The 6th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art Announces Curators of Its Programs

Assaf Kimmel, Çağla İlk, Misal Adnan Yıldız. Photo: Egemen Demirci.

6th Ural Industrial Biennial
A Time to Embrace and to Refrain from Embracing
Fall 2021
http://uralbiennale.ru

The 6th Ural Industrial Biennial has announced curators of the main project, the artist-in-residence and public programs. The 6th edition of the biennial will take place in Ekaterinburg and the Ural region cities in fall 2021 under the title “A Time to Embrace and to Refrain from Embracing,” which is a slightly altered Ecclesiastes quote. The project will conceptualize such subjects as touch, the right to touch, bodily boundaries, and the shifting conventions of interpersonal communication that undergo rapid transformation under the new global conditions.

The Program of the Main Project is developed by a Berlin-based curatorial team, selected by the expert committee: curators Çağla Īlk, Misal Adnan Yıldız, and architect Assaf Kimmel.

With an understanding of exhibitions as spaces for continuous mediation, curators imagine a biennale edition that departs from performance, which has become the most compelling medium to think about touching without touching today. Revisiting Juhani Pallasma’s The Thinking Hand—Existential and Embodied Wisdom in Architecture, curators will experiment with new forms of engagement considering touch, intimacy and human interaction. Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Zamyatin’s paragon WE (1921), with Kazimir Malevich’s ‘Planits’ (his idea of human-made planets), curators see chapters of inhabiting, squatting, hitchhiking, hijacking, transforming and creating spaces for understanding damage, collapse, isolation, entropy and uncertainty.

From December 8, 2020 till January 15, 2021 the curators are going to connect with the Russian art scene online. The Biennial announces an open call for participation in portfolio review. Russian artists are welcome to apply despite the fact of residence: http://opencall.uralbiennial.ru/

The public program will combine professional and educational directions, curated by Dmitrii Bezouglov, Daria Malikova and Valentina Anufrieva.The educational program will include lecture series, film screenings, music and theater performances. Some events will be held online, which will become a regular practice for the biennial.

In 2021 the Artist-in-Residence program will be curated by Vladimir Seleznyov. The Artist-in-Residence Program is the strategic project of the 6th Biennial. One of the key principles of the 6th edition residencies is participatory character. Artists will create projects with active participation of residents and communities. Projects created within the Artist-in-Residence program will remain in the host cities and will be available to view during the tours, while the exhibition in Ekaterinburg will feature their video documentation.

More information: uralbiennial.ru