Professional preview: September 10—11, 2019
Theme: Immortality
For the Biennial it is quite vital to work with the specificity of the Ural region, each time developing new sides of the industriality. Approaching the 5th edition and reflecting on the results to date, the Ural Industrial Biennial opts for the theme Immortality. From the multitude of immortality presentations, the Biennial considers the ones which resonate with modern artistic and research worlds. Immortality enables the transition from reflections on production outputs and the specificity of an industrial process, enclosing with production repetitiveness, to consideration of universal phenomena and deep notions. It is a constant conversation about time and space, men’s place in any new emerging and constructed reality and his right for its interpretation.
Curator of the Main project: Xiaoyu Weng
Xiaoyu Weng, born and raised in Shanghai, China, holds a BA in art history from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing) and MA in curatorial practice from the California College of the Arts (San Francisco). Weng worked as a curator at the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts (San Francisco) and the Kadist Art Foundation (Paris, San Francisco).
Since 2015 Xiaoyu Weng is an Associate Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York) and a contributing editor of Leap, a bilingual magazine dedicated to contemporary art and visual culture from China. In 2015 Weng became the winner of the eighth edition of Premio Lorenzo Bonald per L’Arte Enterprise for international curators. She is also the recipient of the 2017 Visionary Awards, which are presented by Art in General (New York).
Xiaoyu Weng: «Although never been to Russia before, I grew up with tremendous amount of influence of Russian culture, from literature to cinema and personal stories of older generation Chinese. The Ural region is particularly interesting not only because of its geographic location that connects Europe and Asia but also its rich industrial and political history. It marks a unique and intriguing turning point of humanity and our existence in this world. It provides unlimited possibilities for imagination and reflection».
Curator of the Main Project is selected by The Ural Industrial Biennial Advisory Board. In 2018 it included: Cosmin Costinas, curator of contemporary art at the Para/Site art space (Hong Kong) and co-curator of the 1st Ural Industrial Biennial; Sally Tallant, director of the Liverpool Biennial; Iara Boubnova, director of the Institute of Contemporary Art—Sofia, curator of the 2nd Ural Industrial Biennial; Barbara Holub, specialist in urban planning, artist and architect, founder of the 1st World Congress of the Missing Things (Vienna); Li Zhenhua, independent curator, curator of the 3rd Ural Industrial Biennial; Bige Orer, director of the Istanbul Biennial; João Ribas, director of Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art (Porto, Portugal), curator of the 4th Ural Industrial Biennial; Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt, artistic director of viennacontemporary.
Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art
One of the biggest Russian regional projects in the field of contemporary art organized by the Ural Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA-ROSIZO) in Ekaterinburg and the Ural region since 2010.
