Olesya Turkina

«Unlike avant-garde art, contemporary artists no longer claim to participate in real political life by changing the environment or creating a new person. Without taking a particular position, and as if "hovering" over the most acute political theme, artists have an impact on society, allowing a critical look at the event. It is the ability of contemporary art to create political spaces in a new way, as Jacques Rancier said… » (Olesya Turkina, Cineticle)

«When collectors collect contemporary art, what do they do? They show their individuality, they trust the world. When you gather your contemporaries, you trust your time. If you buy a modern artist, then you have incredible confidence, flair, freedom of choice. This is, of course, a risk, but also an incredible adrenaline. It is individuality, individualism, which can now be manifested, and thus manifest through the trust that you give to a work of art and your contemporary artist, it seems to me an incredibly important fact for the freedom of the individual and for a new humanity» (Olesya Turkina, artway.tv)

 

Curator, art critic. She graduated from the Department of art history of the faculty of history of Leningrad state University, doctoral candidate of art history. Leading researcher of the Department of modern trends of the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg. Head of the master's program "Curatorial studies" at the faculty of liberal arts and Sciences of St. Petersburg state University.

Since the mid-1990s, for ten years she has been a regular correspondent of the St. Petersburg magazine Flash Art International. In the 1990s, she was a member of the editorial Board of the "Art magazine". From 2003 to 2008 she published the first online magazine about contemporary Russian art in English Contemporary Russian Art Newsletter. She is a member of the editorial Board of the art margin Journal (MIT Press, Cambridge).

Author of more than 200 articles and books on contemporary art, including ice Cream (Ice Cream: 10 Curators, 100 Contemporary Artists, 10 Source Artists).

Curator of many personal and group exhibitions in Russia and abroad, including exhibitions of contemporary art, held at the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), the City Museum of Amsterdam (Netherlands), the Pori art Museum (Finland), in the Russian pavilion at the 48th Venice Biennale, the project "World: made in the XX century" (1999).

Together with the Jurassic Museum of technology (Los Angeles, USA) she worked on a series of films: Chain of Flowers: Levsha, 2000; Common Task, 2004; Great Soviet Eclipse, 2008.