Thomas Brambilla Gallery is honored to present a "space" for discussion on the current contemporary art system, through the reflections of the Russian artist and intellectual Anatoly Osmolovsky. The conference will also try to investigate the difficult subject of the art market and its active figures. Besides, it will also try to analyze how and if the art world reacts to political events, such as the terroristic attack on September 2011 in New York City.
“Artists, gallery owners, critics, and the public throng to wherever 'something is happening.' But the reality of this 'something happening' is the reality of money. In the absence of aesthetic criteria, it is possible and useful to determine the value of works of art on the basis of their profitability. This reality reconciles everything, even the most contradictory tendencies in art, provided that these tendencies have purchasing power.”
In Chudozestvennyj Zhurnal n. 16, A. Osmolovsky, “Contemporary Art: Here and Now (Rejection of museums), 1995.
Must art react in any way to political events? Or does art confine itself only to the logic of its own immanent development? Do artistic actions have any effect on society, and how are they different from political actions? Is there a clear-cut social function for art? Does art inflict any damage on itself when it clarifies its social position? A.Osmolovsky, “Art without a justification. After September 11”
