January 28-February 28, 2005. Press days: January 27-28

Places:
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
www.moscowbiennale.ru

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

La entrada 1st Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art 2005 se publicó primero en Rosa Martínez - Independent Art Curator.

Curators: Rosa Martínez, Viktor Misiano, Katalin Neray, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Andrew Renton.
ROTTERDAM, the Netherlands, 9 June – 19 August. 1996.

Venues: Rotterdam, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Witte de With, center for contemporary art, Chabot Museum, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

Selected Artists:

AMSTERDAM: Liza May Post, Renée Kool. ATHENS: Jenny Marketou. (New York), Lydia Venieri. BARCELONA: Eulalia Valldosera. BEAUNE: Didier Trenet. BERLIN: Maria Eichhorn, Regina Möller, Christine Hill, Pit Schuiz. BOLOGNA: Eva Marisaldi. BRATISLAV: Roman Ondak. BUCHAREST: subREAL. BUDAPEST: Róza EI-Hassan, János Sugár. COLOGNE: Rosemarie Trockel / Carsten Höller. COPENHAGEN: Hendrik Plenge Jacobson. DUBLIN: Maurice O’Connell. ESSEN: Jitka Hanzlová. FRANKFURT: Tobias Rehberger, Tamara Grcic. GHENT: Patrick Van Caeckenbergh. GLASGOW: Tracy Mackenna, Douglas Gordon. HELFENBERG: Bernhard Fuchs. HELSINKI: Tommi Grönlund / Petteri Nisunen. ISTANBUL: Ayse Erkmen, Hale Tenger. KIEV: Arsen Savadov / Yuri Senchenko. KRAKOW: Piotr Jaros. LISBON: Roger Meintjes, Entertainment & Co. LJUBLJANA: IRWIN, Tadej Pogacar The P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Museum. LONDON: Mat Collishaw, Sam Taylor-Wood, Siraj Izhar, Catherine Yass. MAASTRICHT: Suchan Kinoshita. MALAGA: Rogelio Lopez Cuenca. MILAN: Luca Quartana. MOSCOW: Vadim Fishkin, Oleg Kulik, Dmitri Gutov, Valeri Podoroga, Yuri Leiderman. OULU: Esko Männikkö. PARIS: Huang Yong Ping, Fabrice Hybert, Marie-Ange Guilleminot. PRAGUE: Pavel Kopriva. RANHEIM: Mette Tronvoll. REYKJAVIK: Olafur Eliasson. ROTTERDAM: NEsTWORK. SKOPJE: Robert Jankuloski. SOFIA: Nedko Solakov. STOCKHOLM: Carl Michael von Hausswolff.
TALLINN: Jaan Toomik. TEL AVIV: Uri Tzaig. VALENCIA: Paco Vacas. VIENNA: Martin Beck/ Mathias Poledna, Gerwald Rockenschaub. ZAGREB: Ivana Keser. ZÜRICH: Susann Walder. NEW YORK: Rirkrit Tiravanija, Douglas Gordon. JERSEY CITY: Joseph Grigely. SEOUL: Soo-Ja Kim, Koo Jeong-a. SYDNEY: Kathy Temin. STRÁÑAVY: Roman Ondák.

Institutions: Kunsthal Rotterdam, Natural History Museum Rotterdam. Netherlands Architecture Institute, Chabot Museum., Villa Museumpark 9., Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam Center for the Arts, V2_0rganisation, Institute for the Unstable Media, Nederlands Foto Instituut, Witte de With, center for contemporary art, The Policegallery, Maritime Museum ‘Prins Hendrik’ Rotterdam.

Manifesta is a pan-European event, which aims to be open, fresh and ‘alternative’. Through publications, seminars, workshops and a massive exhibition it will serve as a stimulus to the free exchange of people, ideas and works of art.

The aims of Manifesta:

Manifesta will encourage reflection on a wide range of cultural, philosophical, political, historical and social issues relating to contemporary art in Europe.
Through its charter and its organisational structure it will maintain the maximum independence from political, commercial and sectarian influences.

Its Committee of Honour, International Board, Advisory Board and National Committee guarantee both independence and organisational continuity.
Independent curatorial teams will be appointed for specific projects and fixed terms of office only. This means that successive editions of Manifesta´s biennial exhibition of young and emerging artists will vary in curatorial and thematic approach.
The European Art Manifestation Foundation which organises Manifesta will work with all organisations and individuals willing to collaborate without prejudice or precondition, but will question established notions (aesthetic or otherwise).
It will have no part in organising prizes or competitions or supporting national rivalries. Manifesta aims to transgress the existing regional, social, linguistic and economic barriers in Europe.

It will give wider currency to fringe areas of European culture and place the artist at the heart of a continuing dialogue with curators, critics and a wider public. In this way, and through demonstrating the pluralism of contemporary art and its openness to contemporary realities, Manifesta will exemplify the important role that young artists can play in helping to make the new Europe a more exciting and culturally diverse place in which to live.

Statement of the Advisory Board of MANIFESTA, Summer 1994.

The inner dynamics of Manifesta:

Manifesta is not only an art show. The exhibition MANIFESTA I in Rotterdam in the summer of 1996, will be the climax to an intensive dialogue about new developments in the visual arts and will represent the first fruit of a new type of collaboration. Manifesta is a biennial event. It must have the ability to reinvent itself for each new edition. Subsequent events will takeplace in different regions of Europe. However, it is intended that a permanent administrative base for Manifesta should be established in the Netherlands, as a means of ensuring organisational continuity. For the necessary flow of information we use the most effective means of modern communication: Electronic Mail, access to the Internet and Multimedia data carriers such as CD-ROM.

Open Houses have been held in:

* CAC-Moscow
* Ludwig Museum Budapest
* Moderna Museet Stockholm
* De Unie Rotterdam
* De Beurs Amsterdam
* Soros Center for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana

http://www.manifesta.org/manifesta1/index.html

La entrada MANIFESTA I, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1996 se publicó primero en Rosa Martínez - Independent Art Curator.