This Biennale is the first joint venture of the "5 Museums' Movement in Thessaloniki"(5M) consisted of the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, the Museum of Byzantine Culture, the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, the Teloglion Foundation of Art AUTh and the leader of the project, the State Museum of Contemporary Art-Costakis Collection. It is also part of the "Thessaloniki: Cultural Crossroads" programme of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, focussing this year on the Middle East, and running under the City of Thessaloniki, Department of Culture, Education and Tourism, 9th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, and other cultural and educational partners jointly.
Ilya Chashnik, Suprematist Cross, 1923
"A Rock and a Hard Place"
The programme derives its inspiration from the city, as a metaphor of the powerful multicultural character of its past history. Each and every one of the biennale venues (5 historical monuments and 5 museums) constitutes an episode of the all-embracing narrative. These episodes are inspired both by the former and the current use of these buildings, by the past and contemporary contribution to the social life and political game of the city, and the artists and the works hosted have been chosen within this particular framework.
Venues: Alatza Imaret, Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Bey Hamam, Museum of Byzantine Culture, Casa Bianca, Contemporary Art Centre of Thessaloniki, Eptapyrgio, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Teloglion Foundation of Art-AUTh.
Artists: 98 Weeks, Mounira Al Solh, Archive (Francesca Boenzi, Paolo Caffoni, Chiara Figone, Ignas Petronis), Francis Alÿs, Arab Image Foundation, Rasheed Araeen, Athanasios Argianas, Katerina Athanasopoulou, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Manfredi Beninati, Christoph Büchel, Pierpaolo Campanini, Vlassis Caniaris, Spartacus Chetwynd, Cinemathèque de Tanger, Keren Cytter, Christina Dimitriadis, Thomas Dworzak, Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh (in collaboration with Arab Image Foundation), e-flux projects (Julieta Aranda & Anton Vidokle), Andreas Embirikos, Mounir Fatmi, Emmanuel Finkiel, Penelope Georgiou, Yannoulis Halepas, Steven C.Harvey, IKONOTV, Mahmoud Kaabour, Dionisis Kavallieratos, Ali Kazma, William Kentridge, Alexander Kluge, Panos Koutroubousis, Nikolaj B.S. Larsen, Solon Lekkas, Sifis Likakis, Katariina Lillqvist, Zeina Maasri, Margherita Manzelli, Irini Miga, Moataz Nasr, Bruce Nauman, Olaf Nikolai, Pavlos Nikolakopoulos, Jockum Nordström, Pantelis Pantelopoulos, Alessandro Pessoli, Michail Pirgelis, Angelo Plessas, PRISM TV (Nikos Katsaounis & Nina Paschalidou), Imran Qureshi, Jean-Marc Rochette, Marwan Sahmarani, Yiorgos Sapountzis, Hrair Sarkissian, Yehudit Sasportas, Alberto Savinio, Tayfun Serttas, Ahlam Shibli, Slavs and Tatars, Socratis Socratous, Christiana Soulou, Naoko Takahashi, Ryan Trecartin, Kostas Tsioukas, Andreas Vais, Nanos Valaoritis, Kostis Velonis, Pae White, Constantinos Xenakis.
The archive of George Lykidis and selected archives of "The Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive" will also be shown.
Old Intersections-Make it New
3rd Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art
Thessaloniki, Greece
18 September–18 December 2011
Curators: Paolo Colombo, Mahita El Bacha Urieta, Marina Fokidis
Architect: Andreas Angelidakis
State Museum of Contemporary Art
www.thessalonikibiennale.gr
www.greekstatemuseum.com
