Organized within the framework of the 4th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art with the kind support of Vladimir Potanin Foundation, the Forum serves as a platform for various agents, dealing with production, evaluation, and communication of cultural products.
The Forum reframes the discussion around the creative industries as the "cultural economy" sector, giving voice to various agents: from big-scale corporations which invest in the culture of the regions of presence to small local self-governing communities which create and preserve cultural centers and initiatives.
Traditionally cultural economy in Russia aligned itself to the guidelines of the welfare economics: only goods and services, tailored to the needs of the consumer, were taken into consideration. The mechanisms of development and communication between culture market agents—creators, managers, executives, officials—were obscured. The cultural product operates in markets, driven by the capital of various types: cultural, human, economic, social, moral, and others. The dominant optics influences agents' perception, locking them in the gray zone, where it is impossible to evaluate the sociocultural effects of various cultural products (from festivals and exhibitions to print magazines and theater plays).
Making things better via best practices is always promising, yet it is important to avoid the cargo cult of adopting cases, which occurred in differing legislating and economic conditions. Therefore committee invites distinguished speakers with broad expertise in assessment, strategic consulting, investment and cultural development.
Among those, who will present cases which can be 'translated' into local practice, are:
Nicolas Bourriaud, director of the Contemporary Art Center of Montpellier, France
Andy Pratt, Professor of Cultural Economy at City University, London
Xavier Dectot, Keeper of Art and Design at the National Museum of Scotland
Lukasz Pancewicz, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architecture, GUT, Poland
Barbara Holub, artist, architect and urban designer, co-founder of Transparadiso, Austria
Lusi Petrova-Treffers, co-founder of CREARE, Erasmus University, Netherlands
Vitaly Kurennoy, Head of School of Cultural Studies, HSE, Moscow
and other experts from Russian cultural and business centers.
The Forum takes place within the 4th Ural Biennial of Contemporary Art held in Ekaterinburg from September 14 to November 12, 2017. This year, the biennial theme New Literacy will explore how the fourth industrial revolution is transforming the way we live, work, dream, and play. The theme is studied by a variety of exhibitions and programs, including the Main project, Artist-in-Residence program, Research project, Special projects, Parallel program, as well as research and education programs and events of the biennial University. The Biennial main venue is former Ural Instrument-Making Plant located in the city center; projects of the Parallel program are hosted at museum and galleries across the city and the Ural region; and the Artist-in-Residence program offers visiting diverse Ural towns and industrial sites within one- and two-day tours held every weekend.
The draft program is available upon request. If you are interested in attending the Forum and seeing the Biennial projects, RSVP at uralbiennial@ncca.ru before September 20, 2017. It will be our pleasure to secure your visit and enliven the discussion.
