From 15th to 21th of May 2015 the debut of Russian Contemporary Art Week (RCAW) took place in Berlin. Three different locations served as the setting for a creative encounter across cultural boundaries, in which a large variety of Russian-born artists from Berlin introduced their work to an European context. The mayor venue for the event was the Ballery Gallery in Schöneberg, where two exhibitions featuring altogether six different artistic positions were presented. Together with the performance by Natalia Korotyaeva, an exhibition featuring the artists Katerina Belkina, Vera Kochubey and Igor Skaletsky, was opened in the first week of RCAW. Another highlight of the RCAW program was the live performance «Live and Love» by visual artist Vera Kochubey. The two artists which were presented alongside with the performance in the second exhibition were Igor Zaidel and Anna Grau. In the second venue – the LemoArt Gallery in Prenzlauer Berg – the spotlight was put on a multifaceted mix of artists, reaching from Russian pulsating underground scene to yet undiscovered talents, from which all showed a highly unique approach to contemporary art. In addition, a special focus have also been placed on the educational aspect of art. The third venue, PankeCulture in Wedding, served as the stage for an inspirational mixed media project, which was developed in cooperation with the students of UdK Berlin.
The basic idea of the project was to establish a new format of art show, which inducts young, contemporary artists from Russia in to the European context. There’s a wide-spread community of contemporary Russian artists here in Berlin. RCAW aims to create a platform for these people, which would serve both as an introduction to the European market as well as a an open space, in which the artists can develop their ideas without being chained to any political or ideological context. At the same time, the RCAW seeks to reflect the diversity and the immense potential of the Contemporary Russian Art scene in Berlin. For this purpose, RCAW represents a great variety of contemporary positions including already internationally renowned artists as well as yet undiscovered talents.
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