Надежда/Nadezhda – The Hope Principle. Artistic perspectives on Russian industrial cities

Nadezhda, industrial district of the city of Norilsk. Photo: Elena Chernyshova

Надежда/Nadezhda – The Hope Principle

Artistic perspectives on Russian industrial cities

Once the Soviet Union was established, newly created industrial cities were meant to be the driving force and the beating heart of a new industrial world. Whether stamped out of the ground as monotowns in sparsely populated regions or reinvented as existing towns and cities after the Revolution, they symbolised the notion of a better life in the future.

The exhibition project entitled Надежда/Nadezhda - The Hope Principle focuses on the artistic exploration of these locations. In photographing these industrial cities the visual artists featured in the exhibition have chosen to position their works between utopia and the social, political, economic and technological reality. Their look at the (historical) past is often broadened by the question of objective or fictitious opportunities for living together, today and in the future.

The contribution to the 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art is founded on the creative potential of Russian regions and undiscovered locations. The invited artists traveled to seven industrial cities and then began developing new works.
The destinations for these study trips included Yekaterinburg, Izhevsk, Ivanovo, Magnitogorsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Norilsk and Vyksa. The artistic process of research and creative output got underway in response to the visits, based on productions on site and further investigative research. The results of the project are to go on show at the historical production hall of the Trekhgornaya Manufaktura, which is now being used again for the first time since its closure, but this time as an exhibition venue.

The institutional partner is Kunsthalle Wien, which will present an adapted version of the project in Austria.

Quote:

‘Надежда/Nadezhda - The Hope Principle creates new and contemporary perspectives on a Russia that was unknown even to most of the Russian participants in the project. These industrial cities proved to be touching and historically significant sources of inspiration for all of the exhibition participants. However, it is not a matter of merely exploiting these cities as sources of inspiration; rather, it is about generating momentum through the artistic vision and work, and setting a cultural exchange in motion. Our project has also given rise to a new exhibition venue, namely the historical production hall of one of the largest former industrial facilities in the very heart of Moscow, the Trekhgornaya Manufaktura’ (Simon Mraz, Director, Austrian Cultural Forum Moscow)

‘In co-operation with the Austrian Cultural Forum Moscow and it's partners, the Kunsthalle Wien is creating an exhibition project that considers forward-looking social dialogue with regard to potential developments. This stimulating joint venture is intended to trigger a spontaneous, but also long-term reflection through art, and with art. In Vienna itself the various approaches adopted in the artistic contributions are to be reconsidered in relation to one another as a response to the exhibition in Moscow, in a bid to explore the shared interest in investigating trends in contemporary art.’
(Nicolaus Schafhausen, Director, Kunsthalle Wien)

Artists:
Iwan Baan (NL), Fabian Bechtle (D), Cacilia Brown (A), Elena Chernyshova (RUS), Leon Eisermann (D), Lukas Feigelfeld (A), Andreas Fogarasi (A), LaToya Ruby Frazier (US), Tue Greenfort (DK), Leon Kahane (D), Dimitry Kavarga (RUS), Anfim Khanikov (RUS), Ira Korina (RUS), Susanne Kriemann (D), Sonia Leimer (A), Mish Mash (RUS), Igor Moukhin (RUS), Yuri Palmin (RUS), Hanna Putz (A), Sergey Sapozhnikov (RUS), Nikita Shokhov (RUS), David Ter-Organian (RUS), Where The Dogs Run (RUS)

Curators:
Simon Mraz (Austrian Cultural Forum Moscow)
Nicolaus Schafhausen (Kunsthalle Wien)

Co-curators:
Marie Egger, Alisa Prudnikova, Anastasia Shavlokhova, Astrid Wege

Exhibition architecture:
Dasha Paramonova

Exhibition organizers:
The Austrian Cultural Forum in Moscow Kunsthalle Wien Trekhgornaya Manufaktura

In cooperation with:
The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Russian Federation The Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark in the Russian Federation The Federal Chancellery of the Republic of Austria The Goethe Institute Moscow

Opening: 22 September 2015
guided tour by the exhibitions' curators for press and all who like to join: 6 pm, afterwards general exhibition viewing
party in the premises of the exhibition: 9 pm to 1 am
Opening hours: 23 September to 25 October 2015, daily from 12 noon to 8 pm
Exhibition venue: Trekhgornaya Manufaktura, Ulitsa Rochdelskaya 15, Building 24, Courtyard 3.

P: +7 (499) 252 0420 Admission is free.