Its one of the things I am telling my friends wordwide these days. Despite of Putin hitting the opposition on any small occasion, Russia is actually not such a bad and behind place as many Westeners may think and its changing so fast. Money is one of the motors for this change, but there is also a change in mentality. The middle class has come back and stabilized over the past years (after the Aug 98 crash of the economy it was wiped out almost completely). This middle class is not only consuming and fueling the new economy here in Russia, but it’s also the source of some new sub-cultures, coming out of the darkness of the Russian soil and starting the bloom like beautiful flowers, these days.

Art has always been a big thing in Russia, but art here means mainly depressing heavy oil paintings, looking like they were done three hundred years ago. The word contemporary art didn’t even exist in the Russian language and it just needed a new translation/definition nowadays. Of course there have always been contemporary artist, aside from very talented street artists doing graffiti and stencils, but only now this fresh modern art is becoming increasingly popular. New rich Russians were long ago looking for art as an investment. Putting your money into apartments and dachas here and abroad was not enough and art seemed to be an interesting and prestige earning investment. For a long time only Andy Warhol or Keith Haring pieces made it into the famous Moscow Galleries and later into the Oligarchs apartments, along with some expensive impressionists, auctioned in London or New York.

Dmitry Vrubel @ M.Guelman Gallery / Winzavod

Its time for the Russian artists now. Moscow is a controversial place to live and it gives lots of inspiration for any kind of art. There are art cafes like the O.G.I. chain of cafes, which support student like, young artists who experiment with photographs, music and paintings or there are new gallery spaces on Ul. Timura Frunze, Bolshaya Nikitsky and (even newer) at Vinzavod, an old beer & later wine factory behind Kurskaya station. Vinzavod is said to become the new So-Ho of Moscow. I always was under the impression the Timura Frunze area will get that status, but I won’t argue and its probably stupid to compare Moscow with London or New York anyway, because Moscow is Moscow and it will become an equally important place for culture as the two metropolitan cities mentioned before.

Kurskaya trainstation has been a wild and sort of dangerous place in the past years and even though some famous and very nice clubs like Ikra or Gazgolder opened just nearby, one still needed to be careful when leaving one of these clubs. There are endless stories of friends who were beaten up and robbed brutally by gangs of suburban skinheads, but also “black people” as they call the people from Caucasus here. Our walk from Kurskaya Metro to Vinzavod is also a bit scary. Endless amounts of homeless drunk and drugged up people cross our way and even though it’s a bright summer day, it seems a bit scary to walk here. Its not really a nice and touristic area where you can walk with your camera on your neck and be safe. I’d still consider it one of the more dangerous areas in Moscow.

Nevertheless, once you made your way to the former Bavaria Beer Factory, called Vinzavod you’ll be surprised of what you can find in Moscow nowadays. Still, before you enter the area, you’ll have to pass a few angry barking dogs and some mean looking guards in scarey Afghan war military outfits. But don’t let them turn you away. Vinzavod is an art center, a must see, a fashionable and clean island within this poor area around Kurskaya station. A place where you can wander from gallery to gallery and see what’s hot in the Russian art scene these days.

Cara & Co Concept Store

There is also a concept store, offering a huge variety of designer clothes you’d only find in Paris, London or New York. Cara & Co offers a variety of designer clothes to cater the creative upscale Moscovite clientele. The store holds designers as: Akira Isogawa, Bitte Kai Rand, Del Forte, Jayson Brunson, John Smedley, Johnstons, Natan Edouard Vermeulen, Nicholas K, Nom*D, Sabatini, Tim van Steenbergen, United Bamboo, A.F.Vandevorst, Youth World, Yuchi, World, Zambesi and many others. Besides apparel you’ll find shoes, hats, make-up, many accessories, books, music and other interesting things. Rosa, the Australian owner and founder, is still fighting with the authorities to get the permission to open a café inside Cara & Co and it would be a nice place to rest and have a coffee during the art and shopping trip around Winzavod. Cara & Co just opened 6 weeks ago and they are waiting for your visit.

I asked Rosa of Cara & Co, if she didn’t think Vinzavod was kind of hard to find and not easy accessible. She referred to New York’s So-Ho. She asked, “Is it easy to find the Prada store in So-Ho?”. Well, at least you don’t get scared of by barking dogs and angry guards, but just find out yourself. Vinzavod or Winzavod or Winzavad or Winzawad or however you’ll write this is definitely worth a visit. Go check the art at the Guelman Gallery. They show art of Dmitry Vrubel & Victoria Timofeeva these days and it was my favorite at Vinzavod. Ksenya, who works at Guelman was giving us much more leads about the Russian art scene and she seems an expert in Russian contemporary art. She any many others at Vinzavod were eger to explain their art and give us much more information about whats going on in the Russian art scene.

You’ll find more info about Russian art at www.GIF.ru (unfortunately only in Russian). Note the 28th of June. That is another grand day for Vinzavod’s Gallerys, when they will all show all new art and invite us for the openings. That is it for today, but I promise I will write more about Russian art. You’ll see more about the artist Dmitry Vrubel and we’ll visit a few other galleries for you in the next days to come.

Address:

Art-center “Winzavod”

4-th Syromyatnicheskiy pereulok, 1. str. 6

+7 (495) 917-3436

+7 (495) 917-4646

www.winzavod.com

Metro: Kurskaya