Andreas Broeckmann on Mon, 26 Aug 1996 10:50:53 +0100 |
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. Petersburg Biennal |
Date: 8.17.96 From: Julia Lynn Subrin (jlsubrin@umich.edu) Subject: St. Petersburg Biennale October 3-13: All over the city, from the Smolny Cathedral to the Museum of Political History, on canals and train tracks, the IV St. Petersburg Biennale will offer a program of contemporary art. It will include new media, video, photography, installation, performance/actions, as well as a 3-day conference, all under the title "Eastern Europe: Spatia Nova." By "new space," the curators are signalling both the socio-political space brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Union, the emergence of Newly Independent States, and the new border-blurring RArtistS-destabilized space made possible by new technologies. [...] In this context, the project which the Biennale's art director, painter/installation artist Dmitry Shubin, and his five co-curators have taken on is pretty remarkable. With consent from the city's cultural council but not a kopeck of financial backing, these six artists (ages 26-33) are taking what has previously been a highly uneven showcase of predominantly local work (St. Petersburg Biennales I, II and III), and remaking it as a provocative international exhibit of competitively selected works which are conceptually linked. [...] Works include a multimedia project based on visits to the site of Chernobyl by a group of four Byelorussian artists; a helicopter happening (?); and panel discussions with Timur Novikov (St. Petersburg), Mikhail Ryklin (Moscow), Kathy Rae Huffmann (Vienna) and others. The curators' work is particularly remarkable given that a tradition of non-state-determined curatorship as we, at least in principle, know it has long been absent from Russia. They have had to make up the rules as they go along. Not unlike the makers of the Russian Revolution, if you will, Shubin's and the others' determination, and initial naiveness about what they were getting themselves into, has made this seemingly utopian project a reality, albeit one which may be marked by an unusual degree of chaos. We'll see. note: These comments are based on the author's observations during a visit to St. Petersburg. The views expressed are not necessarily shared by the organizers of the Biennale. Please address comments regarding this entry to: jlsubrin@umich.edu For more information about the IV St. Petersburg Biennale, contact: E-mail (in Russia): keme@mail.nevalink.ru URL: http://www.spb.su/biennale + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + from: --> RHIZOME INTERNET --> post: list@rhizome.com --> questions: info@rhizome.com --> answers: http://www.rhizome.com