Mardjani Foundation
Rustam Suleymanov
President and Founder of the Mardjani Foundation
Businessman and collector, he graduated from the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPI). In the late 1990s he became interested in art collecting.
Gradually he has found his own theme of interest. He decided to create not just a private collection, but a comprehensive collection of the future museum of Islamic art, where there will be a place for a variety of genres, where specialists and amateurs, historians and philologists, artists and designers, culturologists and sociologists, students and teachers will gather and communicate, and where every interested person will be able to study the culture of Islam. The idea of creating a museum-level collection has become the leading direction in the formation of the collection.
It turned out to be not enough just to acquire art objects. It is necessary to have a deep understanding of a variety of areas related to the culture of Islam. For this purpose, the Mardjani Foundation bringing together many specialists was established.
Gradually he has found his own theme of interest. He decided to create not just a private collection, but a comprehensive collection of the future museum of Islamic art, where there will be a place for a variety of genres, where specialists and amateurs, historians and philologists, artists and designers, culturologists and sociologists, students and teachers will gather and communicate, and where every interested person will be able to study the culture of Islam. The idea of creating a museum-level collection has become the leading direction in the formation of the collection.
It turned out to be not enough just to acquire art objects. It is necessary to have a deep understanding of a variety of areas related to the culture of Islam. For this purpose, the Mardjani Foundation bringing together many specialists was established.
Kamilya Yunisova
Commercial Director, Supervisor of Publishing Projects
She has been working at the Mardjani Foundation since its founding, leads the Foundation’s publishing program, and coordinates the economic and legal aspects of all projects.
Igor Alexeev
Director of Research Programs, Chief Editor of the "Islamology" Journal
Arab culture and Islamic scholar, PhD in History, Associate Professor, author of works on the history of Islamic thought. He teaches courses on the history of Islam in Russia and the Arab world at the Russian State University for the Humanities and the National Research University Higher School of Economics.
Galina Lasikova
Collection Curator
Art historian, specialist in Muslim art, exhibitions curator, author of articles and catalogues on art. Formerly a researcher at the State Oriental Museum and curator of the textile collection at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. In the Foundation she is responsible the formation, research, conservation and publication of the collection.
Victoria Bots
Keeper of the Modern Art Collection, Photographer
Victoria moved from Uzbekistan, where since 2001 she worked as a photographer, was a participant and winner of national and international photo competitions, took part in group and personal exhibitions. She awarded as the best photographer of the year by “TOP-ART 2011” of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan. 20 volumes of the series “Masterpieces of Epigraphy in the Architecture of Uzbekistan” and 7 volumes of the series “Cultural Heritage of Uzbekistan in the Collections of the World” were published with her photographs. She is personally acquainted with many of the Uzbek artists whose works are in the Foundation’s collection.
Natalia Dianova
Manages social networks, the website, and is responsible for the functioning of the bookshop
Gulzada Nechaeva
Assistant to the President, conducts official correspondence of the Foundation, and is responsible for document flow