia.

One big difference in the Cambodian art scene is that ten years ago there were maybe a couple of contemporary art galleries, a number which has increased significantly over the past few years. Having the experience of creating and starting a gallery, Lyno’s advice would be to consider the idea carefully.

“Putting on an exhibition might not generate enough funds to continue running the gallery. Those who wish to start thinking of opening a gallery need to consider it carefully in terms of marketing [and] connections with buyers and collectors. These approaches have been adopted by many other galleries in town already. There are many gallery/restaurant/café [establishments]. My approach when I mean art gallery, [I mean] a clean gallery where they can appreciate the art.”

Neighbouring countries are more established and more systematic in terms of the development of their arts industries. The founders of Stiev Salapak believe that artists should make an effort to engage with each other in order to learn more. As there is almost no support from the government for the art in Cambodia, artists need to make the effort to create opportunities for themselves in the Southeast Asian region as well as in Cambodia itself. In saying this, although the art scene in Cambodia is relatively new, there has been a significant advancement in recent years.

The main goal for Stiev Salapak has always been to promote Cambodian contemporary art and by doing that, they support emerging artists. As Lyno states, this original idea has not changed. It has evolved into something bigger, meaning that the idea has evolved into something that can now accommodate and support Cambodian artists adequately.

“When we started as a group, we thought we wanted to create a new way of contemporary photographing and to support that we needed a space. Later on we realised it was not about our group, but about Cambodian artists, new emerging artists, the Cambodian contemporary art scene and [making a contribution] to the art scene. We also wanted to welcome other artists. That’s why we created the art project, so we can engage more emerging artist to realise their ideas; to create opportunities for them to experiment [with] their new ideas without any limitations.” Vuth Lyno, speaking with Art Radar Asia.

JAS/KN

Related Topics: artist-run spaces, Southeast Asian artists, photography

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• Four Asian artists nominated for NYC PULSE Awards – March 2010 – Cambodian artist among winners
• Will Vietnamese non-profit art space San Art shift the art scene from Hanoi to Ho Chi Min city? – interview Dinh Q Le – December 2009 – another successful Southeast Asian artist-run space
• First New York solo show for Sopheap Pich, Cambodia’s most prominent contemporary artist – November 2009 – information post on exhibition
• 5 80s born contemporary Cambodian artists featured in historic show Forever Until Now – March 2009 – lists names and details of top Cambodian artists

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Xing Danwen’s perfect world gets noticed at the Ooi Botos Gallery in Hong Kong

CHINESE FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY IN HONG KONG

Duplication 1 (2003), by Xing Danwen. c-print.

Chinese artist Xing Danwen’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong titled ‘In a perfect world…’ at the Ooi-Botos gallery in Wan Chai has been the subject of extensive media coverage recently, which is itself an extraordinary feat in the competitive contemporary art world.

However, Xing Danwen is an extraordinary Chinese artist, exceptional because she has been working with artistic photography before it was considered an art form in China, and frankly, she is a woman.

While the art world has largely been a man’s game in China, this strong feminine artistic voice, touted by Kee Magazine as “one of China’s leading female artists”, was a pioneer in Chinese photography and is now turning more than a few heads in Hong Kong with her two photo series Duplication and Urban Fiction.

Xing Danwen was trained as a painter in Beijing at the prestigious Central Academy of Art, but is best known for her photographic works completed during her M.F.A. residency at the School of Visual Arts in New York. However, prior to that, she was an artist and traveling freelance photojournalist, which included travels to remote regions of China to document villagers and members of China’s 56 ethnic minorities.

Although her creative interests had shifted from painting to photography, she did not consider the potential of her photo work to be fine art until her late 20’s. In an interview with Art in America, she reveals that upon seeing the work of Wolfgang Tillmans, featuring life-like shots of bohemian youth, she realized, “If his pictures could be art, maybe mine could be, too.”

However, Xing does not cite any specific influences that drew her to photography. She states:

“Photography was a coincidence. I never had any influences that drew me towards photography. For me, art was very simply painting or sculpture, because they were very classical forms of art and all I had seen.”

One of the series of works on display at Ooi Botos is Xing’s Duplication (2003), featuring photographs of objects witnessed during the artist’s travels through the manufacturing regions in Southern China. It remarks on the effects of globalization on a region and the individual, which effectually lose their identity. On her subject matter, she says:

“My work is about human beings and the world. I’m sure you find universal language in my work but at the same time you find identity in where I came from. My inspiration and ideas are all based on my life experience in China or on being Chinese throughout the world.” [Kee]

Urban Fiction, Image 9 (2004), by Xing Danwen. c-print.

Also on display at ‘In a perfect world…’ is Xing’s series entitled Urban Fiction, created in 2004. For this, the artist focused on portraying the individual in his or her own environment. However, the subject is presented through realistic photographs of scale-models of building developments, complete with models of miniature people doing various activities, which creates a surreal effect that tricks the eye. On her decision to do this, she says:

“When I started this work it was clear to me that this subject was nothing new. There has been a lot of successful artwork done already by very well-known, established artists. For artists it’s important to create original work, so I decided to use the fake to talk about reality.”[Kee]

Xing’s recent media coverage has included articles in the following publications:

Art in America, Xing Danwen by Richard Vine. Feb 5, 2010

Muse, Seeing things her way by Koon-Yee Wan. Dec 2010

South China Morning Post, Model Citizen by Kevin Kwong. Dec 8, 2009

Vogue China, Blooming in Art, August 2009

Yishu: The Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Xing Danwen: Revealing the Masquerade of Modernity. July/Aug 2009

Kee Magazine, Identity Check, Jan 2010

Ming Magazine, Xing Danwen: On the Subtraction Philosophy, October 2009

City Magazine, The Flaneur, Jan 2010

Time Out Hong Kong, Interview with Xing Danwen, Nov 25, 2009

‘In a perfect world…’ runs at the Ooi Botos gallery in Hong Kong from Nov 27,2009- March 6, 2010.

Related Posts

• Trends and opportunities in the contemporary photography market– Oct 09
• Women emerge onto the Beijing art scene – International Herald Tribune– Aug 08
• Book: Chinese Contemporary Art 7 Things You Should Know– Oct 08
• China to use “soft power” of arts for international influence– Jan 2010

EW/KCE

Trends and opportunities in the contemporary photography market

PHOTOGRAPHY MARKET TRENDS

At a seminar held in London in September 2009 organised by ArtInsight three London-based photography market experts from a fund, a gallery and a major auction house shared their views on the most promising opportunities and interesting trends in photography today.

We attended the seminar and have teased out surprising facts and intriguing assertions for you to mull.

Background to the photography market

• First photography auction was held in 1971 initiated by Sotheby’s.
• Over the past 15 years, this medium has out-performed every other major medium including sculpture, prints, painting and sculpture.

In its early history this sector of the art market encountered resistance with buyers concerned that the works were not unique and therefore were not a viable investment. The development of controlled limited editioning in the seventies helped allay fears and the market saw steady but modest growth.

This all changed in 1989/1990 which marked the 150th anniversary of the introduction of photography and the market experienced a 45% leap in sales. Further steady growth marked the next 15 years until 2005 after which sales took off. 2006 saw the highest price ever paid for a photograph …US$2.6m.

• Today photography accounts for 2% of total auction sales compared with 75% for painting and 11% for drawing and watercolour.
• Photography has proved to be one of the least volatile sectors in the art market.
• 9 photographs have broken the US$1m level including work by Japanese-American Hiroshi Sugimoto.

Why has interest in and sales of photography increased?

Nobody know for sure but various reasons have been offered including relative affordability, the introduction of controlled editioning, a loyal customer base and increased market transparency.

Photography trends

There is growing interest and, arguably, opportunities in the following four subsectors of photography:

• fashion and celebrity photography
• reportage-style photography
• phot0graphs recording ephemeral art forms such as performance art and land art
• “slice of life” photography – a vernacular style dealing the everyday real life as its subject

Brett Rogers of the Photographers Gallery noted the development of a sub-genre she called “constructive fiction” which blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction crossing the techniques of the photo-journalist and fine artist.

In an interesting twist she forsees gains for collectors of photography books and advises buying first editions and examples of rare, early books. Explaining that books usually feature the very best of an artist’s work, photography books can deliver enormous joy as well as potential financial dividends.

Matt Carey-Williams, Director of Christies Post-War and Contemporary Art recommended photographs from the 1930s to 1950s – a seminal period in the development of photography as an art form – and which he believes are “massively undervalued”.

Global opportunities in photography

During question time, the panel was asked where they saw opportunities in emerging countries and the following recommendations were made.

• Visit Sharjah and Biennial and Art Dubai to see interesting work from the Middle East and Iran.
• Explore Central Asian countries.
• Korea has huge potential.
• Female Indian artists are producing some interesting work.

It was agreed that Chinese photography seemed “a little old” though Matt Carey-Williams said that it would look “remarkably fresh again in twenty years”.

Current challenges facing the market

Conservation of photographs– One of the most pressing challenges today is developing guidelines for acceptable conservation work. Colour photographs fade and some artists and galleries will ”refresh” (reprint) the works and some refuse. As museums are beginning to collect contemporary photography on a large scale, panellists felt that it was likely that this issue would be resolved

Is photography a separate genre? – Recognising that artists now work in many media. there are questions about whether it is appropriate or useful to dedicate parts of the market such as galleries or funds exclusively to photography. Matt Carey-Williams explained that as an auctioneer he regards artists as artists first and photographers second. Brett Rogers noted that this trend away from a specialisation in photography is due to a change in the way art schools teach. A consequence of a broadening of focus though is that less attention is given to technique. Image is more important than technique for young photographers today.

(Editor’s note: It is may also be a sign of market maturity – specialist focus marketing and promotion is necessary for an emerging section of the market. Today many if not most contemporary art galleries show photography as a matter of course. Just as photography is integral to and fully-accepted in today’s art world on equal terms with other media we at Art Radar are looking forward to the day Asian art is given equal weight with other geographies in art media and we can drop Asia from our name).

Related posts:

• Surprising new direction taken by Saatchi stars Sun Yuan and Peng Yu – interview – Sep 09 – Chinese artists discuss their version of “slice of life” photography on show in HK
• Abu Dhabi art – a major new art calendar event just announced – July 09
• Hiroshi Sugimoto – 4 fascinating video interviews – May 09 – see his fact merging with fiction work in his photographs which mimic paintings of real historical figures
• Who are the top artists at art fairs?– Mar 09 – The extent to which Asian artists is excluded is painfully evident and explains why Art Radar chooses to focus on Asian art in a small attempt at redress.
• Making the art market transparent – the Artprice story video – Apr 09
• Sotheby’s inaugural sale of contemporary Turkish art – video of 5 artists – Feb 09 – Nasif Topcuoglu is a photographer who reconstructs Baroque paintings with contemporary youths replacing the original figures – a good example of the trend of crossing fact and fiction.

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