The 3rd Biennale of Contemporary Art in Moscow includes work by 80 artists from 25 countries and aims to shine a spotlight on contemporary art outside the conventional art circuit.

Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen says his “Cosmopolitan Chicken Project” is about cross-breeding in a globalised world. The curator, Jean-Hubert Martin, says that since Perestroika, there have been many art shows from Europe and North America in Moscow, but very rarely shows from Africa or the Pacific. But with globalisation he says that the whole art world can be in dialogue and that is what is important and interesting in the state of art today. The exhibition includes work from Europe, the USA, Asia, South America, Africa and of course Russia. Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota exhibited work with a strong Asian identity. She says that she is interested in remembering the exchanges that have taken place across Asia from Persia to India, to China and Japan… which make up Asia’s identity today, culturally, philosophically and ecologically. German artist Gloria Friedman combined works by World War 2 leaders Hitler, Eisenhower and Churchill with objects of war whilst American artist Spencer Tunick shot photographs of naked women in everyday Moscow. He said that he thought the show “pushed a lot of buttons” and that this was a positive thing. The Biennale includes exhibitions all over Moscow – there are 39 special projects and 7 special guest shows. The Biennale runs until 25th October. For more information see

www.3rd.moscowbiennale.ru/en

More about: Contemporary art, Moscow

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