The European Biennial of Contemporary Art
28 June – 31 October 2014
St. Petersburg, Russia
The State Hermitage Museum
Some considered the choice of St. Petersburg controversial, however Manifesta believes that engaging with Russia at this time is important and necessary. Over the coming 125 days, MANIFESTA 10 will present the art of our times, featuring some of the world’s most renowned contemporary artists, across several venues in the Hermitage Museum and at locations within the city of St. Petersburg. More than 500,000 people are expected to attend.In the lead up many new commissions have been created and artworks installed also respond to the encyclopedic collection and history of the State Hermitage Museum. Numerous artists have also responded to the sociopolitical context of contemporary
Russia. With over 50 artists participating, notable projects include Thomas Hirschhorn’s fourteen-meter high installation, in which living spaces spill out into the inner courtyard of the new General Staff Building; Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s operatic ensemble of handkerchiefs on a huge scale proportional to the interiors of the new odern and contemporary wing; and Rineke Dijkstra’s video portrait of a young ballerina, which memorializes St. Petersburg’s culture of dance and gymnastics. Yasumasa Morimura pays special tribute to the history of the Hermitage by recreating scenes recorded by two artists who documented “the Hermitage’s wounds” during the siege of Leningrad.
MANIFESTA 10 is curated by Kasper König, who says of the exhibition:
“MANIFESTA 10 is a complex entity and one that invites both its artists and visitors to assume their own positions, raise questions, and indeed voices. It runs the gamut of the intricacy and contradiction that art has to offer, and shows us the ways that art can provoke engagement while opposing the simplifications of our times. I believe that the presence of critical contemporary art in the Hermitage and in the city will contribute to pluralistic and healthy debate on complexity, ethics, and aesthetics and also produce conditions for us to deeply consider and challenge ourselves. I congratulate the artists on their achievements and express my gratitude to Prof. Mikhail Piotrovsky for his generosity, camaraderie, and vision.”
(PM MANIFESTA)