Topics include:

Saint Petersburg: New clusters of art activities in the 1990s: Borey Gallery, Art-Centre Pushkinskaya 10; the formation of a collector's scene in the 2000s; commercial vs social goals in art and why D137, Saint-Petersburg's first professionally run gallery, is now operating as "D137 Art Club".

Volgograd: the city's unknown avant-garde scene in the 1980s and 1990s; the impact of privately founded festivals in recent years; the absence of a commercial gallery system and its consequences for artists; the need to join the city's independent creative forces to build up a reliable, long-lasting cluster for contemporary art.

The Russian art market: the small number of commercially successful galleries in Russia, operating only in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. The high (and rising) costs of participating in international art fairs which makes it increasingly difficult to establish Russia-based artists internationally. The limited number of collectors; collecting art is considered as an extremely expensive hobby for the wealthy. The problem of stimulating the "middle class" to start a collection with less expensive art, such as photography, graphic works or works by young artists.

The role of the State: The National Centre for Contemporary Art (Государственный центр современного искусства) with its branches also outside Moscow and Saint Petersburg, such as Nizhny Novgorod and Yekaterinenburg, is forming highly qualified art managers and curators. On the other hand, unlike Germany with the Goethe Institut or France with Alliance Française, the Russian government does not finance any large-scale contemporary art projects outside the country. As a result, artists wanting to enter the international art world must rely exclusively on their own contacts – however, in view of the current political situation in Russia, for many artists government support would not even be desirable.

Questions / contributions by Katya Belyaeva, Russian Art and Gallery, London, and artist (E-E) Evgenij Kozlov, Saint-Petersburg / Berlin about the possibilities to promote contemporary Russian art outside Russia.