"The previous shareholder Dmitry Aksenov is leaving the company and is also resigning from his position as Chairman of the Board," the Vienna art fair Viennacontemporary said in a press release and further announced: The supporting organization of the fair with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe will be in transformed into a non-profit organization that will operate as VC Artfairs in the future.
Thus, the long-complicated relationship between Aksenov, the building contractor born in Novosibirsk in 1966, the Wiener Stadtgesellschaft and the fair, which was called Viennafair until 2015, belonged to Reed Expositions until 2012 and has had a dynamic competitor since 2021 with the Spark Art Fair, run by Apostates from one's own home, locally, has come to an end.
Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine put an end to Aksenov, who held a seventy percent stake in Viennacontemporary.
He is also President of the Russian Association of Friends of the Salzburg Festival and was engaged in the Albertina.
Markus Huber remains managing director of the fair, Boris Ondreička its artistic director.
Aksenov is supposed to give money to the new non-profit association for a few more years.
The next edition of the trade fair has been announced for September 8th to 11th in the Kursalon Hübner - the former venue Marx Halle was last used for the Spark - and wants to focus on Ukraine.
Yana Barinova, former city councilor for culture in Kiev, has been won as an advisor.
It is ironic that Aksenov has Ukrainian roots.