The Innovation Prize 2020 has announced its laureates at the gala ceremony that took place on August 21, 2020 at the Nizhny Novgorod Arsenal, Volga-Vyatka branch of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

2020 has been a difficult year not only for the artistic community in Russia but also for the whole world. The pandemic situation that unfolded in the course of the Innovation Prize competition made its own readjustments and redefined the format of the award itself. Today, Innovation is not only a competition of the best but also a common cause for all Russian professionals in the field of contemporary art. This is why, this year, the Jury of the Innovation Prize 2020 has decided to share the award among all nominees.

The decision intends to support the artists in these difficult times, show the integrity and solidarity within the whole artistic community.

The Innovation Prize was also awarded in two out-of-competition categories. Boris Groys, art theorist, philosopher, publicist, curator, was awarded For Creative Contribution to the Development of Contemporary Art. The award For Supporting Contemporary Art in Russia was received by the Ad Marginem publishing house and personally by Alexander Ivanov and Mikhail Kotomin.

The Jury of Innovation 2020 consisted of international experts:

• Inke Arns, curator, art critic, director of the Hartware MedienKunstVerein contemporaryart space (HMKV), Dortmund;
• Maria Lind, curator, critic, lecturer at the Curatorial Laboratory, University College of Arts, Crafts and Design Konstfack, Stockholm;
• Jean-Hubert Martin, art critic, curator, Paris;
• Agniya Mirgorodskaya, founder of the Riga Biennial of Contemporary Art Foundation, Commissioner of the Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA), Riga;
• Olga Shishko, art critic, curator, head of the film and media art department at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.

The ceremony took place at the intersection of online and offline modes featuring the concept developed by Moscow director Andrei Silvestrov. Thus, guests of the ceremony — nominees and members of the art community — had an opportunity to meet at the Nizhny Novgorod Arsenal after the lockdown and the audience from all over the world could watch the ceremony live.

This year, the Innovation Prize was awarded for the 15th time and for the second year in a row in Nizhny Novgorod with the support of the Government of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.

The Ceremony Team

• Andrei Silvestrov, director
• Lusya Artemyeva, assistant director
• Ivan Bushuyev, composer
• Alexander Komarov, producer
• Ksenia Anufrieva, musical programme curator
• [MISH] studio (Misha Maslov, Anna and Bogdan Streletsky), architects