Alexandra Ionova, director of SDV Arts & Science Foundation
PR is running through the veins of Moscow socialites. In 2015, Alexandra Ionova was one of them when she started working with Dmitry Volkov - Entrepreneur, investor, art collector, co-director of the Center for Consciousness Research at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. She had one mission : create concepts for his personal image. “The idea of branding through art came intuitively”, especially since Dmitry is not just a philanthropist, but an innovator, who makes art, philosophy and science an important part of his company, Social Discovery Ventures. In 2018, when this experiment turned into a foundation, Alexandra was offered to manage it. There began a great adventure.
Meet Alexandra Ionova, director of SDV Arts & Science Foundation.
«THIS IS NOT A BOOK: Dmitry Volkov Collection. The Story of a Man, His Art, and His Library»
Just two years later, with an exhibition at the MMOMA, one of the main contemporary art museum in Moscow, the foundation offers a singular journey in Dmitry Volkov’s collection : a passion for philosophy, ideas, turning into contemporary art.
“In any artwork there is a thought, which in turn corresponds to some kind of philosophical world vision.”
Many art objects from Dmitry Volkov’s collection are connected with events in his life in one way or another. Therefore, the idea behind the show was to invite visitors inside the collector’s consciousness, where everyone can trace the unbroken connection between philosophy and art—the two key medias of human wisdom. Visitors follow a detailed script, and their attention is guided by an audio recording and lighting magic that brings specific objects out of the shadows. An audio tour, telling stories that connect the collector and his favorite works can be heard in the voice of artists, the curator, the collector, forming a live soundtrack of the exhibit.
The exhibition is the first project that brings together Art and Philosophy, the two pillars of the foundation's action, displaying contemporary artworks and rare editions of philosophical texts from Dmitry Volkov collection. Not only this crossed views make sense, but it also meet the public’s interest. A couple of weeks after the opening, 2500 visitors already visited it and also took part in the educational program. The next step will possibly be to tour it in the countries where SDV company has offices : in America and Europe.
Art and philosophy
As in the exhibition, all the projects of the Foundation are based on two essentials – contemporary art (Russian Art, for now) and analytical philosophy. Thereby, its mission is to develop and support both Russian contemporary art and analytical philosophy in Russia. The latter by strengthening the society of analytical philosophers, as this practice has been destroyed during the Soviet Union period.
About philosophy :
“Dmitry is deeply involved in this branch of philosophy. So, our mission is to help institutions - such as Moscow State University, the Higher School of Economics, etc - in that direction. There are no Russian philosophers on the international scene, so we are building an import-export dynamic : on one hand, we bring philosophers to Russia in cooperation with the Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University ; on the other hand, our community is offering international philosophical schools for philosophers from all over the world and help to organise international summits. For example, we did one several years to support the dialog between Russian scientists and the Dalai Lama”.
Together with experts from Moscow Center for Consciousness Studies, the Foundation also increases an outstanding collection of rare editions of treatises of the greatest philosophers of 16-20 centuries.
Philosophy has the reputation of being a dead science that is not leading anywhere anymore. The aim of the collection, is also to show that philosophical ideas develop in time and that and many new discoveries are happening now. Therefore, we have collected key books and the very first editions of authors with whom philosophy began and by whom it continued. For example, by following the history of the concept of “consciousness”, you can follow how science, in general, developed through years. These books can be considered works of art – in the way they are published, written and illustrated.
Whereas the philosophical action of the foundation is on cruising speed, the art collection is growing more organically. In the near future, an expert council will be gathered to work more with the collection.
“For any collector, it takes time to understand what the identity of the collection is. Now, we understand the value of live communication with the artist who makes the work. In the past years, it has allowed us to create a few performances, together with artists, which are now part of our collection.”
This new way of working with the artists is challenging the copyright law because, in Russia, performance is still being considered as media artwork. But nothing is stopping them and the collection has today about 6 performances, presented by a description of the idea, video and photo documentation, all enshrined in a contract.
« Co-creating » : from a team of 2 to a shared responsibility
The main actors of the SDV Art & Sciences Foundation are Alexandra and Dmitry. They share roles of creators and producers. Together, they create the strategy and choose the projects they supports.
When supporting art institutions (Garage Contemporary Art Museum in Moscow or Arsenal in Nizhny Novgorod…), as well as when collecting artworks, an emotional bridge must exist. Because passion is the connection between all projects, the team is kept small and agile and adapt to the circumstances. Dmitry and Alexandra seek for advice, share ideas and find people keen on being involved in collective projects. “Co-creating” might define their operating mode.
“ We are lucky to be surrounded by people who are very open and ready to cooperate, give tips and help - artists, museum directors, their team of curators. They are our great independent consultants and participants in our creative process. It seems that, without officially naming it, we already hove our Expert Council. In the future, we plan on officially creating one. I can’t imagine a bigger and better platform for the realisation of our creative ambitions. There are practically no boundaries here, only in your own abilities to organise and realise.
Co-creation and a close friendly interaction with artists is what makes us very different from other Foundations. For example, our performances are commissioned, but the customer is also a co-creator. Hence, the space of creativity shared between the artist and the collector is unusual and innovative. Our last idea, created together with performance artist Fedor Pavlov-Adreevich, is to swap the Artist and the Collector. The artist will use the Collector as a “material” in his future work – with one rule : the collector will do whatever the artist says. The fate of the collector will essentially depend on the artist. Like the 12 Exploits of Hercules, we want to organize this at least once in a year, and try to do it at the international level with well known figures in Art World.
Co-creation is also a way to involve the whole company.
SDVentures is engaged in the creation of technological products and invests in technological startups. Because everything proceeds from the same approach, we combine technology and art to cultivate innovation. This is why we have a lot of art in the office, colleagues constantly go to museums in which we are partners, we arrange master classes. We want art to be part of their lives to expand boundaries. For example, we go to Burning man and invite employees to join.
My main role is not to stray from the line we have taken. This applies not only to the foundation, but also to the positioning of Dmitry and the company in general. We are all working in the same direction, in a virtuous circle. Dmitry’s commitment supports the company, the company is supporting Dmitry’s projets, and I work for all of them. To bring together all of this - our cultural projects should support it all meaningfully. In comparison with other large funds, we do not only consider it a social responsibility. It is rather our fuel, what we are interested in, what helps us create and be open minded.
Indeed, art is, first and foremost, Freedom. I communicate very closely with a lot of artists. Many of them cannot boast of big earnings, but they live by a different standard - the value of freedom. The same is for me. I am very thankful that my mission is giving me the same freedom. I believe that when a person loses it, he ceases to be an artist or a creator. And this is why we are committed to foster it.
Some performative projects produced by the Foundation :
The Book on Trial performance
One of the main events during the Biblionight held at the Russian Lenin State Library was the performance called People against the book under the title Freedom of Will. An Illusion or a Possibility. Pavel Pepperstein and Dmitry Volkov turned to a medieval judicial tradition to determine the fate of a book accused of providing the philosophical underpinning to punish people, and thus is capable to break the existing balance in relations between state and society. History knows hundreds of examples of medieval legal trials for animals and inanimate objects. The reason for such cases consisted of the conviction that the equal retaliation law was of universal nature.During the trial Dmitry Volkov acted as a lawyer who advocated justice of claims and conclusions contained in the book before the trial jury and performance spectators. After the voting procedure, the judge Pavel Peppershtein rendered the verdict.
Dmitry Volkov and Artists performance
Dmitry Volkov and Artists performance was a part of the Small Button, a project by Fedor Pavlov-Andreevich, and was included in the “Night of Arts” program held at the State Gallery on Solyanka. It represents a continuous five-hour long dialogue between Dmitry Volkov and artists whose pieces of work are gathered in the SDV Arts & Science Foundation collection. This performance's peculiarity laid in the game rules: it is not the participants themselves who control the dialogue but the referees, so that the conversation could not be logical, structured or fruitful, and instead of that it became a piece of living art.
Aliens? Yes! Procession at the Burning Man Festival
Late August, 2017, Dmitry Volkov invited his team from venture business and partners to take part in an art camp at the Burning Man Festival. For this edition, Andrey Bartenev was invited as guest artist. He came up with the idea of the camp and a special performance : the “Aliens? Yes!”. This procession pushed to the extreme the very concept of the festival - self-expression and uniqueness - by exploring how being the same can be being different. Business Insider described the performance “as one the most memorable ones”.
