Anastasia Perova, contemporary art expert and founder of 1artchannel
New initiatives intended to enrich horizons and increase standards on the market are fascinating. And new partnerships are always exciting. Today we are happy to introduce you to our new media partner - 1artchannel, the education project entirely made by art historians, fostering the development of art criticism and pioneering research of the NFT trends on the Russian art market. We met Anastasia Perova, a founder and contemporary art expert, to ask her about the project, her vision, and how they support young artists.
1artchannel: where did the idea to create it come from?
I have always had a strong bond with Germany and the German language. During my thesis research in 2014 related to Gerhard Richter’s work at Moscow State University, I found out that there is a lack of information in Russian about German contemporary art. Many of my group-mates have not even heard about such an artist. And I started to translate some research papers and publish them in a small blog. Then, one of my friends joined me, and we kept working on this together to provide the most recent news about the German art industry. Moreover, we began to sell specialized and rare books for art historians, which are sometimes very difficult to find.
Step by step, the project was developing. Right before I moved to Hamburg, I created and launched a website for these purposes. I studied at the Art Criticism and Curatorship program and worked on the 1artchannel project at the same time. At first, I had no idea how I would like to develop the website. But I wanted it to be not just a blog and a rare book resource, but to become something more. Together with my team, we continued to translate articles from various German art magazines and gradually began to develop separate headings. One of the first and main headings is the feature "Art person of the month", where we regularly write about different contemporary artists. Today, the project celebrates its 6th birthday, and we are eager to expand our horizons.
Your project for this period has clearly came a long way. How has it evolved and how much has its concept changed?
Gradually, the project expanded, as well as the concept. Now we have seven features on our website, and we develop the project in many different directions. We strive for non-standard formats and don't focus on simple event coverage. Currently, we work on two main areas – research (art history) and news materials. We try to give our audience deep and gripping information, mainly about contemporary art.
In addition, we experiment with video content. Several years ago, when I lived in Germany, my friend, a director, spontaneously offered to try to film a video interview with people from the art world. This format turned out to be very popular and engaging content for our audience, and next year we would like to focus on it. For six years of work, the portal launched a Telegram channel - Life 1artchannel, where we publish text streaming broadcasts from different vernissages and art events, working partly as a news agency. And, of course, we keep developing our Instagram account.
Tell us about your team, how many people work with you, and who are they?
I do my best to support my Moscow Alma Mater, where I have acquired a deep love for art. And I often involve people from MSU, Department of Art History, to work with us, allowing amateur art historians to write and research contemporary art. Of course, we cooperate with invited authors and with art historians from other universities as well. The project needs to maintain depth and art criticism expertise in our materials. Therefore, one of the distinctive features of 1artchannel is that our contributors are not journalists, but art historians.
Anastasia Perova together with her team. Photo by Daria Sneg
What have been the main achievements of the 1artchannel over the past years? What are you most proud of?
I am proud of our NFT project, which we have been working on for a very long time with my team. Today, in the Moscow art environment, everyone is very distrustful of this new direction, and few people risk moving in this direction. My team together with our partners Digital Art Expo spent six months on a research paper revealing the latest NFT trends and prospects. With this project, we strive to create trust and interest in the direction of NFT in the art environment. And very soon, we will present the results of our work at the Cosmoscow Contemporary Art Fair( September 9-12) and the Tavrida.art Festival (September 8-12).
Which difficulties have you encountered? And how have you adapted to them?
I would like to actively work on art criticism in Russia because it is a very poorly-developed area but very crucial for the creative ecosystem as a whole.
In Russia, when an exhibition opens, most reviews in art magazines and newspapers which you can find are positive - all the artists are great, and the exhibition itself is pleasing. And as a result, development does not happen. European and American art magazines are lively and full of criticism. People like to read them because there you can always find topics that provoke discussion. While in Russia, art media often does not write critical articles, trying to avoid conflict and negativity.
However, I always encourage my team to create critical materials and articles, leaving their own, even if sometimes not the most pleasant, expert point of view.The main difficulty lies precisely in normalizing constructive art criticism, making it an organic part of the media landscape.
Anastasia Perova. Photo by Daria Sneg
"It annoys me that art criticism is perceived as a hate"
One of your partners is Cosmoscow. How did this happen?
Here is an intriguing story. In 2017, when I was studying in Vienna, I accidentally went to an event at Klimt Villa and found out that Gustav Klimt's grandson, Gustav Zimmermann, was present there. I met him and proposed to interview him. Surprisingly easy, he agreed, and we shot a video interview. Cosmoscow PR managers noticed this interview and offered we shoot an interview for their 5th anniversary. I returned from Vienna, thought over the script, talked with the architects, Margarita Pushkina, and the whole team. It turned out very interesting. And from that moment on, we worked with Cosmoscow in different roles, we were media partners, filmed VIP programs for them, and this year we already have our stand.
Interview with Gustav Zimmermann, 1artchannel
“I accidentally met at Klimt Villa a grandson of Gustav Klimt, Gustav Zimmermann, and asked for the interview. Surprisingly easy, he agreed”
You have a big audience. How do you build a relationship with it?
From time to time, we conduct surveys for our audience to understand their interests and requests. Our audience is quite diverse - the professional community actively follows us: artists, collectors, gallery owners, students of humanitarian universities. We focus on a professional community, but we also write for people who are interested in art.
I know that you actively support young artists, especially now during the pandemic period. What advice could you give to young artists?
When we launched the website and our first column "Art person of the month", one of the aims was to draw attention to the works of young artists. Usually, a person looks at the artist's artworks, and only then reads about him. We wanted to do the opposite and offer a different format. There is an online gallery on our website. And after an introductive interview with the artist, we publish three of his works, which anyone can purchase.
We work with artists and galleries from all over the world. And we do not always work with artists through galleries in this direction. Sometimes, we interact directly with the artists themselves. For example, we collaborate with German artists like Tim Bengel and some other Russian artists such as Alesha (Anna Nova Gallery).
One piece of advice, which may seem banal, that I can give to young artists: study art history, read and visit more exhibitions. These things are crucial for today’s artists.
And my very last and traditional question. What do you think the Russian art market lacks today?
I believe that the Russian art market lacks the experience exchange with foreign colleagues and institutions. The current isolation greatly hinders development. Among other things, I think that in Moscow, in the art field, many things and projects are blocked by needless bombast and lack of cooperation.
