[Nettime-ro] 1 Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art

[vladimir bulat <vbulat@k.ro>]

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@moscowbiennale.ru
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.

Curators
Joseph Backstein, Co-ordinating Curator (Russia), Deputy Director of the
State Centre for Museums and Exhibitions ROSIZO - Curator of the Russian
exhibition at the 25th Biennale in Sao Paolo, 2002 - Curator of the
Russian Pavilion at the 48th Venice Biennale, 1999.

Daniel Birnbaum (Sweden/Germany), Rector of the Stadelschule Art Academy,
Frankfurt am Main and Director of Kunsthalle Portikus - Co-curator of the
Italian Pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennale, 2003 - International
Foundation Manifesta Board Member (Amsterdam), since 2000.

Iara Boubnova (Bulgaria), Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art,
Sofia - International Foundation Manifesta Board Member, since 2002 -
Co-curator of Manifesta 4 (Frankfurt am Main), 2002 - Curator of Bulgarian
National Participation in the 48th Venice Biennale, 1999.

Nicolas Bourriaud (France), Director of the Palais de Tokyo, Paris (with
Jerome Sans), Founder & Director of the magazine Documents - Co-Curator of
the Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, 2005 - Curator of the Aperto at the
45th Venice Biennale, 1993 - Curator of Unmoving Short Movies at the
Venice Biennale, 1990.

Rosa Martinez (Spain), Artistic Director of the Arsenale, Venice Biennale,
2005 - Chief Curator of the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art - Curator of the
Spanish pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennale, 2003 - Curator of the 3rd
SITE Santa Fe Biennale (New Mexico), 1999 - Artistic Director of the 5th
International Istanbul Biennale, 1997.

Hans Ulrich Obrist (Switzerland/France), Curator at the Musee d'Art
Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Co-curator of the exhibitions Cities
on the Move, Laboratorium, Utopia Station at the 50th Venice Biennale,
1st Berlin Biennale, Manifesta 1. The first volume of his ongoing
interview project was recently published: Hans Ulrich Obrist Interviews
(Milan: Edizioni Charta, Pitti Imagine 2003).

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@moscowbiennale.ru
http://moscowbiennale.ru/english



 



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