July 1–August 10, 2016
Deadline: December 27, 2015
Trehgornaya Manufactory
Rochdelskaya st., 15, buildings #5 and #24
Moscow
Russia
The 5th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art will take place in Moscow from July 1 to August 10, 2016. The curator of the Main Project is 32-year-old Nadim Samman from the UK, who is the creator of a host of exhibitions with the participation of leading modern artists in London, Moscow, Berlin, Venice, Zurich and Marrakesh. The theme proposed for the 2016 biennial is “Deep Inside.”
Artists
Applications to participate in the biennial’s Main Project will be accepted from artists from all over the world who are 35 years of age or younger.
Applications are accepted at: www.youngart.ru
“Everyday, millions of people have out-of-body-experiences, enabled by avatars on social networks and online game worlds. At the same time, Google Earth and air travel have made us accustomed to the ‘God’s eye view’—pictures from satellites, in orbit, beyond the boundaries of gravity. In the face of climate change, a global economy in crisis, social instability and the moral consequences of the information revolution, the poetics of escape is becoming ever more seductive. Lust for an absolute outside powers fantasies of emigration to untouched beaches and even exotic plans for the colonization of Mars.
But what if these dreams are traps and escape? What if the ticket price is too high? Every rocket launch scorches the earth. The tabula rasa, the ‘clean slate,’ is the fruit of modernist vanity. Its gleaming surface has too long obscured the depth of fractals and the fact that, beyond the canvas or a spreadsheet, there is no ‘square one.’ Can’t we imagine a radical inside? For every evacuation plan, we must create a thousand reconceptions of home—renovation of the spaces that we inhabit—conceptual and material hacks,” says Nadim Samman, explaining his choice of theme for the biennial.
The venue for the Main Project will be the Trekhgornaya Manufactory, one of Moscow’s oldest factories and, at the same time, a fledgling exhibition space that hosts large cultural projects.
Curators
Curators from any country of up to 35 years of age can submit applications with their concepts for the biennial’s two strategic projects. These projects will take place at National Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA) and Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA).
Applications are accepted at: www.youngart.ru
Ekaterina Kibovskaya, commissioner of the biennial: “From all the submissions received, the curator will pick a selection of artists to take part in the Main Project of the Biennial. The organizers will then get in contact with each participant so that the subject of their application can be best displayed at the exhibition and in the catalogue. In addition, the artists’ works will be published both in print media and on the biennial’s website. On the day of the biennial’s opening, a jury will choose the best project, whose author will then be awarded a special prize.
Young curators who send in their concepts for the Strategic Projects will have the chance to realize their ideas at one of two Moscow venues: at the National Centre for Contemporary Arts, or at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.”
The Moscow International Biennale for Young Art is one of the largest and most ambitious projects in the sphere of contemporary art in Russia. The Biennale’s goals are to bring attention to new names, to support and encourage the creative initiatives of artists and curators of the new generation, to create the conditions for their public expression and, as a result, the development of the modern art community. Participants in the project are given the chance to establish connections and creative engagement with the professional artistic community. The Biennale creates the space to present the latest strategies of a new generation of artists and curators.
