Moscow Biennale to open next week

The 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art is set to open on Tuesday 22 September, bringing together more than 70 Russian and international artists and thinkers for an extensive programme of discussions, performances and exhibitions.

The theme of this year’s Moscow Biennale is “How to gather?”. Over a ten-day period, Pavilion No.1 in Moscow’s VDNKh (the Exhibition of Achievements of the People’s Economy) will host public debates and master classes on this question with the participation of Russian and international artists, scientists and public figures. Throughout this period artists will hold public performances and create work on-site.

The curators of the Biennale are Bart De Baere, director of the Museum of Modern Art MUHKA in Antwerp, Defne Ayas, director of the Center for Contemporary Art Witte de With in Rotterdam, and Nicolaus Schafhausen, director of the Kunsthalle exhibition hall for contemporary art in Vienna.

Participating artists include Azerbaijani visual artist Babi Badalov, French mixed media artist Fabrice Hybert and Moscow-based Ukrainian artist Sergey Bratkov. Among the thinkers taking part will be former Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis, Dutch architect and architectural theorist Rem Koolhaas and Dutch-American sociologist Saskia Sassen.

In the month following the main gathering, a variety of exhibits will provide a follow-up to the biennial, including the screening of a feature documentary by Singaporean film director Ho Tzu Nyen, an exhibition and website with annotated documentation.

A series of special projects and a parallel programme will run alongside the main Biennale and beyond the main ten-day event.

The 6th Moscow Biennale will take place from 22 September to 1 October 2015. A schedule of events can be found on the event’s official website.