The 1703 Art Fair concluded its 2024 edition in Saint Petersburg

Records and statistics

The third edition of the fair boasts the biggest attendance: the debut season in 2022 drew 10 thousand visitors, the second season over 15 thousand, and more than 20 thousand citizens and guests of the city visited the third 1703 Fair.The grand opening on June 4th brought together over 2.2 thousand guests. On the final day, June 9th, the fair attracted more than 5.5 thousand guests. 

Galleries reported that the commercial section sold over 400 artworks with a total value of 78 million rubles. Here is the list of the biggest sales:

- digital series "Current Transformation" by Aristarchus Chernyshev from the SUBSTATION gallery, 4.55 million rubles;

- "Zygote" by Evgeny Mikhnov-Voitenko, from "PROFESSORS FLAT" by KGallery ,3 million rubles;

- "Futures contracts" by Vitaly Pushnitsky, from pop/off/art gallery, 2.5 million rubles;

- "Swamp" by Peter Shvetsov, from Marina Gisich Gallery, 2 million rubles.

Leonid Kostin's artworks from the "Spas" project were presented by  FUTURO Gallery with prices ranging from 25 to 400 thousand rubles. Almost all of the artworks were completely sold out. 

By the third season, the geography of the participants of the 1703 Fair had grown. Dubai's Inloco open storage debuted among foreign galleries. Ambidexter Gallery from Istanbul participated in the fair for the second year in a row. Russian regions were widely represented this year, including participants from Samara, Kaluga, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Among the first-timers this year are DiDi Gallery, pop/off/art, the сцена/szena gallery, PiranesiLAB, Space Four Concept Store, MART gallery, Gallery 9B, Gallery Victoria, SUBSTATION, Rosa Azora, Gallery Jessica, architectural photo gallery "Tochka", galleries of photography ART OF FOTO and ZERNOGALLERY.

Here is the list of galleries taking part in the 1703 art fair for the second or third time: Marina Gisich Gallery, Pogodina Gallery, KultProekt, KROKIN GALLERY, MAISON25, Lumiere Gallery, MYTH Gallery, Pro Art's Gallery, Triumph gallery, a—s—t—r—a gallery, E.K.ArtBuro, FINEART GALLERY, 11.12 GALLERY, PENNLAB Gallery, 3L Gallery, Palaty, Art & Science Center by ITMO University, masters digital gallery, VS Gallery, FUTURO Gallery, Visual Culture Center Béton, NAMEGALLERY, ARTZIP, "Palto" gallery.

The participants were given a choice to decide which of the four sections of the fair their booth would belong to. "The Base " brings  together galleries with their own exhibition spaces and permanent exhibition program, "The Algorithm" is a section for galleries and platforms specializing in new media, NFT and digital art, "The Project" showcases online galleries without permanent exhibition space, "The Material" section brings together galleries specializing in object design and functional art.

The main program was complemented by the fifth section, “Collections”, with non-profit projects. ". This year, four independent projects from corporate, private and institutional collections took part in the section - selected works from Gazprombank's corporate collection, a unique non-profit project "1024" brought by a multidisciplinary artist Evgenia Tut from the Limonov Art Foundation, works by graduates of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts and Dmitry Margolin's installation “Ones upon a time in a seemingly ordinary garden…” from Pop-Up Gallery, curated by Ksenia Goschitskaya.

Lecture program brought by the Masters school, a permanent partner of 1703, followed up the year-round lecture series.  More than 30 art mediations, 21 lectures and discussions were held during the Art Fair public days. Experts in the field of contemporary art and culture took part in discussions on the future of contemporary art, on fairs as an important platform for the development of art industry, on the promotion of artists and new trends in the industry.

The speakers of the lecture program during 1703 were 80 leading experts in contemporary art, including Milena Orlova (The Art Newspaper Russia), Marina Gisich (Marina Gisich Gallery), Revaz Zhvania (DiDi Gallery), Polina Bondareva (masters), Yulia Vyatkina (MYTH Gallery), Anna Zavediy (Port Art Fair), Alexander Karlyavin (VS Gallery), Anastasia Panova (FUTURO Gallery), , Evgenia Popova (Popov Foundation), Alina Kryukova (a—s—t—r—a gallery), and 1703 Art Fair team members— Angelina Karpukhina, and Alena Platonova.

The events were broadcast at the 1703 community web-page on VKontakte, - one of the main social networks of the Fairand the streaming service of the event. Over 1.2 million people in total watched the lectures online.

The partner program of the third season was focused on creative collaborations between artists and participants of 1703 with brands, projects and spaces. One of the important innovations of this season were the special projects at the Manege site. Among them is the exhibition "First to light the way" by AURUS, the first Russian luxury car brand i, in collaboration with G-Drive. The central piece of the booth, a palace chandelier, assembled from the AURUS Senat car components and elements of the G—Drive brand harbors a metaphor of light that illuminates progress. Art project "Thunder Stone" featured at the developer RBI’s booth.A prototype of the sculpture has been created for the "Struny" house by group of artists from Splaces studio. They have created an interactive system that brings to life the voice of a huge boulder from Karelia. ALROSA Diamonds jewelry company, together with FRESH.GLASS, a group of artists exploring the nature of glass, presented an installation   “Flow of Light". This immersive work resembles a source of groundwater, filled with soft dashes of light.

Other partners of the Fair were: Roscongress club, the masters school, The Art Newspaper Russia, Sobaka.ru and Artgid, Kultura candy factory, Joia fine wines and spirits company, Cosmotheca beauty shops, Tauride Garden Orangerie, italy&co. restaurant community, restaurants - Futurist, Mr.Bo, Cabaret Noise bar, Four Seasons Lion Palace St. Petersburg hotel, Astoria, Grand Hotel Moika 22.

Series of collaborations with artists, galleries and partners was presented during the 1703 Art Fair, temporary site-specific exhibitions and inspiring gastronomic sets highlighted this edition.