Published: 24 March, 2009, 20:16
Edited: 24 March, 2009, 20:16
The organizing committee of the 53rd Venetian Biennale of Modern Art has announced the shortlist of nations participating in the upcoming exhibition, including Russia.
The Russian exhibit is to be entitled “Victory over the Future”. Russia will be represented by seven well-known artists working in different disciplines ranging from photography to sculpture to installations.
Artist and writer Pavel Pepperstein, one of the most influential artists of Russia’s new generation, will be present. In the late 1980s he co-founded an experimental group of artists who, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, criticized the influence of the West on Russian art.
The winner of the Innovation award in 2006, Aleksey Kallima, one of the most significant artists of the harsh 1990s, will present his works at the international art show. A native of Grozny and a witness to the Chechen war, Kallima refers to this theme in his works.
Photographs by Andrei Molodkin, a former Russian soldier and conceptual artist, will also be displayed in the Russian pavilion of the exhibition. Molodkin also criticizes cultural and geopolitical issues through his work.
Irina Korina, working with installations, is clearly moving ahead. Born in 1977, she has already participated in a number of prestigious art shows in Russia and now will display her art at the Venetian Biennale.
Photographer Anatoly Zhuravlyov, performance master and artist Georgy (Gosha) Ostretsov and Sergey Shekhovtsev, known for his rubber foam sculptures, will also represent Russia in Venice.
In total there will be over 70 countries represented at the art show. The Biennale will open on July 7 and will run for almost five months.