[artinfo] Biennial of Quadrilateral, Rijeka

[Ana Smokvina]

MMSU, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka is 
announcing its long-awaited international exhibition of visual arts, 
Biennial of Quadrilateral.
15.12.2005 - 26.2.2006.
http://www.mmsu.hr/bq
http://www.mmsu.hr/en/bq/artists.html

Based on the rich history of such events - MMSU organised the 
legendary Biennial of Young Yugoslav Artists (1960-1991) followed by 
the Biennial of Young Mediterranean Artists (1993-1997) - the present 
manifestation takes into consideration the diplomatic initiative of 
Quadrilateral which, since 2002, has encompassed the states of 
Croatia, Italy, Hungary and Slovenia. All of these neighbouring and 
independent states have at one time and in different combinations, 
been a part of one and the same state. Presently, three of them are 
members of the European Union, while Croatia awaits the next round of 
EU enlargement. However, cultural unity and links within the region, 
largely disrupted during the turbulent XX century, are soon to be 
revised to the past level of intensity. By its geographic position 
and cultural habitus, the city of Rijeka represents an ideal 
converging point of influences, ideas and experiences from East and 
West, Mitteleurope and Mediterranean . The biennial aims to claim 
this position once more thus creating a space and place where 
regional distinctiveness can manifest itself through a globally 
understood language of contemporary art.

  A biennial conception presupposes a curator from each of the 
participating countries who will propose a national selection that 
will further be subjugated for the selection to the joint committee 
singling out four artists from every country. Each biennial employs a 
new curatorial team thus bringing in a new theme of universality and 
actuality that will transcend the events' geographical confinements.

  Curators of the first edition of Biennial Quadrilateral are: the art 
historian Giuliana Carbi, director of Trieste Contemporanea 
(www.tscont.ts.it); the art historian Branko Franceschi, director of 
MMSU in Rijeka www.mmsu.hr, a freelance artist and curator Janos 
Sugar and the art historian Igor Spanjol, curator at the Modern 
Gallery in Ljubljana (www.mg-lj.si). According to the proposal by 
Janos Sugar, this team has settled upon a theme of relativism, as the 
most adequate notion to reflect the contemporary cultural and social 
discourse. Together with the central exhibition in the Museum's Great 
Hall, in the space of 750m2, the Biennial programme includes other 
two manifestations: a conference for the regional art magazine 
publishers organized by the art historian Janka Vukmir, director of 
the Institute for Contemporary Art in Zagreb (www.scca.hr) and a 
round table discussion on relativism, organized by the philosopher 
Elvio Baccarini, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the 
University of Rijeka (www.pefri.hr).

Muzej moderne i suvremene umjetnosti
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

Dolac 1/II, Rijeka, 51000 Croatia

www.mmsu.hr
tel + 385 51 334280
fax + 385 51 330982