Victoria Beilis is the founder of the Secret Art project, representing the world of contemporary art in London, and since 2013 in Moscow. The organization holds pop-up exhibitions at the city's brightest venues, be it a penthouse with a breathtaking view, an industrial apartment, a new loft apartment, an old mansion or a closed club. Each exhibition lasts no more than a week and anyone can visit it, one has only to make a preliminary call.
Victoria is sure that art is a constant action and communication between the viewer and the artist.
“Painting, sculpture and photography lose their dialogue with the viewer, being behind dusty fences for years. We're not talking about monumentality, but about contemporary art"
What makes our era unique in art?
- First of all, complete freedom of expression, the actual absence of any boundaries.
What is called art today might well have not become such, for example, in the last century. And what still claims to be a high-profile title, but is not?
- That too claims to be great.
How to learn to understand contemporary art?
- Perhaps, as we were taught in college, it is worth starting with the volume "History of Art" by Ernst Gombrich (The Story of Art by EH Gombrich), and everything else is a matter of taste and preference.
You are equally familiar with the art world of Moscow and London. What is their main difference?
- In Moscow, there is a completely different atmosphere within the art community … There is no benevolence towards each other and no desire to interact constructively. Everyone plays for himself. There is always creative synergy in the London districts of Mayfair or Fitzrovia.
And, nevertheless, your Secret Art event reached us. What attracts you and your audience to the format of closed, chamber exhibitions?
- At Secret Art events, art is not included in the traditional format for which our mentality is ready in advance. Any gallery, museum or other exhibition space fetters the viewer, obliges him to a certain stereotype of behavior and a system of perception of everything that happens around. At events organized by the Secret Art team, art is not fenced off from the viewer by an invisible chain of museums … The distance is shortened, and each guest gets one step closer to the author's idea.
10 books on art to help you understand beauty
In order not to look stupid at the next contemporary art exhibition or very independent film screening, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with at least half of them.>