| The idea of a Russian exhibition megaforum was discussed in Moscow Russia's presence on the artistic map of the world is still minimal. Famous curators do not come here, large international Contemporary Art festivals are not held here.
Realizing full well that there is, by and large, no one to blame for the current situation, and abandoning the classic Russian “Who is to blame?”, the artistic community focused on a more constructive and positive “What to do?” The symposium “Big Project for Russia” has just completed its work. Problems and Prospects”, organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the State Museum and Exhibition Center “Rosizo”. Unheard of! Six of the most famous international curators with extensive experience in organizing and conducting international art projects came to Moscow. Francesco Bonami is the curator of the art exhibition at the 50th Venice Biennale (2003), he curated Manifesta 3 in Ljubljana in 2000, and was previously the editor of the highly respected art magazine Flash Art. Rene Block is the director of the Friedericianum Museum in Kassel, responsible for the 1995 Istanbul Biennale. Harald Szeemann is the artistic director of Documenta 5, curator of the 48th and 49th Venice Biennales (1999 and 2001, respectively), as well as the Lyon Biennale in 1995. Robert Storr is a curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Germano Celant is a curator at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and curator of the 47th Venice Biennale (1997). Hans Ulrich Obrist, critic and curator, who carried out major exhibition projects at the Museum of Modern Art of the city of Paris, at the Vienna Kunsthalle, and in 1996 curated “Manifesta 1” in Rotterdam. With the exception of Germanto Celant, all those invited to Moscow for the first time, but still know something about Russian Contemporary Art. For example, Hans Obrist curated the famous exhibition “Urgent! Painting" (the newspaper "Vremya Novostei" talked about it in early 2002), after which the Paris Pompidou Center acquired the work of Vinogradov and Dubossarsky, and for Francesco Bonami's "Individual Systems" program of the upcoming Venetian show, works by as many as four Russians were selected: Andrei Monastyrsky , Yuri Leberman and the Alimpiev-Zhunin tandem (however, the choice was made by the curator from Ljubljana Igor Zabel).
The very idea of organizing an international periodic forum in Russia is not new. True, until recently no one could believe that it could ever be discussed at the highest level. Impatient enthusiasts even organized small festivals with the loud name Biennale in Krasnoyarsk and Kaliningrad. The annual “Art-Moscow Workshop” was called “our unofficial biennale” half jokingly and half seriously, although they understood that neither the number and composition of participants, nor the form of presentation itself simply fell short of serious international forums. However, the need to integrate Russian contemporary art into the global one forced us to discuss this topic at a completely different, ministerial level. The very fact that such busy people responded to the invitation to sit in cold winter Moscow speaks of a readiness to seriously discuss the prospect stated in the title of the symposium.
The main leitmotif of almost all the speeches was the optimistic “More biennials, good and different.” And the fact that half of the speakers limited themselves to describing their own curatorial experience and talking about the current models of international exhibitions is, by and large, evidence of the understanding that in a situation of absolute ignorance of local peculiarities, it is quite stupid to give specific advice on the topics “what”, “where” and “how” to do it.
Although some advice was still given. Hans Ulrich Obrist warned against haste in preparing the exhibition. In his opinion, it is most reasonable to hold the forum not once every two years, but once every three or even five years (as, for example, in the case of the Kassel Documenta). He also spoke out for the interdisciplinary nature of modern artistic representation and formulated the idea of a permanent exhibition moving from city to city, from country to country, an ever-changing creative laboratory where scientists and artists would collaborate (the model of the traveling “Manifesta”).
Rene Block advised that when preparing the biennale, we should draw ideas primarily from our own history and the specifics of the local artistic community, and in terms of representation, abandon the traditional presentation of participants in pavilions (as was done, for example, in Sao Paulo, Brazil).
And almost everyone said that the principle of “one exhibition, one curator” had largely exhausted itself and could not be used when creating a new art project. And most likely the future exhibition should be the fruit of a dialogue between several international curators and artists. History knows cases when global shows of contemporary art were organized at first glance in places that were unsuitable for this (for example, the Istanbul Biennale). What made such forums popular and interesting was the work of a whole team, and not the efforts of one ministry, one government or one curator.
The press release for the symposium stated that there is no need to reproduce in Russia already established (and in many ways exhausted) models of a large art forum. It is necessary to develop our own, original and, first of all, adequate exhibition concept to modern Russian reality. Robert Storr and Francesco Bonami spoke about the same thing, calling not to borrow already known constructions, but to look for oneself, first of all, in a competent relationship between the international and the national.
To some, all this may seem like a gentleman's collection, topics that are usually discussed at every conference devoted to institutional problems of contemporary art. However, our symposium had two objectives. The maximum task is the first Russian international forum in the very distant future, the minimum task is to introduce the six most influential people in contemporary international art to the Russian artistic environment. By the way, after the conference it became known that the main program of the 50th Venice Biennale will no longer involve four, as was mentioned earlier, but six Russian artists. Marika JORGEN |
|
