The Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art is one of the most important Russian cultural events and was founded in 2003.

First Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art

The First Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (January 28 – February 28, 2005) caused a great response in Russia and abroad. The main exhibition, “Dialectics of Hope,” included projects by 41 artists from 22 countries and represented art that focused on one of the most fundamental experiences of modern human beings: hope. The main project was realised at the former Lenin Museum, near the

Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', p=ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ) is one of the oldest and largest town square, squares in Moscow, Russia. It is located in Moscow's historic centre, along the eastern walls of ...

. The Biennale's special projects and parallel program numbered over 50 exhibitions of Russian actual art and European, American and Asian visual artists. Curators (main project): Joseph Backstein,

Daniel Birnbaum Daniel Birnbaum is a Swedish art curator and an art critic. Since 2019, he has been director and curator of Acute Art in London, UK. Early life and education Birnbaum studied at Stockholm University, Freie Universität Berlin in Germany and Col ...

, Iara Boubnova,

Nicolas Bourriaud Nicolas Bourriaud (born 1965) is a French curator and art critic, who has curated a great number of exhibitions and biennials all over the world. Career Bourriaud was the Paris correspondent for '' Flash Art'' (1987–1995) and the founder and ...

, Rosa Martinez and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art

The main project of the Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (March 1 – April 1, 2007) titled “FOOTNOTES on Geopolitics, Market and Amnesia,” showed works of 115 artists from 20 countries. Different

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

s and curatorial teams realized 5 exhibitions of the main project united by one theme. The project featured the exhibitions organized at various venues, including The State

Tretyakov Gallery The State Tretyakov Gallery (; abbreviated ГТГ, ''GTG'') is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, which is considered the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world. The gallery's history starts in 1856 when the Muscovite merchant Pavel ...

Moscow Contemporary Art Center Winzavod Vinzavod (; ''Vinzavod'', literally winery) is a centre for contemporary arts in Moscow, Russia. Opened in 2007, it is located in a complex of seven industrial buildings from the late 19th century including the former brewery (and later winery) ca ...

, and

Moscow Museum of Modern Art The Moscow Museum of Modern Art () is a museum of modern and contemporary art located in Moscow, Russia. It was opened to public in December 1999. The project of the museum was initiated and executed by Zurab Tsereteli, president of the Russia ...

. Exhibitions of the main project: * Nothing but Footnotes? Art in the Epoch of Social Darwinism, Moscow-City,

Federation Tower The Federation Tower () is a complex of two skyscrapers built on the 13th lot of the Moscow International Business Center in Moscow, Russia. The two skyscrapers are named Tower East or Vostok (Russian: Восток; literally means "East") and T ...

Curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

: Joseph Backstein. * USA: American video art at the beginning of the 3rd Millennium, Shopping centre TsUM.

s: Daniel Birnbaum, Gunnar B. Kvaran, Hans Ulrich Obrist. * History in present tense. Moscow-City,

: Iara Boubnova. * Stock Zero, Or The Icy Water Of Egoistical Calculation, Moscow-City,

. * After all. Moscow-City,

, State Schusev Museum of Architecture.

s: Fulya Erdemci and Rosa Martinez.

Third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art

The commissioner of the Biennale was Joseph Backstein. The exhibition program of the Third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (September 24 - November 1, 2009) featured the main project "Against exclusion" and more than 39 special projects and 7 special guest shows.

Main project "Against exclusion"

The main project of Third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art entitled "Against exclusion" (curator Jean-Hubert Martin, best known for his exhibition "Magiciens de la terre" at the

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, 1989) was held at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture (now known as

Garage Museum of Contemporary Art The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, also referred to simply as ''The Garage Museum'', is a privately funded art gallery in Moscow, Russia. It was founded by Dasha Zhukova and Roman Abramovich as the ''Garage Center for Contemporary Culture'' ...

) and was presenting artists from Russia,

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, United States,

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

and

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

. French curator Jean-Hubert Martin mixed the work of well-known contemporary Western artists with non-Western and non-professional artists. Exhibition Designer and Dutch Curator

Mattijs Visser Mat(tijs) Visser (born 1958 in The Hague, Netherlands) studied architecture in Delft, the Netherlands and is since then an organiser of performances and art exhibitions. He was head of exhibitions at Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf for eight y ...

and French Curator

Oliver Varenne Oliver may refer to: Arts, entertainment and literature Books * ''Oliver the Western Engine'', volume 24 in ''The Railway Series'' by Rev. W. Awdry * ''Oliver Twist'', a novel by Charles Dickens Fictional characters * Ariadne Oliver ...

assisted him. .

Special guests shows

The Special Guest program represents personal exhibitions of the important figures of the modern art scene. * Olga Chernysheva, Russia. "Present - Past", Baibakov Art Projects, Red October (former chocolate factory) *

Antony Gormley Sir Antony Mark David Gormley (born 30 August 1950) is a British sculptor. His works include the ''Angel of the North'', a public sculpture in Gateshead in the north of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998; ''Another Pl ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

. "Domain Field," The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture (July 16 – September 2, 2009) * Michail Grobman, Israel. "The Metamorphoses of Collage,"

* Bertrand Lavier, France. AFTERMOON *

Atelier Van Lieshout Joep van Lieshout (born 1963), is a Dutch artist and sculptor born in Ravenstein, Netherlands, Ravenstein, Netherlands, and founder of Atelier Van Lieshout (AVL). Life and work Van Lieshout received his formal education and training from the ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. "Slave City,"

Moscow Contemporary Art Center WINZAVOD Vinzavod (; ''Vinzavod'', literally winery) is a centre for contemporary arts in Moscow, Russia. Opened in 2007, it is located in a complex of seven industrial buildings from the late 19th century including the former brewery (and later winery) ca ...

Vladimir Tarasov Vladimir Ilich Tarasov (; born 7 February 1939 in Moscow) is a Russian animator and animation director. He is best known for his Soviet-era science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of specula ...

, Russia. "Sound Games," Multimedia Art Museum *

Luc Tuymans Luc Tuymans (born 14 June 1958) is a Belgian visual artist best known for his paintings which explore people's relationship with history and confront their ability to ignore it. World War II is a recurring theme in his work. He is a key figure ...

, Belgium. "Against the Day," Baibakov Art Projects, Red October (former chocolate factory)

Special projects

Parallel program

There was also a parallel program of exhibitions at Triumph Gallery, Winzavod, Zverev Center of Contemporary Art,

, The Lumiere Brothers Photogallery, The State Literary Museum, One Spectator's Gallery, Praktika Theater, Pop/off/art Gallery, Regina Gallery, RuArts Gallery, State Museum of Alexander Pushkin, Design center ARTPLAY, State Museum of Contemporary Arts of the Russian Academy of Arts, The State Literary Museum, Fine Art Gallery, Kino Gallery, Instituto Cervantes de Moscu, Open Gallery, Vostochnaya gallery, The State Literary Museum, Aidan Gallery, Proekt Fabrika, Ravenscourt Galleries, Russian Academy of Arts, Red October, Petr Vois Gallery, Photographer.ru, Moscow Zoo (Exhibition Hall),

State Tretyakov Gallery The State Tretyakov Gallery (; abbreviated ГТГ, ''GTG'') is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, which is considered the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world. The gallery's history starts in 1856 when the Muscovite merchant Pavel ...

, VP Studio, Kovcheg Gallery, State Museum of Contemporary Arts of the Russian Academy of Arts, ARTPLAY, Schusev State Museum of Architecture, Elena Vrublevskaya Gallery, National Centre for Contemporary Arts, XL Gallery, GP, Arka Gallery (ЦЕХ V), Pobeda Gallery, Krokin Gallery, L-gallery, and M&J Guelman Gallery.

Fourth Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art

The Fourth Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art was curated by Peter Weibel, a

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

, media arts theorist, and director of the Center of Art and Media Technology (ZKM) in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

(Germany). It took place from September to October 2011. Joseph Backstein was confirmed as the Biennale's Commissioner and Artistic Director.

External links

Neue Review, "The First Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (Exhib. Review)"

Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art

Third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art

Fourth Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art

Frieze Magazine, "3rd Moscow Biennale"

Art Margins, "The 3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (Exhib. Review)"

Artupdate, 'List of participating artists in 5th Moscow Biennale announced Summer 2013'
{{List of Biennales Russian art Art biennials Recurring events established in 1995