Event of 2012: An industrial Biennial in Moscow

The 2nd Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, hosted in the later half of 2012, developed the key concepts of set by the first edition, with a focus on the possibilities of going beyond the binary of production versus consumption in artistic, cultural, and social spheres. While the contemporary art world invariably discusses events in the West, here’s the one in Moscow that to us is the Biennial of 2012

Concept and aim

The biennale looks to explore the potential of contemporary art as a means to appropriate and reconfigure (non)exhibition spaces and local audiences. With a roster of exhibits slated to take place at a variety of vivacious venues (including the region’s operating and abandoned factories), the event both re-conceptualizes the cultural forms of the industrial era and actualizes the productive dimension of contemporary artistic processes.

Background

In 2010, the 1st Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art took over factory spaces in and around Ekaterinburg to take on the problems of material and symbolic production, industrial and artistic labor, the industrial and the post-industrial in the context of the city and the Ural region.

Once considered the center of the Soviet industrialization drive and a world-renown destination for Constructivist architecture, now the area is defined by its ‘intermediate’ economy; it’s neither post-industrial Europe, nor industrial Asia, but rather, a hybrid that links the two, thereby giving a global significance to the local socioeconomic situation.

‘Artist in Residence’ program

The Ural Industrial Biennial introduced the format of ‘Artist in Residence’ for the first time ever, inviting artists to work in the Ural region. The projects of the 2nd Ural Industrial Biennial were those being developed in the process of direct interaction with industrial sites: operating plants of the Ural region (Pervouralsk Factory of Mining Equipment) and global-scale economic initiatives (‘Titanium Valley’ Special Economic Zone) as well as the most significant historical monuments of the Ural region industrial heritage (Nizhniy Tagil Museum-Factory ‘The Mining Ural’, Nevyansk State Museum of History and Architecture).