Poznan Biennale

Main programme:

Beyond Mediations

curators:
Tsutomu Mizusawa and Professor Ryszard W. Kluszczyński

Erased Walls

curators:
Georgi Begun, Noam Braslavsky, Juraj Čarný, Nika Kukhtina, Matthias Reichelt, Sławomir Sobczak, Raman Tratsiuk & Volha Maslouskaya, Marianne Wagner and Tomasz Wendland.

Venues:
Beyond Mediations will be displayed at the National Museum and at Culture Centre "Zamek". Erased Walls will occupy an alternative space, created especially for this presentation.

The second Mediations Biennale - the largest contemporary art exhibition in Middle Europe will take place in Poznan/Poland from 5.09. to 30.10.2010 (the opening on 4.09). The presentation of the latest achievements in art concentrating on a dialogue between different cultures of the world and artistic explorations of creators from Middle Europe, by relating to our historical and cultural experience will create a different platform, different sensitivity and a different perspective in the perception of global processes.

This year the official opening of the Biennale is one of the items of the programme accompanying the 4th ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) conference – a meeting of 43 Ministers of Culture and delegations from Asia and Europe, held in Poznań on 7th- 19th September 2010".

www.mediations.pl

CONCEPT:

Beyond Mediations
Curators about the concept of the exhibition: Beyond is intended to mean that only art can bridge gaps that exist between people. (…)The distance that separates us is conditioned by a vast number of factors. Ironically, the process of globalization made it all even more complex, while many people became more conscious of the fact, sometimes even obsessed with its burden. The division lines are countless. Among others, we are separated by biological conditioning (sex, skin colour) and social issues (nationality), or geopolitical limitations (borders). The cultural tradition, which would be expected to be more flexible and fluid, not infrequently transforms into narrow-minded nationalism. Overcoming, going beyond those limitations might be difficult. The further one goes the harder it becomes to shake off the anxiety of alienation from the self. Without doubt, art is the most sophisticated cultural medium created by human, and only art will be able to lead us beyond the distance.

Erased Walls
The curators will focus on the creative work after 2000, with an emphasis on the latest art, unconstrained by geopolitics. Erasing of the frontiers does not apply exclusively to our region anymore. All over the world, the walls that were physically torn down, have been replaced by invisible ones – whose existence is all the more efficacious and poignant because of their imperceptibility. Political divisions are now being exchanged for new ones, those associated with the dominance of the capital, social supremacy, poverty, media manipulation, the feeling of solitariness and exclusion. The artists, by constructing an image, arrive at reflections otherwise unattainable, which cannot be devised by means of language or document. An image is frequently a close-up quotation from reality, which, having been extracted from the mundanity and then presented in a different light shed by art, becomes surprisingly distinct.

"Erased Walls" is a part of European exhibition project, in frames of which two other exhibitions will be presented in Berlin (1-30.10.2010) and Bratislava (3.10-3.12).

The artistic events of the accompanying programme: "HUB or SChUB transforma(c)tion" in cooperation with Łódź Biennale, curated by Mariusz Sołtysik and Aurelia Mandziuk and "SKIN - Extreme pleasure, Extreme pain. Art from Argentina and Urugway", curated by Enrique Badaro.
The accompanying programme will take place in several galleries, among others "Arsenał" Municipal Gallery, and public places all over the city.

Organization: "Zamek" Culture Centre, Kontekst Sztuki Association
Financed by: Governor of Wielkopolska Province, Municipality of Poznań, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, European Commission.