Special projects

Special projects

Special projects are an opportunity to represent several independent meta-narratives, each in its own way revealing the main semantic dominants of the 2nd Ural industrial biennial. Each of them is connected to industry, art, and Yekaterinburg; none of them is tautological though.
This year the Special projects program is marked with a superior accent on the figure of curator, who, on the one hand, represents large fiscal cultural institutions, and on the other, receives an opportunity to organize a project “in the risk zone” – off the canon, outside official cultural politics and beyond the public expectation. Dimitri Ozerkov from the State Hermitage Museum is gathering an exhibition-meditation on technology and craftsmanship within art and industry for one of the plant workshops, a non-typical space for his curatorial work. Vyacheslav Samodurov, art director of Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theatre, was inspired by industrial theme and atmosphere of the plant to produce a new dance performance, which will not contribute to the theatre’s repertoire and will be demonstrated only to biennial visitors. Contrary, a step towards institution is implemented by Valentin Dyakonov, a well-known art critic and reviewer of the “Commersant” newspaper. His tour offers an alternative perception of the classic national museum hall as a contemporary art installation, and itself turns into a performance.