He became 32-year-old Nadeem Samman

As Kommersant has learned, Briton Nadeem Samman has been appointed curator of the 5th Moscow International Biennale of Young Art. The theme of the biennale is “Deep Inside”; the Trekhgornaya Manufactory was chosen as the site for the main project.

Nadeem Samman
Photo: Reuters / Abderrahmane Mokhtari

Nadeem Samman is young but quite famous in the global context of contemporary art. In 2012 he curated the Biennale in Marrakech (Morocco). At the last architecture biennale in Venice, Mr. Samman presented a design for the Antarctic pavilion. In addition, judging by his personal website , Nadeem Samman is a member of the Azerbaijan Union of Artists.

In the official press release of the biennale, Mr. Samman explains the choice of theme as follows: “Against the backdrop of climate change, the vicissitudes of the global economy, social instability and the moral consequences of the information revolution, the poetics of escape is becoming increasingly attractive. The dream of a completely “other” world gives rise to fantasies of emigration to pristine beaches and even exotic plans for the colonization of Mars. But what if these visions are traps, not a way out? What if the ticket price is too high? The curator proposes to find “radical content” and “new forms of struggle” in contemporary art. Mentions of climate change, economics, instability and dreams of a new radicalism are common rhetorical tools of the modern curator, so the general outlines of the project remain a mystery.

Trekhgornaya Manufactory, owned by the Basic Element company, the structure of Oleg Deripaska, provides square meters to the Youth Biennale absolutely free of charge. This year, the management of the Trekhgornaya Manufactory began gentrifying the rather neglected territory of the former factory, opening the exhibition “Nadezhda” in one of the premises, which was held as part of the parallel program of the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art.

Valentin Dyakonov

Curator chosen for the 5th Youth Biennale