Off white 2020

Established in 2014, the "Off White" contemporary art auction is a charitable initiative of the Cosmoscow International Contemporary Art Fair. From 2017 the charity auction benefits the Cosmoscow Foundation for Contemporary Art which provides systematic support of contemporary art in Russia and encourages the promotion of young artists. In total, over the past four years more than 70 contemporary artworks have been auctioned fetching in excess of €660,000. The last auction by this moment was held in June, 2019 at the site of the MMOMA Educational Center (Museum of the Year Cosmoscow 2019).

In 2020, the "Off White" charity auction will be held in September as part of the Cosmoscow Art Fair – in Gostiny Dvor (Moscow). Mohammad Salemy, the Organizer at the New Centre for Research & Practice is the curator of the 7^th 'Off White' auction, which theme is "Fiction & Forecast. The New Aesthetics of Worldmaking".

Mohammad Salemy:
"Throughout the turbulent history of the XX and XXI centuries, modern and contemporary art has been a resilient global force which has already witnessed and withstood major events. In these times, new art, even though a traditional human trait, has always engaged new ways of what in philosophy they call worldmaking."


In preparation for the "Off White" auction, the Cosmoscow Foundation and The New Center for Research & Practice conduct a Public Program "Artistic Сosmologies: Worldmaking & the New Normals". It conceived as a series of online conversations, that relate the work of the artists with various aspects of our jarringly unpredictable world and let address the most significant issues of the time and the current crisis caused by the pandemic.

The public program "Artistic Cosmologies" consists of two sessions: three discussions were held in May and three discussions will pass in September. In May the curator of the "Off White" charity auction Mohammad Salemy, the artistic director of the Cosmoscow Art Fair Simon Rees and the curator of the Cosmoscow Foundation Alexander Burenkov each engaged with two guests: a curator and an artist, – and made their predictions about what the world would be after coronavirus. In September, in anticipation of the "Off White" auction, the second session of the public program will be held, and it will allow to return to what was discussed in the framework of the May session and to analyze thoughts and ideas in retrospect with new participants.

Participants in the May session:
Katja Novitskova & Annika Kuhlmann. Moderator: Simon Rees
Alexey Taruts & Clementine Deliss. Moderator: Mohammad Salemy
Simon Denny & Katya Inozemtseva. Moderator: Alexander Burenkov