Oxana Bondarenko is rapidly making a name for herself in the underground and overground art world: the Russian-born, Paris-trained curator and her mighty organization ‘the July 16’ encourages a dialogue between countries, art scenes, and seemingly unrelated movements. After showing St Petersburg squat artists at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and introducing the chic Parisian quarter of Saint-Germain to Russian artists earlier in the year, she has now brought French street artists to the Moscow International Biennale for Young Art 2010. Oxana Bondarenko talks to Dazed Digital about street art, Russia’s first rave parties and  Moscow mischief.
 
Dazed Digital: Where does your interest for Russia, and its contemporary art scene come from?
Oxana Bondarenko: As a teenager, I already knew I wanted to work in a creative environment, with artists; I also knew I wanted to live abroad. I initially studied medicine, and as a student, I used to organized small exhibitions in parallel, at friend’s houses, at home, in university. I knew this was what I really wanted to do, but in Russia, there is no school or specialized institutions to study art business. What you call ‘the art market’ simply didn’t exist in Russia, because until recently, there was no legislation specialized in the arts. This is why I came to study in France, at the art business and management school ICART, to understand the rules of the market and auction houses, and immerse myself in a European artistic background.

Talking about my home country was always one of my professional aims: I want to focus on a cultural exchange between Russia and the rest of the world. My aim is to present the current local creation abroad, but also introduce Russia to a European artistic experiences, under different forms: curatorial projects, solo shows, conferences with various specialists.

DD: You’ve organised exhibitions with squatters, correct? Can you tell us more about it?
Oxana Bondarenko: Yes, I organized a show entitled ‘The Storm and the Harbor’ at the Venice Biennale 2007, by artistic and musical movement born in 1982 in St Petersburg, called the ‘New Artists’. It basically consists of a group of artists based at the famous squat Pushkinskaya 10, which is one of Russia’s craziest, most underground places. This space has seen it all: the first rave parties, the birth of ‘pirate television’, started by ideologist of ‘New Artists’ Timur Novikov. The concerts were by bands such as Kino and Kolibri, who were also part of the movement. And inside that squat, a parallel cinema was born, which gave a anthem to underground Russia: the ‘ASSA film’ was made there -- this film was entirely dedicated to the life of the New Artists. It used cartoons by some of the members such as Oleg Kotelnikov, objects by Vadim Ovchinnikov, and the other members, Andrew Krisanov, Georgi Guryanov (founder of "KINO"), Sergei Bugaev (known as AFRIKA on the artistic international scene) acted in the film.

So my work at the biennale was a retrospective of this movement, which occurred between 1982 and 1989. I showed works by key figures such as Timur Novikov, Vlad Mamichev-Monro, Afrika, Georgiy Gurianov, Yufit, Denis Egelskiy, Kirsanov... the show consisted of painting, photos, archives, and samples of Pirate Television.
 
DD: What projects are you currently working on?
Oxana Bondarenko: This year, I focused on two countries that matter a lot to me: France and Russia. I put up two shows, the first was a presentation of five artistes in the context of the French annual cultural event Le Parcours Saint Germain. The second one was at the Moscow Biennale for Young artists where I brought over a group of graffiti artists from France: We were trying to unite the street artists that work in different techniques -- so we presented the scandalous Zevs who does painting performances, Jana und Js showed their stencil technique applied onto the glass windows of the biennale space, YZ works with Kraft-paper, Adek showed colorful works achieved by fluorescent pain, that shines under black light, C215, the Parisian stencil master, presented a series of painting indoors and outdoors.
 
DD: So is street art less common in Russia that in France or the UK?
Oxana Bondarenko: The government places strict obstacles that really limit the development of the street art in Russia. The state spends millions of rubles hunting the graffitists and painting over their works. But this fact only gives more provocative energy to the artists of the street. They are not afraid to get caught, it gives them adrenalin, which is what they love about their art.
 
DD: But isn’t it contradictory to bring graffiti arts into formal art spaces?
Oxana Bondarenko: This is an organic development for the artists. When there is no kind of movement the art dies. And integration in the market system through galleries is the only way for artists to survive and be able to pay the bills. The exhibition at the Biennale was a first for the Russia - the street art has never been introduced to the public in this way, ie. through installations, objects at the indoor space. We wanted to show the breadth of new techniques and themes of the French street art to the spectators.
 
DD: And are there any more upcoming projects?
Oxana Bondarenko: This fall, I am putting up a show called Dysfashional in Moscow – the aim is to question the relationship between conceptual fashion and art; to achieve this I will make curators and designers work together. And in 2011, I will be working both on the Venice and Moscow biennale; and there are lots more collaborations coming up, with Denmark, Norway, Mexico, because the creations coming out of these countries are little known in Russia.