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SHIRYAEVO BIENNALE

Central Russian Zen

 

 

Featuring:
Anonymous Artist // Andreas Baer // Ulli Berg // Anya Charikov-Mickleburgh
Nonna Goryunova & Francisco Infante // Vanessa Henn // Ingela Ihrman
Rustam Khalfin // Jürgen Kierspel // Roman Korzhov // Nelya Korzhova
Sergey Leibgrad // Diana Machulina // Galim Madanov // Pia Maria Martin
Sergey Maslov // Yerbossyn Meldibekov // Jannis Owaked // Vito Pace
Hanns-Michael Rupprechter // Serious Collision Investigation Unit Coalition
Siram & Mare Tralla // Merzedes Sturm-Lie // Andrey Syaylev
Georgy Trjakin-Bukharov // YUNRUBIN (Joanne Pang Rui Yun & Jonas Rubin)
& documentation of Shiryaevo Biennale 1999-2018

 

 

OPENING:
27 October 2019 @ 4:00 – 8:00pm

 

EXHIBITION:
27 October – 1 December 2019
Extended by Appointment to 6 December 2019

 

@ MOMENTUM
Kunstquartier Bethanien
Mariannenplatz 2, Berlin 10997

 

Organizers:
Central Volga Branch of the NCCA as part of ROSIZO,
MOMENTUM Platform for Time-based Art, Berlin

 

 

With the support of:
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, State Museum and
Exhibition Center “ROSIZO”, International cultural project “Russian Seasons”.

 

Curated by:
Nelya and Roman Korzhov (Samara, Russia),
Dr. Rachel Rits-Volloch (Berlin, Germany)

 
 

The Central Volga Branch of the NCCA as part of ROSIZO,
together with the MOMENTUM Platform for Time-Based Art (Berlin),
in the framework of the international cultural project Russian Seasons in Germany 2019,
present the exhibition Shiryaevo Biennale: Central Russian Zen.

 


 
 

CURATORIAL STATEMENT
 

The exhibition is a metaphorical reflection on the experience of the oldest active international biennale of contemporary art in Russia, which has been held since 1999 in the ancient Russian village of Shiryaevo on the Volga bank, one of the most beautiful places of the Samara bend surrounded by the Zhiguli Nature Reserve on all sides. The Shiryaevo Biennale was intended and carried out as an international experimental project by renowned Russian curators Nelya Korzhova and Roman Korzhov, the founders of the Samara Regional Public Charity Foundation “The Centre for Contemporary Art” with active contribution from Hanns-Michael Rupprechter and Stuttgarter Kunstverein from Germany, as well as a group of artists from Kazakhstan headed by Rustam Khalfin.

The exhibition is based on the archive of the biennale: photos, videos, objects and installations from the personal collection of Nelya Korzhova and Roman Korzhov. However, at the same time, the exhibition goes beyond the traditional retrospective and creates an idea of the biennale’s authentic image for the widest audience. The conceptual solution of the exhibition is a large-scale video chronicle of the project, together with artifacts of the performances — it is a total installation representing a kind of mental map of Shiryaevo. The exposition gives an opportunity to feel the unique atmosphere of the biennale, reflects the ideas of contemplative and performative nature of the event and becomes a starting point for a conversation about the history of its creation.

The strategy of the Shiryaevo Biennale is aimed at finding new forms of contemporary art communication in social environment. The form of the main biennale project, “Creative Laboratory” and “Nomadic Show”, is Nelya Korzhova’s original idea uniting the Eastern concept of nomadism, referring to free movement and wandering, and the Western concept of a “show”, a public presentation. The space for creation and display during the “Nomadic Show” is the entire village of Shiryaevo, with the surrounding landscape: the Volga, mountains, mines, lake shore, village houses and streets.

As an artistic phenomenon, the “Nomadic Show” is designed as a form of spiritual awakening, evolving in time and space and changing the experience of those who participate in it. It makes visitors follow a unique route and experience the meditative qualities of the Central Volga landscapes, a kind of “Central Russian Zen” reflecting the biennale’s setting for contemplation, intangibility, emptiness, and absence of any tracks left behind.

The Shiryaevo Biennale offers not only an alternative to the traditional functioning of art within the framework of the “white cube” concept, but also a strategy of independence from the vertical of power in art. Created by “artists for artists” the biennale turned out to be resistant to shocks and succeeded in surviving as a special experience of international co-creation. The condition of artists’ living in the houses of local residents is seen as a way of creating a perfect environment for artistic expression. The main idea of this experiment is to give an artist a chance to start working from scratch, without feeling the pressure from his or her established image and the art market.

Today the Shiryaevo Biennale is amongst the internationally renowned contemporary art events in Russia. Throughout the years the biennale has hosted artists and curators of special programs from Russia, Kazakhstan, Germany, France, Great Britain, Sweden, Austria, Italy, Lithuania, Estonia, Armenia, Denmark, the USA, the Netherlands, Singapore, Norway and India. Over 180 international artists have participated in the Shiryaevo Biennale since its inception in 1999.

– Nelya Korzhova & Roman Korzhov


EXPLORE HERE THE SHIRYAEVO BIENNALE ARCHIVE >>


 

DESIGN OF THE EXHIBITION

Drawing from the photographs, videos, objects and installations of the Shiryaevo Biennale archive, this exhibition does not resemble a traditional retrospective. Instead, it attempts to provide a wider audience with an authentic sense of the biennale and its creative evolution from the moment of its founding in 1999 until the present day. The display takes the form of a total installation, within which artists’ works are embedded. Video covers the perimeters of the walls with fragments of the “Creative Laboratory” and “Nomadic Shows” of Shiryaevo Biennales from 1999 up until 2018. Projecting the audiences into the exhibition space, the videos on the walls and ceiling highlight the processional aspect of the “Nomadic Show”, demonstrating the polyphony of the individual perspectives and the experiences of diverse participants of the biennale — artists, curators, local inhabitants, and spectators. Embedding the audiences traversing the Shiryaevo landscape into the architecture of the MOMENTUM gallery probes the concepts of “place”, “process” and “time”, as it brings together the impressions of the spectators passing through, allowing each viewer to arrive at the artist’s concept by his or her own means, to together share the experience, and through that process, to become part of what they understand as the artwork. Interspersed amongst the videos are rare artifacts saved from the “Nomadic Shows” of previous years; objects which were used within performances or installations from the past 20 years of the Shiryaevo Biennale. An important principle of the Shiryaevo Biennale is that it does not leave traces, putting its accent on the field of the immaterial, so that almost all of the artists’ projects are dismantled at the end of the exhibition, leaving only those interventions that became a part of the natural landscape or the daily life of the local inhabitants.

Materials for this exhibition have been loaned from the private collection of Nelya Korzhova and Roman Korzhov, the video collection of the Volga Branch of the ROSIZO-NCCA (camera: Svetlana Demyanova and Vladimir Bezdenezhnykh), and the press archives of GTRK Samara, SKAT, and Bol’shaya Derevnya

Nelya Korzhova

 
 

The exhibition is accompanied by an educational program at the MOMENTUM venue and at the partner sites of the project in Berlin.

PREVIEW:
Double Agents Artist/Curator Talk: 19 October
Shiryaevo Biennale Video Preview: 19 October – 2 November 2019
At Salon Villa Erxleben
Gallery KLEINERVONWIESE, Douglasstr. 24-28, 14193 Berlin

MORE INFO >>

 
 

Artists Participating in the Shiryaevo Biennale 1999 – 2018:

Hanns-Michael Rupprechter, Ulli Berg, Andreas Baer, Juergen Kierspel, Regis Pinault, Marlene Perronet, Rustam Khalfin, Sergey Maslov, Georgy TryakinBukharov, Zauresh Madanova, Galim Madanov, Nelya Korzhova, Roman Korzhov, Oksana Stogova, Francisco Infante, Nonna Goryunova, Angela Arsinkey, Vanessa Henn, Viktor Vorobyov, German Vinogradov, Tutti Frutti group, Evgeny Ryabushko, Elena Vorobyova, Yerbossyn Meldibekov, Jonas Valatkevicius, Martin Rogers, Nata Morozova, Vladimir Logutov, Andrey Syaylev, Kira Subbotin, Natalya Syzgantseva, Nikita Volchenkov, Vito Pace, Ilya Polyakov, Natalya Elmanova, Sergey Krivchikov, Alexey Zaytsev, Stephan Koeperl, Sylvia Winkler, Ellen Rein, Natalya Fomicheva, Alexandr Ovchinnikov, Elena Morozova, Peter Haury, Elke Hammelstein, Iris Hellriegel, Anatoly Osmolovsky, Vazgen Rakhlavuri Tadevosyan, Gerd Viedmajer, Viktoria Lomasko, Diana Machulina, Diego Sarramon, Natalya Samkova, Anna Orekhova, Alexandr Korneyev, Alexey Kallima, Arpine Tokmajan, Sergey Balandin, Artem Ivashkin, Ignat Daniltsev, Vitaly Stadnikov, Oleg Lyuboslavsky, Svetlana Subbotina, Joe Lee, Yulia Zhdanova, Ruediger Schestag, Yuri Albert, Anna Brochet, Bertrand Vallet, Gero Goetze, Marie-Helene Dubreuil, Yulia Zhdanova, Romain Gibert, Mari Kartau, Alexey Kostroma, Gert Mezger, Sabine Pfisterer, Emmanuel Rodoreda, Krishna Subramania, Mare Tralla, Anfim Khanykov, Matthias Holland-Moritz, Alexander Schikowski, Jochen Gerbert Schloder, Zvetofor group, «Escape» program, Georg Zaiss, Anna Korzhova, Andrey Kuzkin, Emilie Pischedda and Valentin Souquet, Haim Sokol, Manfred Unterwerger, Wolfgang Spaeth, Greta Weibull, Klas Eriksson, Ingela Ihrman, Kalle Brolin and Kristina Muentzing, Elena Dendiberya and Anatoly Haiduk, Janno Bergman, Andrus Joonas, Martina Geiger-Gerlach, Kathrin Sohn, Barbara Karsch-Chaïeb, Rosa Ruecker, Ivan Lungin, Pia Maria Martin, Susanna Messerschmidt, Astrid Nylander, Calle Holck, Johanna Karlin, Swetlana Heger, Katrin Hornek, Martial Verdier, Gabriel Feracci, Lewden Martin, Sybille Neeve, Alexandr Zaytsev, Mikhail Lezin, Ivanhoe, Vladimir Arkhipov, Serious Collision Investigation Unit Coalition group (Felix Gmelin, Alan Armstrong, Joakim Forsgren, Mikael Goralski, Amanda Hårsmar, Ronak Moshtaghi, Kjersti Austdal), Paulo Paes, Radesign group (Anton Rakov, Yulia Ratieva), Darya Emelyanova, Dmitry Kadyntsev, GKP group (Vitaly Cherepanov, Anna Mineeva), Dominika Skutnik, Marek Frankowski, Antibody Corporation, (Adam Rose, April Pollard), Eryka Dellenbach, Merzedes Sturm-Lie, André Talborn, Alexey Trubetskov, Olga Kiselyova, Alisa Nikolaeva, Nicolas Courgeon, S’ilTePlait group (Bernard Touzet, Théophile Péju, Pierre-Loup Pivoin, Raphaël Saillard), Club Fortuna group (Kurdwin Ayub, Xenia Lesnievski, Julia Rublov, Sarah Sternat, Nana Mandl), Maarten Heijkamp, Thomas C. Chung, U / n Multitude group (Nikita Spiridonov, Elena Zubtsova, Ilya Fomin), YUNRUBIN group (Joanne Pang Rui Yun, Jonas Rubin), Maria Kryuchkova, Ilya Samorukov, Ciro Vitale, Pier Paolo Patti, Charles Antoine Blais Métivier, Sora Park, Ginais San Andres Chorres, Olesya Mund, Natalia Vikulina, Natalia Skobeeva, Anya Charikov-Micleburgh, Anya Mohova, Piyali Ghosh, Stefano Bergamo, Saodat Ismailova, Ayatgali Toleubeck, Semyon Voronov, Anastasiya Ryabova, Varvara Gevorgizova, Maria Kryuchkova, Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble: (Ivan Bushuev, Oleg Tanzov, Mikhail Dubov, Eugeny Subbotin, Ilya Rubinstein, Victoria Korshunova), Oleg Zaharkin, Kirill Yakunin, Maxim Yakunin, Kajsa Haagen, Efren Arcoiris, Jose Hernandez, Virginie Rochetti, Yannis Ouaked, Gustav Hellberg



 
 

NELYA KORZHOVA

Artist and curator Nelya Korzhova (born in 1963) works in the media of painting, photography, objects, installations, with her practice based on the principle of distant contemplation. Her curatorial projects, emerging from a focus on social sculpture, eschew the concept of art as
a ready-to-consume object. Rather, she identifies with the concept of “no man’s land”, where the viewer is invited to become part of the event in order to see what it’s for.

From 1997 to 2014, Nelya Korzhova was the organizer (together with Roman Korzhov) and art director of the Samara Regional Public Charitable Foundation “Center for Contemporary Art”. Together with Roman Korzhov, in 1999 she founded the international Shiryaevo Biennale of Contemporary Art, initiating the concept of the “Nomadic Show” — a processional exhibition engaging the public with art while moving through space. From 1999 to the present, Nelya Korzhova is the curator of the main project and artistic director of the Shiryaevo Biennale.

Korzhova has curated many projects and programs, including: “Cover
of Daily Routine”, “Fascism Now”, “Nine Months of Feelings”, “Another Freedom”, “Visiology”, “Wonders of Idleness”, “Street as a Museum — Museum as
a Street”, “Volga. Zero”, amongst others. She is the author of articles on contemporary art, a compiler of catalogues, and a lecturer.

Nelya Korzhova was the nominee of the State Innovation Prize in 2006, 2008, 2012, and 2017. She worked at the Volga and Central Volga branches of the National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA) / ROSIZO from 2007 to 2017. Nelya Korzhova lives and works in Samara.

ROMAN KORZHOV

Artist and curator Roman Korzhov (born in 1964) was from 1997 to 2014 the organizer (together with Nelya Korzhova) and the chairman of the Samara Regional Public Charitable foundation “Center for Contemporary Art”. This was the first profile institution in Samara, actively engaged in the search for new forms of communication of contemporary art in the social environment and the development of international dialogue. From 1999 to the present, he is the founder (together with Nelya Korzhova) and the commissioner of the international Shiryaevo Biennale of Contemporary Art.

Roman Korzhov has initiated many projects and programs: “Open Spaces”, “Independent Artistic Scholarship” (within the program of sister cities Samara and Stuttgart), “The Art of Communication” (Institute for International Relations of Germany, IfA, Stuttgart, Germany), “Ecology of Perception”, “Visionology”, “Street as a Museum — a Museum as a Street”, “Volga. Zero”, amongst others.

Korzhov was the Nominee of the National Innovation Prize in 2006, 2008, 2012, and 2017. He has worked at the Volga branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA) since 2007. And since 2015 he has served as Director of the Central Volga branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art / ROSIZO. Roman Korzhov lives and works in Samara.



 
 

ANONYMOUS ARTIST
Trap-2 (100 Rubles in a Trap)
Part of Haus Zwei Installation by
Serious Collision Investigation Unit Coalition, 2016

ANDREAS BAER
Memory, 1999


ULLI BERG & GALIM MADANOV
Border, 1999

ANYA CHARIKOV-MICKLENBURG
Part of the trans-cultural project “Shibbolet”, 2018


NONNA GORYUNOVA & FRANCISCO INFANTE
Photo Series, 1999

VANESSA HENN & YERBOSSYN MELDIBEKOV
Attila, 2001
Kiss, 2001


INGELA IHRMAN
Zoological Museum of Shiryaevo, 2011

RUSTAM KHALFIN & SERGEY MASLOV
The Flag of Chingiz-Khan
, 1999


JÜRGEN KIERSPEL, SERGEY LIEBGRAD,
SERGEY MASLOV, HANNS-MICHAEL RUPPRECHTER
& GEORGY TRJAKIN-BUCKAROV
Crazy Horses, 1999

ROMAN KHORZOV
Event Horizon, 2013


ROMAN KHORZOV & NELYA KHORZOVA
Quarry, Part 1 & 2, 2000

DIANA MACHULINA
Russian, 2007


PIA MARIA MARTIN
Holy Waters, 2013

SERGEY MASLOV
The Future Will Never Arrive, 1999


YERBOSSYN MELDIBEKOV
Holy Waters, 2013

JANNIS OWAKED
Essence of Shiryaevo, 2018


VITO PACE
Interactice Object the Socialdemocratic Landscape in Russia, 2013

HANNS-MICHAEL RUPPRECHTER
Multivitamin Cocktail, Part I & II, 1999


SIRAM & MARE TRALLA
Interactice Object the Socialdemocratic Landscape in Russia, 2013

MARZEDES STURM-LIE
Emerging from the Shadows, 2016


ANDREY SYAYLEV
Subjective, 2009

GEORGY TRJAKIN-BUKHAROV
Baba Klava’s Home, 1999


YUNRUBIN (Joanne Pang Rui Yun & Jonas Rubin)
Dollar Hauler on the Volga, 2016


 
 

DOWNLOAD CATALOGUE
SHIRYAEVO BIENNALE: CENTRAL RUSSIAN ZEN 2017

2017 Exhibition curated by Roman Korzhov, Nelya Korzhov. Co-curator Alexander Burenkov

 

 

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

 

 

WITH THANKS FOR GENEROUS SUPPORT

 

 

WITH THANKS TO OUR MEDIA PARTNERS

 

INSTALLATION PHOTOS

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OPENING PHOTOS