A suitcase from Paris > Brussels > Bolzano > Milan > Riga > Tallinn > Vancouver > Istanbul > San
Francisco... to Grozny - 23 February 2005 - ???
>Emergency Biennale in
Chechnya was conceived and organized by independent Paris
and San Francisco-based curator Evelyne Jouanno as an echo to
the 1st Moscow Biennial and as a reaction to the destruction
of a people and culture.
Drawing attention to the plight of Chechnya and
more broadly to human and social emergencies in the context of "ambivalent
globalization" while also questioning the phenomenon and proliferation
of international Biennials, the Emergency Biennale in Chechnya
opened on February 23 rd , 2005 in different locations in the city
of Grozny, and simultaneously in Paris, at the Palais de Tokyo.
More than sixty international artists, established
and emerging, provided one artwork and its duplicate - created
to fit into suitcases - clandestinely sent to Chechnya and shipped
to different cities in the world for mirror exhibitions.
After Paris, the touring part of the exhibit moved
on to Brussels, Bolzano, Milan, Riga, Tallinn, Vancouver, Puebla,
Istanbul, and now to San Francisco.
In each location new artists are invited, conferences
organized, and additional suitcases readied to be sent to Chechnya.
The touring exhibit will stop in Grozny where
the artworks will join their twins and the collection will become
the foundation for a museum .
Emergency Biennale in
Chechnya is a non-budget organisation which operates in collaboration
with international communities of artists, art institutions and
human rights activists and NGOs.
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