Japanese art expert Yuko Hasegawa is to curate the 7th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art organizers announced Jan. 23.
Famous for her projects in Asia, Europe, and America, Hasegawa is chief curator of Tokyo's Museum of Contemporary Art.
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Zelfira Tregulova, a member of the Biennale expert council and director of Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery, said she was delighted that Hasegawa had been chosen for this role, remarking that, "a Japanese person simply cannot organize an ugly exhibition."
This will be Hasegawa's first exhibition in Russia: "I have visited Moscow and St. Petersburg before - for talks on the Biennale - but did not have the time to see much of the country. I only visited the Hermitage Museum [in St. Petersburg] for the Jan Fabre exhibition," she said. "The conjunction of classicism and modernity inspired me immensely. I know very little about Russian artists, I will now start to explore the local art scene to pick worthy pieces for the exhibition.” Hasegawa also noted that she always takes the local context into the account, while also contributing something of her own: “People love to notice unusual twists to everyday things."
Hasegawa has chosen Transcendental Forest as the name for her Moscow project.
"The forest is a metaphor for people seeking their roots and new experiences," she told RBTH. "At the same time, there is the cloud space: The Internet, where people communicate, transform, and search for their identity. It is between the forest and the cloud that new meanings and masterpieces are created."
The Moscow Biennale opens Sept. 15. The main location, unchanged from previous years, is the Manezh exhibition hall adjacent to the Kremlin.