5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art
Immortality
September 12–December 1, 2019
Professional preview: September 10–11
Organizer: Ural branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA) as part of ROSIZO.
With the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
Commissioner of the Biennial: Alisa Prudnikova
Curator of the main project: Xiaoyu Weng
Venues of the main project: The Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant, and the Coliseum Cinema; with Special Projects, Intellectual Platform and Artist-in-Residence Program taking place in Ekaterinburg and 8 cities in Ural and Siberia regions
The main project features 75 artists and collectives from 25 countries and regions: Zarouhie Abdalian (1982) & Joseph Rosenzweig (1981), Agency of Singular Investigations (Anna Titova, Stanislav Shuripa) (est. 2014), Carlos Amorales (1970), Pyotr Antonov (1977), Evgeny Antufiev (1986) & Lyubov Nalogina (1986), Elena Artemenko (1988), Aram Bartholl (1972), Yin-Ju Chen (1977), Anya Cherepanova (1989) & Vitalik Cherepanov (1990), Ali Cherri (1976), Bruce Conner (1933–2008), Danilo Correale (1983), Vladislav Efimov (1964), Ilya Fedotov-Fedorov (1988), Cyprien Gaillard (1980), Claudia Martínez Garay (1983), Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957–1996), Ivan Gorshkov (1968), Ilya Grishaev (1984), He Xiangyu (1986), Francisco Camacho Herrera (1979), James T. Hong (1970), Chia-Wei Hsu (1982), Geumhyung Jeong (1980), Tarik Kiswanson (1986), Egor Kraft (1986), Gabriel Lester (1972), Liu Chuang (1979), Liu Qingyuan (1971), Qinmin Liu (1990), Pan Lu (1981) & Bo Wang (1982), Cristina Lucas (1973), Tala Madani (1981), Jill Magid (1973), Ksenia Markelova (1994), Chris Marker (1921–2012) & Alain Resnais (1922–2014), Micro-art-group Gorod Ustinov (est. 2010), Sara Modiano (1951–2010), Yuko Mohri (1980), Christian Nyampeta (1981), Adrian Piper (1948), Pavel Pepperstein (1966), Ivan Petrokovich (1991), Gala Porras-Kim (1984), Charlotte Posenenske (1930–1985), Diana Fonseca Quinones (1978), Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook (1957), The Recycle Group (est. 2008), Roee Rosen (1963), Ana Roldan (1977), Maria Safronova (1979), Aki Sasamoto (1981), Kirill Savchenkov (1987), Masha Sedyaeva (1994), Lieko Shiga (1980), Shimabuku (1969), Alexander Shishkin-Hokusai (1969), Timur Si Qin (1984), Nikolay Smirnov (1982), Maria Taniguchi (1981), Diana Thater (1962), Anastasiya Tsayder (1983), Franco Vaccari (1936), Stan VanDerBeek (1927-1984), Anton Vidokle (1965), Peter Watkins (1935), Wong Ping (1984), Ustina Yakovleva (1987), Yan Xing (1986), Arseny Zhilyaev (1984)
Responding to the overarching framework of “Immortality,” this biennial seeks the possibilities of multiple futures. By probing into various historical junctures, the project explores the catalytic moments to speculate the interruption of the global temporal axis’s synchronization process. It challenges the prevailing belief of having technological acceleration leading us to the end of history, to a singularity. The exhibition rejects the politics of acceleration as the only means to resolve social and political crises. The concepts of immortality depart from the anticipation of the homo deus and metamorphose into various philosophical and aesthetic positions. How can we overcome, not death, but immortality?
The artist-in-residence program—the strategic project of the Ural Biennial—has invited 10 artists from 7 countries to rethink the constant presence of industrial traces in the Urals by actively communicating with the local context. List of artists in the artist-in-residence program: Cecilia Jonsson, Werker Collective, Krasil Makar, Anna Marchenkova, Luc Mattenberger, Naïmé Perrette, Hannah Perry, Anna Titova, Anika Schwarzlose, Katja Schenker.
The symposium—the key event of the Intellectual Platform—will take place from September 11 to 14 and feature presentations by art historians, social scientists, biotech scholars, curators and artists from different parts of the world. Their discussions will provide new theoretical and aesthetic framework to contextualize the artworks on view.
The Ural Industrial Biennial is one of the largest international projects in the field of contemporary art in Russia, organized and conducted by NCCA in Ekaterinburg and the Ural region since 2010. Once in two years the Biennial takes place in the non-exhibition spaces of Ekaterinburg and the Ural region.