18/09/2013-31/01/2014

The 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art is the second of a three part program which started in 2011 and is funded under the Operational Program Macedonia-Thrace 2007-2013, co-financed by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund) and Greece. The organization is run by the State Museum of Contemporary Art, realized with the participation of the “5 Museums’ Movement of Thessaloniki”, supported by the Municipality of Thessaloniki and with the collaboration of many local institutions.

The organization aspires to be a dynamic meeting between the artists and the public that will give the latter the opportunity to discover the modern, complex artistic reality of the Mediterranean and the rest of the world. More than 220 artists from around the world present their works of art at the 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art. Museums, monuments, galleries and other cultural venues in Thessaloniki will open their doors –with free entrance for the audience– presenting exhibitions, installations, performances, workshops, symposiums, educational programs, screenings and interventions in public space.

Director of the 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art and responsible for the overall planning is Katerina Koskina, President of the Board of Trustees of the SMCA, Art Historian & Curator. Chief Curator of the Central Exhibition “Everywhere But now” is Adelina von Fürstenberg, Independent Curator and Film Producer, Director of the NGO ART for The World. All SMCA curators, staff and many volunteers are committed on this project as well.

The Mediterranean as a field of study for modern cultural and social reality is this year’s theme of the program “Old Intersections–Make it New” that runs from 2011 to 2015.

Adelina von Fürstenberg//Chief curator of the central exhibition

Adelina Cüberyan von Fürstenberg is a Swiss citizen, from Armenian origin, born in Istanbul. She is an international and renowned curator and one of the field's pioneers in broadening contemporary art. Mrs. von Fürstenberg took a more global and flexible approach to contemporary art exhibitions, in bringing art in spaces such as monasteries, medersas, public buildings, squares, islands, parks, etc. Her objective is to give a larger context for visual art in making it a more vigorous part of our lives, in creating a vivid dialogue for it with other arts, and relating it to worldwide issues.

During her studies of Political Sciences at the University of Geneva, Adelina von Fürstenberg founded the Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève, working with prominent artists, such as Sol LeWitt, Daniel Buren, General Idea, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, Lawrence Weiner. In the same period she organized performances with John Cage, Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, Joan Jonas, Robert Wilson. Few years later until 1994, she directed Le Magasin, Centre d’Art Contemporain of Grenoble, France, where she curated large solo exhibitions of major artists, such as Vito Acconci, Alighiero Boetti, Gino De Dominicis, Ilya Kabakov, as well as symposia and lectures on architecture, science and philosophy. Furthermore, for five years she directed the Ecole du Magasin (School of Curators). In 1993 the International Jury of the 45th Venice Biennale awarded her a prize for her direction of Le Magasin and its School of Curators.

In 1995, on the occasion of the United Nations 50th Anniversary, she was invited to curate the exhibition Dialogues of Peace, an international exhibition presented at the UN Headquarters, in Geneva. In 1996 she founded Art for The World, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) for the diffusion of the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights through contemporary art and cinema. Mrs von Fürstenberg collaborates on yearly bases with the Regional Direction of SESC Sao Paulo, Brazil, In curating shows such as Balcan Erotic Epics by Marina Abramovic (2006), Voom Portraits by Robert Wilson (2008),Urban Manners (2010) on Indian contemporary art for the first time in South America, and more recently The Mediterranean Approach (2012), an itinerant exhibition presented previously at Palazzo Zenobio in Venice (2011) and in Marseille at the mac - Museum of Contemporary Art.

Her most recent project is FOOD, a large show with 31 artists exploring the fascinating question of food, simultaneously dealing with survival, health, economy and culture. The FOOD project is organized in partnership with Spazio Oberdan Milan, SESC Sao Paulo and MuCEM (Museum of Civilizations of Europe and Mediterranean), Marseille. Parallel to the art shows, Adelina von Fürstenberg is also a Film Producer and between 2008 and 2011, she conceived and produced for the European Commission, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Council of Europe, 29 short fiction movies with well known independent filmmakers form all over the world, on the Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Contact

21 Kolokotroni str. –Moni Lazariston-56430, Thessaloniki

Τ: 2310 589141 & 143
F: 2310 600123

[email protected]

www.greekstatemuseum.com

> via biennale4.thessalonikibiennale.gr

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