Artificial Life in Parallel Program of Manifesta 10, St. Petersburg

“Artificial Life”, contemporary Romanian and Russian artists
Parallel event to Manifesta Sankt Petersburg
June 28 – July 28, 2014

Bolshaya Konyushennaya ulitsa, 11
St Petersburg
191186
(near Hermitage Museum)

Кураторы | Curators:
Ksenia Podoynitsyna & Cosmin Nasui

Организаторы проекта | Project organizers:
Gallery 21, Moscow and Nasui Collection & Gallery, Bucharest

Since origination of the conceptual project, characterized by dematerialization of art and the combination of artistic practice with theory, contemporary art increasingly strives for interdisciplinarity by overcoming its own limits, absorbing alien practices and strategies and crossing over to new territories. Attracting new possibilities of expression and participating in various spheres of human activity such as social criticism, science and education within the framework of the general cognitive process, today’s art speaks about the most relevant problems of the modernity.
“Artificial life” project covers visual explorations based on the principles of combining humanitarian and natural sciences, biological and digital worlds, sociology and mathematics. The swiftly changing reality, in which we exist, poses new problems for art – to evolve in step with the changes taking place in the society it is necessary to establish communication with different forms of cognition and criticism within and beyond the art field.
Such state of art reflects quite well the hybrid reality aspired after by the humanity. Manifested in terms of behavior, evolution and mutation and continuing to be a mystery for science, fundamental life processes are recreated in artistic artifacts.

Art, science and technologies meet in the zone that reveals general functioning and operating schemes in a living organism, society and computer technologies and discloses basic evolutionary processes in language, social relations and biological systems. While combining real and imaginary, art tries to find a place of detached observation by using new technologies, representing scientific knowledge and by simultaneously monitoring day-to-day experience and uncovering the processes hidden behind it. The artist’s main task becomes a search for the language capable of describing the processes characteristic of today’s moment in the world, where rapidly developing technologies change our way of interpreting space and interacting in it. “Artificial life” exhibition in this context aims at showing the audience how new media art creates images able of exposing the processes behind modern world condition using state-of-art technology on one hand and traditional artistic practices armed with only canvas and paints on the other.

http://www.paralleleventsm10.ru/exhibitors.html

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Manifesta, the roving European Biennial of Contemporary art, changes it location every two years – Rotterdam (1996), Luxembourg (1998), Ljubljana (2000), Frankfurt (2002), San Sebastian (2004), Nicosia (2006 – cancelled), Trentino-South Tyrol (2008), Murcia in dialogue with northern Africa (2010) and Limburg (2012). Manifesta purposely strives to keep its distance from what are often seen as the dominant centres of artistic production, instead seeking fresh and fertile terrain for the mapping of a new cultural topography. This includes innovations in curatorial practices, exhibition models and education. Each Manifesta biennial aims to investigate and reflect on emerging developments in contemporary art, set within a European context. In doing so, we present local, national and international audiences with new aspects and forms of artistic expression.

Each Manifesta comprises a range of activities extending over a period of two or more years. This incorporates publications, meetings, discussions and seminars (the so-called ‘Coffee Breaks’), staged in diverse locations throughout Europe and in the neighbouring regions, culminating in the final three-month long exhibition (or in 2006, an ‘art school’) in the host city or region. In this way, Manifesta aims to create a keen and workable interface between prevailing international artistic and intellectual debates, paying attention to the specific qualities and idiosyncrasies of a given location.

Inherent to Manifesta’s nomadic character is the desire to explore the psychological and geographical territory of Europe, referring both to border-lines and concepts. This process aims to establish closer dialogue between particular cultural and artistic situations and the broader, international fields of contemporary art, theory and politics in a changing society. Manifesta has a pan-European vocation and at each edition, it has successfully presented artists, curators, young professionals and trainees from as many as 40 different countries. With the expansion of the European community from 12 to 25 countries, and with the possible target of around 30 nations in the foreseeable future, Manifesta also realizes the importance of creating links with Europe’s neighbours in Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and northern Africa. At the same time, it continues to focus on minority groups and cultures within Europe itself. Therefore Manifesta looks forward to expanding its network and building creative partnerships with organizations, curators, art professionals and independent figureheads in Europe and beyond, drafting an interlocking map of contemporary art.

www.manifesta.org

Manifesta 10 (current)
The State Hermitage Museum in the City of St. Petersburg will host Manifesta 10, 2014

Open: 28 June – 31 October 2014, Preview Days: Press 26 June 2014, Art professionals 27 June 2014

Manifesta is delighted to announce that the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation will be the Host of Manifesta 10. The collaboration between these institutions for the upcoming edition of Manifesta to be held in 2014 celebrates a meeting of anniversaries and shared historical relationships.

The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg was selected by the Board of Manifesta Foundation because of its critical intellectual and historical relationship with East and West Europe: a uniting principal that is also central to Manifesta, as the single roving European biennial of contemporary art. Manifesta 10 will consider the historical perspective of St. Petersburg’s view to the West, and its extensive relationship with Europe at large. Other venues in the city will also participate and further details will be announced soon.

2014 will mark the 20th anniversary of Manifesta, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, which was initiated in response to the new social, cultural and political reality that emerged in the aftermath of the Cold War. This Jubilee year event will analyse the 25 years of changing realities and experiences as they transformed within this new global world order.

One of the oldest and most prestigious museums in the world, the State Hermitage Museum was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great as her personal art collection and has been open to the public since 1852. In 2014 the museum celebrates 250 years of existence. The newly renovated General Staff Building, the new premises of the State Hermitage Museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art, will be fully open in 2014, and will be the main stage of Manifesta 10.