0 Perfomance – The fragile beauty of crisis
Moscow State Exhibition Hall "New Manege"14.09 - 05.10.2013
Curator: Mirjam Varadinis
Artists:
Bas Jan Ader (Netherlands)
Arturo Hernandez Alcazar (Mexico)
Pawel Althamer (Poland)
Nina Beier & Simon Dybbroe Møller (Denmark)
Trisha Brown (USA)
Stefan Burger (Switzerland/Germany)
Mircea Cantor (Romania)
Chto Delat (Russia)
Collective actions (Russia)
Peter Fischli/ David Weiss (Switzerland)
Christina Hemauer and Roman Keller (Switzerland)
Adelita Husni-Bey (Italy/Lybia)
Goldin + Senneby (Sweden)
Georg Keller and Zofia Kwasieborska (Switzerland)
San Keller (Switzerland)
Muchomory (Russia)
Ahmet Ögüt (Turkey)
Roman Ondak (Slovakia)
Adrian Paci (Albania)
Annaïk Lou Pitteloud (Switzerland)
Pratchaya Phinthong (Thailand)
Katerina Šedà (Czech Republic)
Nedko Solakov (Bulgaria)
Ksenia Sorokina (Russia)
Mladen Stilinovic (Serbia - Croatia)
Pilvi Takala (Finland)
Performative strategies have become an important part of contemporary art practices in recent years. After a high peak of performance art in the 1960s and 70s, a young generation of artists is discovering the medium of performance again and explores ephemeral and process-oriented ways of working rather than object based art works.
The special project for the 5th Moscow Biennale entitled „0 Performance – The Fragile Beauty of Crisis” reflects on this phenomenon with a special focus on the double meaning of the word ‘performance‘ – a term that is used both in artistic and economic language. While for many years a persisting belief in endless economic growth and performance was the dominant paradigm, the current economic crisis made the failure of this neoliberal system evident and created – or better creates – a moment of ‘zero performance’ in wide areas of Europe.
While this ‘zero performance’ has existential consequences for many people, it offers also an opportunity to reflect on alternative methods that escape and break with the capitalist logics of efficiency and the pressure of constant production. Time has become one of the most precious goods today. Moments of pause or non-performance are not only extinct but considered improper in work life. The exhibition „0 Performance – The Fragile Beauty of Crisis” is exploring the creative potential of this moment of non-productivity or “zero” performance linking it on one hand to the economic crisis we live through and on the other hand to Mladen Stilinovic’ “Praise of Laziness”, a manifesto that the artist wrote in 1993 to reflect on questions of artistic production and the differences between eastern and western artists.
http://5th.moscowbiennale.ru/en/program/special_projects/0_perfomance_en.html
