You came to New York City in 2005 via Russia, Venice, Bologna and London. Quite an Artistic journey. What did you learn along the way?
My journey has been fruitful, enlightening and purposeful. Teaching me along the way that art must change, the artist must change and so too the market must change, but one thing remains constant if beauty is in the eye of the beholder so is art. I don't want to remember where I was born because I want to cut all the roots. Roots prevent mobility and knowledge of the truths of other people. Life has taught me that you must have strong values, in my case the family. You must also be nomadic and flexible. Your brain, your body, and your imagination don't like passports, nationalities. You must be ready to fly to the land of creative chaos, where many smaller truths are part of the larger truth. You must be open to new knowledge, and share kindness and understanding with everyone you meet on your journey. You have to harness the vivacity for life that children have, with their infinite creativity, in which material and immaterial are not separate but accomplices in the creative process. New York is a magical city, where you can really feel the energy of change. It is the capital of the clandestine, the illegal, the people of a new world with no passport; they are citizens of the planet. These people are New York; their energy is the lifeblood of the town. Without these citizens, New York would sink into the sea and there would be no one left to regret it.
In one of your biographies you claim to not know your age but claim you were born in a double nine year which would either be 1999 or 1899 that would make you either 9 or 109; what age would best suit you and what is the advantage of either?
Age is material and insignificant it is for historians to keep track. Space and time are like the Pillars of Hercules, figments of our imagination. Space and the time don't exist, so age is insignificant. I don't define myself by age but by my accomplishments and impact on my surroundings and those I am around. There are those who are trapped by birth defects and forever 9 years old and then there are those that are 109 now have the brain of a 9 year old. In the end it is what one has learned and seen that defines age.
You've called New York City the center of the international art world, I think London, Berlin and Tokyo would argue differently. How would you respond?
New York is the melting pot; people come from all over to study art here and create, once an artist has made his or her mark in the New York market they are pretty much gold elsewhere and assured a good showing in other art communities.
I would say that art in London is like another district of New York. Tokyo does not favor contemporary art. China's culture was completely colonized by American fashions. Berlin has a thriving artist community, but they seldom look beyond their own reflection. The day they will decide to mingle with the world, New York will lose the title. The art movement in Russia is full of talented artists. Europe is full of great artists but they seem more to defend their cultural heritage. But New York is today the capital of contemporary art, an easy art to replicate, decorative and very reassuring. In New York art has become a financial product, with Wall Street around the corner. I have nothing against the market, it has indeed played a revolutionary role, without the merchants the major museums would never have entered the Impressionists, Picasso, Kandinsky, Rothko, Christo, Lucian Freud.
The museum environment is very conservative and hates innovations. The investors love the challenge. But today there are few merchants and many sellers.
All periods of economic recession have been good times for the art market. New York became one of the international capitals of art during the great crisis of 1929. The art capital moves to where the profit is good and contemporary art today is the best product on the market. Mei & Moses are the most popular art advisers today.
We must regulate the market in order to prevent other huge speculative bubbles that can destroy it. Though New York is considered the international capital of contemporary art, there still is not an event that marks its supremacy in the field of contemporary art. The NYBA is committed to fill this gap. It will biannually call back to New York the best of international art, the avant-garde and all those who try to overcome the boundaries of and between the arts, in particular the new artist generations.
The New York Biennale is a fascinating, exciting and far-reaching concept. How did the idea of the New York Biennale come into being?
On the 15 of September 2006 cancer entered my life and reared its ugly head. Cancer does not let you escape; it is a tremendous and powerful force. But I made a decision; I revisited my life, thought about my core values, mistakes and life lessons. What was this seemingly large hurdle trying to stop me from accomplishing? I realized I had something more to do with my life; the shear desire to live did the rest. Becoming a grandfather of a beautiful creature and wanting to see him grow was determination enough. While others see it as a death sentence I must say 'thank you to it'. My life is better now because of it, less tangible but a treasure trove of passions, love and wants to do. Now I can see over today, tomorrow and beyond, I understand that the art world needs another outlet of expression besides the mundane auctions of Sotheby's and Christies. This is how I'll hopefully leave my footprint in the art world.
What do you want to accomplish?
Change is the ultimate goal, change over to the true appreciation of art and to put man at the center of our actions. Today's society has made the sell of art one of its main interests, callus hands, accidental paint in the eye or worn out souls that were poured into each stroke or caressed with soft finger tips. Today hiring replica teams to mass-produce has taken over. What do any of the skulls, blood, violence, baroque imperialism, sex lend itself?
Today man needs love, peace and more love to seek new and innovate paths.
Today art represents the worst of society, who face the great possibilities that offer the immaterial values which continue to masturbate in front of the mirror sniffing cocaine. It seems to relive the last days of the Roman Empire. Perhaps they are waiting for the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius? I prefer to save Pompeii and its inhabitants.
You have partnered up with Sarah Castelli, daughter of Leo Castelli, the New York City art legend in this venture, how did you two meet? What is her part in all of this?
I didn't ask for her resume, I prefer raw instinct; I just love her creative chaos.
The Biennale was supposed to be this year but you were in a car accident, what happened? How are you?
I feel good, thank you. I flew for twenty-five meters on Columbus Avenue. For five seconds I was the Spiderman brother. Now, I am still in New York. I have a mission to realize in my life. I am winning my battle against cancer I survived the car accident. I have a true purpose and that is to win the battle to change the contemporary art market.
The Biennale like I said is an expansive idea, the manifesto that it represents is quite expansive too, The Manifesto of Immaterialism, it speaks of a moment that is one of a crash between old values that include material development, business and blood and the new values of immaterial development, sustainability and love? Could you elaborate?
The Wall Street crisis is the beginning of a new era. It will be difficult to change because they only know old economic recipes. The doctor and the patient are the same person; he does not know where the disease originates, yet he takes an aspirin.
They are the guardians of material values (supremacy of the economy, quantity, globalization, one bill one vote). We must overcome this capitalism based on quantity. For two hundred years it was fantastic but it didn't solve the main problem. There exist today people on this planet that are living on less than a dollar a day. Hunger, disease, wars, drugs, prostitution, pedophilia are issues that plague everyday life for billions of people.
Also, socialism is obsolete. It was the obverse of the same coin, the coin of eternal production and consumption. In the absence of a solution a part of the world is turning back, defending their roots and identity. What is happening among religions is stupid and harmful. There are yet new genocides in the name of God. What is happening in politics and economics is disheartening. There is a new caste of politicians and billionaires. New oligarchs have gone beyond the philosophical, ethical, and political barriers to use economy, religion, information, politics, and power to build a new society, one that defends the privileges of this new international caste. Democracy for them is a temporary, not universal and lasting. Under absolute power democracy becomes a mere instrument. The world is being consumed in the hands of this club of criminals.
Obama represents a break of this process, we must support it, having understood that only a widening of personal and collective freedom, a mixing cultural, economic, social and political context, the prevalence of universal on the temporary, immaterial values on those materials, this is the only way to use the crisis opening to build a better world.
The immaterialism is intended to propose a new commitment to contemporary society to overcome the material values with those of the immaterial (supremacy of sustainability, quality, and globalization, defending the revolutionary value of one head one vote).
Do you think the recent economic downturn, the two wars that are being waged and the election of Obama are a sign of these times or the crash?
It is exactly what I think and I am supported by the outset. Many have accused me of dirty art with politics, but where do they live in a world of fairies? Art has always been close to power and politics. The problem is which power and which politics? Why they have magnified Andy Warhol and almost forgot the greatest artist of the twentieth century? Rothko certainly was not appropriate for developing the sales of the credit card and the philosophy of fast, easy, and cheap!
And could you talk more of the Principle of indifference and the full void versus the tingling void?
The only one who can avoid the consequences of the principle of indifference is the owner of a fixed asset, in our case the artists.
And you speak of annihilation and the creation of virtual realities?
The television has turned the concept virtual / real. TV now decides the reality, but behind the TV there are men, and behind men interests. They use the Internet for the same purpose of TV. For this reason there are billions of dollars circulating to control the web network. TV is the new Teacher and the Internet can be the new Bodyguard of the system.
But Obama used the Internet to develop the participation and the control of the people on the information. He won. We can win.
We are working on a project that uses virtual to improve the real and in due time we believe we'll be able to make quite a leap in the art world. At the NYBA we will showcase some works in progress.
Another interesting element is the question of if art can live without predicators? What are the predicators?
It is the time to do. It is the son of a millennial culture. The preachers are suns of communication, propaganda, fashions, they influence the market and there are pockets of monopoly. Is a very powerful lobby but have no future. Change will sweep them away.
You mentioned Mark Rothko several times; he seems to be an artist of interest for you? Although born in Russia, he grew up in the Pacific Northwest, which has always been of interest to me. What makes him so important?
I never look at the nationality. Rothko could be African, but for me he was the best artist of the last century. He continued the tradition of the Renaissance, of Venetians, of Rembrandt, of Turner, of Impressionists, The red line linking the Immaterialism. He painted what is beyond all current and pictorial style, the matter that does not surround us. He was able to walk above the clouds to reveal the colors of feelings and emotions. Imagine that period in NY, while everyone else married pop art he had the strength to propose a dressy and unpopular art. " In past society political and religious authorities made the rules and artists had to accept it. Today, following the passing of temporal and spiritual patron, the history of art is the story of men who preferred hunger than submissiveness, believing that the choice was valid punishment ". His research was completely original and unique. For this reason he is the artist we hired as a symbol of the NYBA, and to him will be devoted the main exhibition.
And you seem not to hold Warhol in such regard. What is your thinking about him?
He was a beautiful communicator and decorator; he invented art marketing, but is in another dimension. The function of art is to express and encourage; decoration is to beautify. They are two different dimensions.
You describe the perfection as 112358437189 + 887641562819. I get 1000000000010? What does it all mean?
Anything could lead to perfection if there is such a thing. The perfection is a cultural process, math is philosophy, science is philosophy, art is philosophy, but we can use some keys that can help us understand perfection. Perfection is a creative process generated by a creative chaos. This is the teaching of Fibonacci and major genes of human history, including the greatest artists. Leonardo and Rothko were both philosophers and artists.
Someone can be chosen or can accidentally discover the keys to perfection that rests its foundations on the immateriality, or better still on the matter that you do not see, cannot touch neither feel. But this matters not, it fills and surrounds our lives.
What did you look for from the artists that will participate in the Biennale?
I selected this group of artists in the last 3 years and they will be the avant-gardes of a new age.
Other projects you are involved include the NY Infoart and the Save Our Mother Project and a gallery? Can you tell us more about those?
I am living an incredible time of my life. I am a volcano. It is impossible to stop my creativity; I am looking for people who understand these concepts and who are ready to build this new process. Save Our Mother is a project that will be sponsored by Unesco. Twelve projects on the planetarium emergencies with twelve great artists will be the new agora for artists, scientists and big collectors. I cannot reveal all the latest news of the Biennale, just yet.
In the Save Our Mother Project, Damien Hirst is doing a project in Greenland what is it?
The idea is to involve great artists to raise awareness on major global social and environmental emergencies. The names of the artists can change what is important is the concept.
On the website of NY Biennale there is a quip: "Curators Want To Be Artists" You being a curator, I've always thought of curators being the harbinger of installment artists, what is your take?
Today we have too many artists, too many curators and too many distributors. Enough is enough. We need to redesign the lay out of the process of artistic creation.
A - the creative process is the result of a professional team effort where everyone participates in the building of the idea and its realization. The art product will be the creative process not only the work.
B - the range between production costs and sale price is too high, many times it is a 1 to 10 ratio and this is unacceptable to the collectors. Artists must go directly to the market; finished is the age of parasitic annuities.
C - the authenticity and the uniqueness of the art works must be absolute. We must develop a safe and credible internet market. The market is full of fakes and copies, so sales via the Internet do not take off. We have registered a patent that will make possible the development of sales via Internet.
You seem like a man with endless energy: who are your inspirations, what do you see in your future?
Endless energy, yes, I thrive off striving for change. The future is today and today we must change the art market. We cannot wait. We can do. We must do. I will do it for Kiki.
Finally, I'm guessing Kiki is your grandson?
Sometimes he is my grandson and sometimes my grandfather, it depends on the circumstances.
