“Artmossphere” Moscow Street Art Biennale 2016
The saying: “there are not enough hours in the day” has never rung as true as it does living in Moscow. The sheer pace of life in the city is completely apathetic to the ambitious and, probably, unrealistic schedules of its inhabitants- namely me. However after much consideration, I’ve decided that the culprit is not my poor time- management, that has me feeling cheated out of hours, but the slower than molasses escalators in the metro. Therefore the metro escalators are to blame for me missing the beginning of the ARTMOSSPHERE Street Art Biennale. I am absolved of all blame.
When and Where
Luckily for me and all of you who haven’t yet had a chance to check out the various exhibition which opened on the 30th August of this year- the festival will be on until 18th January 2017. Organised by the Artmossphere Studio, a creative community, the festival will take place in several venues, including: RuArts Gallery, Tsekh Belogo at Winzavod, the Optika Pavilion (No. 64) at VDNKh, and several others. Unfortunately the group show in Manage Central Exhibition Hall, headlined by Barcelona street artists Miss Van, street artist Spy, and duo The London Police, has already passed. Nonetheless, there are still a good few months of exhibitions, installations, film screenings, and lectures to come.
What I want to see
I must admit, I find the designation of this project as a street art exposition confusing. The work is ‘traditionally’ displayed in galleries, and have been purposely curated to ensure cohesiveness. This, to my mind, is the antithesis of what street art is about. Nevertheless, I am really excited to see how they manage to reconcile the rebellious and in many cases, dissident nature of graffiti with the more formal and commercial institution of the ‘art world’.
At the top of my list is the METAFORMS exhibition at the MARS Centre of Modern Art, an interactive project which combines modern digital technology, street and illustration. The artist in this show have worked with the experts at Interactive lab to curate an exhibition, which can be experienced in two realities- in the real space of the gallery and in a virtual world created on Samsung Gear VR. Additionally, I’m hoping to get a chance to see the KEY POINT graffiti exhibition in the White Workshop «Цехе Белого» at Winazavod next month.
Overall, I think the result from this collision of two opposing worlds- the chaotic and disobedient world of street art, and the deliberate world of galleries and curating- is going to be incredibly interesting. So don’t miss it!
For more information and dates, check out the ARTMOSSPHERE website: http://2016.artmossphere.ru/
This post was brought to you by Lola, currently studying at Liden & Denz Moscow
