Since 2007, Dimitri Ozerkov is the Director of the Contemporary Art Department, State Hermitage Museum. He is a Russian art historian and curator specializing in the 18th century and contemporary art who came to the art world because he was terrible at math and decided to study humanities and from there art history “because you have images as well as facts.”
He was recently interviewed by the Founder of .ART Ulvi Kasimov, Dimitri Ozerkov discusses his work at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia and talks in-depth about the curatorial freedom, art market, as well as some of the controversial contemporary art exhibitions he has curated through the year and what is coming up for the Hermitage museum future.
This interview is excerpted from Ulvi Kasimov’s book The Art of the Possible, a series of interviews exploring how Internet technology can remake the art world. Follow this blog and Artnet to catch the next talks over the coming months.
You have a reputation for showing provocative work by artists such as Jake and Dinos Chapman, Terence Koh, and Dash Snow. Why do you show this kind of work?
I don’t really look for provocation. I basically try to do interesting work but some people find it provocative. That’s just how it turns out.
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