This year’s biennale is remarkable first of all due to its curator Jean-Hubert Martin. It was he who invited over 80 artists representing all parts of the world – Europe, the USA, Asia, the South America, Africa and Oceania – to take part in the project. Consequently, the show does not have any specific artistic theme, but aims to reflect the global conventional art circuit.

Vik Muniz, Woman Ironing (Isis), 2008

The main “Against Exclusion” project features “a panorama of the contemporary art presented by 80 artists, from young to already renowned, from those familiar to the world’s museums and galleries, to those known in narrow local art markets,” Martin is quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.

Besides this, this year the Moscow Bienniale has founded its own pretty unusual award based on an idea by Russian conceptualist Yury Albert. “Artists-participants of the main project will choose the most worthy among them. The winner will receive a certificate, and the material prize will be that the organizers will pay for the winner’s funeral in case he dies within two years – before the next biennale,” Albert told RIA Novosti.

According to the results of the voting, the winner of the newly founded Moscow Biennale award is Romuald Hazoumé from Benin, Western Africa. He’s one of the most renowned artists in Africa, famous worldwide for his masks and installations expressing the critical view of the author on existing political systems.

Apart from the basic project, the program will include 20 special exhibitions. Among them – “Not Toys!?” in the Tretyakov Gallery, “Moscow.TsUM.Space Liturgy â„–3” by Oleg Kulik, and “Russian Poor” by Marat Guelman in “Krasny Oktyabr”.

A special display “Classics of Contemporary Art” will show projects of Anish Kapoor, Erwin Wurm, Roman Signer, Tony Cragg, Huang Yong Ping, Chiharu Shiota, Sheba Chhachhi, Alfredo Jaar and others.

The “Special Guests” program has prepared exhibition projects of world famous artists – Belgian Luc Tuymans, Briton Antony Gormley and Frenchman Bertrand Lavier. However, Gormley’s and Lavier’s projects will be shown in Moscow later this year and next year.

The Biennale will spread across the most notable and respected art venues of the Russian capital. The art forum’s projects will be on in Winzavod, “Federation” tower, Moscow MOMA, National Center for Contemporary Art, “M’ARS” Centre for Contemporary Arts, exhibition halls of “Ekaterina” Culture Fund and “Project_Fabrika”, among others.

The Biennale will run until October 25, with some exhibitions lasting a bit longer.