MANIFESTA 10 - European Biennial of Contemporary Art June 28 - October 31, 2014 Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

MANIFESTA, one of the most important Biennales of contemporary art, was inspired by the transformations that took place in the European firmament in 1989-1991 and was launched with the idea of capitalizing on the intense artistic exchanges that these events made possible. MANIFESTA 10 continues this approach and aims to reflect on the changes in art and society since the fall of the Berlin Wall, presenting artists from a wide variety of positions, while not overlooking the current geopolitical situation. The main objective is to bring contemporary art with all its complexity and critical tools to the Hermitage Museum. The Biennial will thus consist of the exhibition itself - which will take place in the Administrative Building, the newly renovated wing of the museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art, and in the Winter Palace - together with a wide-ranging Public Program that will offer a critical response to the current socio-political context, with its specific conflicts and complexities and the place of art in this framework. Among the artists who will contribute with performative projects commissioned for the occasion are Pavel Brăila (Moldova), Lado Darakhvelidze (Georgia), Alevtina Kakhidze (Ukraine), Ragnar Kjartansson (Iceland), Deimantas Narkevičius (Lithuania), Kristina Norman (Estonia), Ilya Orlov and Natasha Kraevskaya (Russia), Alexandra Pirici (Romania), Slavs and Tatars (Eurasia).

"Under the curatorial direction of Kasper König, MANIFESTA 10 presents itself as an exhibition that both inspires and challenges us. As a traveling European Biennial, we have chosen to operate within areas where contestation is still alive, outside the 'safe harbor' that is the West, and we have done so because we believe that art offers an alternative perspective and is conducive to reflection on society. Manifesta stands for artistic independence and has a responsibility to art, artists and those who wish to be part of the same universe with us. Our work is a work of debate, negotiation, mediation and diplomacy and is not afraid of the conflicts of the times. In an age where the tendency is to interpret everything through the prism of geo-politics, art is there to nuance things and give them complexity," said Hedwig Fijen, director of the MANIFESTA International Foundation.

Announcing a list of more than fifty-five international artists and more than thirty-five specially commissioned works (Louise Bourgeois, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Rineke Dijkstra, Marlene Dumas, Vadim Fishkin, Katharina Fritsch, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Thomas Hirschhorn, Yasumasa Morimura, Bruce Nauman, Cindy Sherman, Alexandra Sukhareva, Wolfgang Tillmans, etc.a.), Kasper König said: "MANIFESTA 10 will be a complex exhibition and project in which the aim of the participants is to explore all the possibilities offered by art and to address the whole range of perspectives that art presents and opens up. This exhibition aims to inspire discussion and raise questions, and I have no doubt that the impact it has had will live on even after it closes in the fall of 2014. The artists present at the current edition of MANIFESTA have been selected because they represent and have contributed to the development of key trends in contemporary art both in the West and in Russia. This is also the reason why they are not easy to categorize. In a museum as historically diverse as the Hermitage, it was only natural to choose a diverse and complex spectrum of contemporary artists' positions".