Manifesta 10
The European Biennial of Contemporary Art
28 June–31 October, 2014
The State Hermitage Museum
St. Petersburg
Russia
Curator: Kasper König
With six weeks to go until the opening (28 June), further details of the new commissions for Manifesta 10, the European Biennial for Contemporary Art, along with public and education programs, have been announced. Kasper König has commissioned new works from artists including Francis Alÿs (Mexico/Belgium) Karla Black (UK), Marlene Dumas (South Africa/Netherlands), Yasumasa Morimura (Japan), Tatzu Nishi (Japan/Germany), and Susan Philipsz (UK/Germany), whose works will all be displayed among the historic collection of the Winter Palace. Rineke Dijkstra (Netherlands), Dominique Gonzales-Foerster (France/Brazil), Thomas Hirschhorn (Switzerland/France), Erik van Lieshout (Netherlands) Boris Mikhailov (Ukraine/Germany), Wolfgang Tillmans (Germany) and Otto Zitko (Austria) will all have their new works presented in the General Staff Building—the new modern and contemporary wing of the State Hermitage Museum.
For the full list of participating artists, please visit manifesta10.org.
Manifesta 10 includes newly commissioned works for various public spaces throughout the city of St. Petersburg. Participating artists include Pavel Braila (Moldova/Germany), Lado Darakhvelidze (Georgia/Netherlands), and Alevtina Kakhidze (Ukraine). Manifesta 10 critically responds to the current social-political circumstances, its conflicts and complexities in Russia and Ukraine. A series of time-based projects will intervene in the city of St. Petersburg and its cultural, historical, and social complexity with context-responsive commissions and debates, events, pop-up shows, and discursive platforms as an integral part of the exhibition. The public program is curated by Joanna Warsza.
Manifesta 10 features Unlooped—Kino: a film program devised by Nathalie Hoyos and Rainald Schumacher from Office for Art (Berlin) offering a survey of time-based media, film, and video by contemporary artists. From performative works of the 1960s and visual storytelling to digital animation, the program positions artists working in time-based media in their own social and political contexts. The films are taken from collections including the Bilge and Haro Cumbusyan Collection, Zürich; the Goetz Collection, Munich; and the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow.
This year’s parallel program includes more than 250 artists, mainly Russian or from countries in Eastern Europe, at sites across St. Petersburg.
Since autumn 2013, the education program devised by Sepake Angiama has been exploring the social framework of spaces where the people of St. Petersburg come together to learn through initiating a program of Manifesta 10 Dialogues in universities and Art Laboratory in schools. Participating St. Petersburg-based artists have included Pavel Brat, Alexander Efremov, Olga Jitlina and Evgenia Golant. The program continues with ‘Please Mine the Gap,’ a Summer School developed in partnership with the State St. Petersburg University Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Smolny College) and the Zürich University of the Arts (ZHdK) which will explore artistic enquiry and engagement of space led by experimental filmmaker, curator and writer Maria Godovannaya. More than 2,000 people have participated in the pre-Biennial program and a further 10,000 students have already pre-booked for programs to take place during Manifesta 10.
Extending beyond the State Hermitage Museum, the Manifesta Dacha is a mobile platform designed by Dutch Bureau Ira Koers and Studio Roelof Mulder. The Manifesta Dacha program includes Cyland Media Art Lab, Yuri Shtapakov and Peter Berezin, who will trigger conversations with the public through interventions, workshops and discussions in the city of St. Petersburg.
Manifesta 10 is organized by Foundation Manifesta 10 St. Petersburg headed by Hedwig Fijen and Swetlana Datsenko, the General Coordinator of Manifesta 10 is Maria Isserlis.
Professional and media accreditation is now open.
To register for the professional preview (27 June) please complete the online form here.
Professional preview registration closes 29 May.
To register for the press preview (26 June), please complete the online form here.
Media preview registration closes 15 June.
Visa and travel information can be found on the Manifesta 10 website.
