[artinfo] 1 Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art: January 28-February 28, 2005

[e-Flux]

1 Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art
January 28-February 28, 2005
Press days:January 27-28
Main Venue: former Lenin Museum, Moscow

Curators:
Joseph Backstein, Daniel Birnbaum, Iara Boubnova, Nicolas Bourriaud, 
Rosa Martinez, Hans Ulrich Obrist

Press Contact:
info at moscowbiennale.ru
<http://moscowbiennale.ru/english>http://moscowbiennale.ru/english


Why a new Biennale in Moscow?
The First Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, initiated by the 
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, marks an important 
step forward in the process of reintegrating contemporary Russian art 
into the international art world.

One of the most obvious consequences of political and economical 
stabilisation in Russia is the growing interest of Russian society in 
contemporary culture, and more precisely contemporary art. In the 
last decade a totally new Russian art infrastructure has emerged 
through art fairs, galleries, non-profit exhibition spaces, festivals 
and conferences. For these reasons, 2005 is the right time for Moscow 
to create a major international art event, the first of its kind in 
the country.

The Moscow Biennale aims to become not only a great event in the 
artistic life of Moscow and Russia but also to play an important 
social, cultural and political role internationally. It is intended 
to be not only a particular powerful event, but a new institutional 
project that will strengthen relationships between curators, art 
historians, managers, federal authorities, sponsors and trustees, 
mass media and public opinion on contemporary art both in and outside 
Russia itself. It is the organisers' intention that The Moscow 
Biennale will become a reproducible strong structure that will find 
its place in the network of other major international art forums.

The Theme of the Biennale
Under the theme, Dialectics of Hope, the main exhibition will present 
art that focuses on one of the most fundamental experiences of a 
modern human being: hope. On the one hand, hope exists as a private 
existential feeling, touching particularly on issues of care or 
caring, on the other it is found in the older Utopian vision of a 
shared social feeling. The dialectical character of hope today as 
well as its emergence in different forms of contemporary art will be 
the focus for the exhibition, reflecting the influence that social 
and political changes exert on the way we attempt to anticipate our 
own future and the development of the societies to which we belong. 
In politically turbulent and worrying times, the function of hope as 
an organising principle of our lives becomes increasingly apparent.

Structure
The first Moscow Biennale will include a main project organized by 
its international curatorial team, and a series of parallel events. 
The selection of artists and the development of the main projects 
have been a collective endeavour of the curatorial team.

The 2005 exhibition is the first element of a larger project 
conceived as a trans-generational endeavour that will unfold in a 
series of steps until 2007. This first manifestation concentrates on 
young artists from all over the world. Its main aim is to describe 
the state of contemporary art and the new issues addressed by the 
artists of the 21st century. The same curatorial team will also work 
on the 2007 exhibition.

The main project of the Moscow Biennale 2005 will be accompanied by a 
series of special projects and a wide parallel program representing 
contemporary art from Russia and the former Soviet Union. The events 
will be held in a number of key venues in and around the centre of 
the city of Moscow.
 
Chairman of the Organizing Committee: Michail Shvydkoy, Head of the 
Federal Agency for Culture and Film.

Commissioner: Evgeny Zyablov, Director of the State Centre for 
Museums and Exhibitions ROSIZO.

Venues
The main project will be realised at the former Lenin Museum, in the 
very centre of Moscow, near the Red Square. Built in 1892 as the 
Moscow City Hall, in October 1917 the building became residence of 
the Committee on Public Security which aimed to prevent the 
developing revolution. When Soviet power was established, it was 
first occupied by the Moscow Soviet and then by the Moscow Trade 
Union Soviet, and since 1936 served as the Lenin Museum, a unique 
collection of items related to Lenin's life and activity.

Contact
info at moscowbiennale.ru
<http://moscowbiennale.ru/english>http://moscowbiennale.ru/english