[artinfo] 1 Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art: January
28-February 28, 2005
e-Flux
info at e-flux.com
Tue Oct 26 21:45:48 CEST 2004
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
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