Antarctic Biennale 2017

THE 1ST ANTARCTIC BIENNALE - International Art Project 2017

"Antarctica is the last free continent. It belongs to no state and, according to international agreements, is intended exclusively for creative activities and scientific research in the interests of all of humanity. It is pure, hard to reach, and mysterious—like Art itself! The sixth continent resembles a white sheet of paper, upon which artists from different countries might draft new visions for life in the 21st Century."
–Alexander Ponomarev (Commissioner, The Antarctic Biennale)

The Antarctic Biennale do not start or end with the expedition on March 17, 2017. This is a ‘biennale in process’ of constant building the space for productive cooperation and meaning creation.

EXPEDITION DATES AND ROUTE
MARCH 17 – 28, 2017
Ushuaia — Drake Passage — Neko, Paradise and Orne Harbours — Cuverville Island — the Errera Channel — the Lemaire Channel — Pleneau Island — Petermann Island — Penola Strait — South Shetland Islands — Deception Island — Half Moon Island — Hannah Point or Yankee Harbour — Cape Horn.
During the journey there will be a few landings on the continent, visits to the scientific stations etc.

ARTISTS
ALEXANDER PONOMAREV, Russia / ABDULLAH AL SAADI, UAE / ALEXIS ANASTASIOU, Brazil / ANDREY KUZKIN, Russia / GUSTAV DUSING, Germany / JOAQUIN FARGAS, Argentina / JULIAN CHARRIÈRE, France/Switzerland / JULIANA CERQUEIRA LEITE, Brazil / JULIUS VON BISMARCK, Germany / PAUL ROSERO CONTRERAS, Ecuador / SHO HASEGAWA, Japan / TOMAS SARACENO, Argentina/Germany / ZHANG ENLI, China / YTO BARRADA, Marocco-France / EULALIA VALLDOSERA, Spain / SHAMA RAHMAN, Bangladesh-UK / YASUAKI IGARASHI, Japan / LOU SHEPPARD, Canada

COMISSIONER STATEMENT
"Our aim is to design a platform for intercultural and transdisciplinary dialogue about the future of ’shared spaces’, do a unique artistic research into the sites on the edge of human experience, and create the foundation for effective communication in such spaces. Being at the heart of the process, only art can take on such a uniting function, since only art has escaped losing the ability to grasp the world as a whole!"
ALEXANDER PONOMAREV, Сommissioner of the 1st Antarctic Biennale, Multidisciplinary artist; nautical engineer and experienced submariner; Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France; Member of the Russian Academy of Art, and Global Thinker (so named by Foreign Policy magazine)

PROJECT
The Antarctic Biennale is an international socio-cultural phenomenon that uses artistic, scientific, and philosophic methodologies to address shared spaces such as Antarctica, the Ocean, and Outer Space.

The expedition on the research ships will culminate in these inspiring interdisciplinary activities. The ship will become a vehicle for the generation of art and ideas, a travelling platform for dialogue between artists, researchers, and thinkers.

The Antarctic Biennale does not start or end with the expedition in March 2017. This is a biennale «in process», constantly building space for productive cooperation and creation of meaning.

HISTORY
The concept for the Antarctic Biennale was first proposed by Russian artist, sailor, and philosopher Alexander Ponomarev in 2011. Alexander has conducted several expeditions to Antarctica and organized a number of international artistic events on the continent. In 2014, as Commissioner, Ponomarev established the Venice Biennale’s first ever supranational pavilion — the Antarctic Pavilion — as an international interface of the Antarctica Biennale (with the support of the AVC Charity Foundation).

Alexander Ponomarev and Nadim Samman (who curated the first exhibition in the Antarctic Pavilion) were included in the 2014 list of ’The 100 Leading Global Thinkers’ (Foreign Policy Magazine, USA) for their work on the Pavilion and Biennale.

EXPEDITION The art expedition has started in Ushuaia, the southernmost city of our planet, where approximately 100 participants have boarded the Akademik Sergey Vavilov research ship.

Alexander Ponomarev says that for this hundred the journey is ‘a revolution that changes the vector.

Expedition
Instead of the usual national pavilions, we had the icy inaccessibility of the Antarctic continent. Instead of pompous apartments, ascetic cabins. Instead of chaotic creative wanderings, a conjunction with Nature and explosion of consciousness through discussions with scientists, futurists, and technological visionaries.
Each passenger had a chance to take part in discussions, poetry, and philosophy workshops, as well as start designing the future in the Antarctic Biennale Vision club. But the most important thing is that each expedition member was an eyewitness and a contributor to the art-making process.

ANTARCTIC BIENNALE SHIP
Designed and built as a scientific research vessel in Finland in 1988, this 117-meter-long ship is modern, comfortable, safe, and ice-strengthened. Recent refurbishment has improved greatly the comfort and caliber of the facilities aboard the ship and made it a perfect, expedition cruise vessel. It has all the necessary public spaces for the planned discussion program and creative labs: presentation room, library, multimedia room, and lounge.

ONBOARD PROGRAM
There will be a mix of globally celebrated names and avant-garde young voices.

The expedition will visit numerous working scientific bases in Antarctica, as well as historic and natural sites. Throughout the biennale, there will be actions, performances, and debates on board the expedition vessel, the research ship Akademik Sergey Vavilov, which is conceived as a floating studio, conference and exhibition space.

In addition, during landings at various Antarctic locations, artists will temporarily install works of art, or engage in performances.

Mobility, site specificity, ecological compatibility, artistic expressiveness and conceptual acuity will condition these interventions. All installations created during the expedition will be dismantled and loaded back on the ship, for their lives to continue in the world’s leading museums and art centers.

Some of the works of art will form the Antarctic Biennale collection.

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"We have supported Antarctic expeditions in the past, but this will be the biggest project for us on the continent. I think it will be a fascinating endeavor and I made my decision to support it when I saw the genuine passion from the organizers. I’m really excited to be participating in the expedition, and I’m looking forward to all the art it will produce."
EUGENE KASPERSKY
Chairman and CEO of Kaspersky Lab
General Partner of ANTARCTIC BIENNALE