Marat Gelman

Marat Gelman Alexandrovich (Russian Марат Александрович Гельман, also known under the transcriptional Marat Guelman; born December 24, 1960 in Chişinău, Moldavian SSR ) is a Russian gallery owner.

Gelman was born in Chisinau, his father is the playwright Alexander Gelman. He studied in Moscow at the Electrotechnical Institute, after completing his studies in 1983 he went back to Chisinau, where he worked as a laboratory manager and engineer. Already at this time he began to collect art and organized private exhibitions. 1990 Gelman returned to Moscow, where he founded the first private gallery for contemporary art in the Soviet Union and in Russia.

Together with Gleb Pavlovsky founded Gelman 1995, the organization Фонд эффективной политики ( Foundation for Effective Politics ), which referred to himself as " Institute of Public Opinion Research and campaign management." The Foundation has been instrumental in the development and implementation of various election campaigns in Russia. Your work is a great share in the victory of Boris Yeltsin attributed to the presidential campaign in 1996 and also to electoral victory of Vladimir Putin in the presidential elections of 2000, the Foundation contributed decisively, the establishment of the short-lived left-wing nationalist party Rodina should also go back to an initiative of this organization. In 2002, Gelman pulled from politics and was until 2004 a senior position the state television channel Perwy active, then he focused primarily on his work as a gallery owner and art dealer, where his gallery is counted amongst the most prominent of contemporary art in Russia. Gelman operation from 2001 to 2004 also has a gallery in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

In his Moscow gallery Gelman has performed the works of artists such as Oleg Kulik controversial action or Alexander Brener or group " blue noses" issued or given space for their actions these artists. In October 2006, masked men forced their way into the rooms of the gallery exhibited there and destroyed the works of the artist Alexander Dschikija. Gelman was injured in this attack.

Gelman's person and his work are contradictory perceived in Russia and evaluated differently. On the one hand he participates in initiated by the government projects like the Skolkovo innovation center. On the other hand, he has repeatedly criticized the policies of the Russian government, for example in connection with the criminal proceedings against the band Pussy Riot. At times he was a member of the Public Chamber of Russia, after public criticism of Russian cultural policy, he was not nominated for membership in this chamber. From 2008 until June 2013 led Gelman in the city of Perm Museum of Contemporary Art ( Музей современного искусства ) PERMM. The exhibited works of art and in particular the conditions laid down in the public space of the city sculptures led to controversial debates, after some controversial exhibitions Gelman was released in June 2013 as director of the museum.