1st Moscow international exhibition of modern art to be held in 2004

In Moscow they have started implementing the large-scale initiative of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation to organise in Russia an international periodical forum of modern art.

The 1st Moscow International Exhibition (Biennale) of Modern Art will take place in 2004, director of the ROSIZO state museum-exhibition centre Yevgeny Zyablov said in an interview with RIA Novosti. According to him, an organising committee headed by Minister of Culture of Russia Mikhail Shvydkoi has already been set up.

Presumably, ROSIZO - the organiser of the Russian exhibition at the Venice Biennale - will play the key role also in the preparation of the Moscow art-forum. It has set the task of working out a really topical model, which would not have direct analogues and would be capable of taking a special place of its own in the panorama of world artistic life. At first the Moscow Biennale could be of an experimental character and further on could become a match in scope and importance to the Venice Biennale and other major exhibitions of modern art.

In Zyablov's opinion, it is very important that Russia is declaring its interest in modern art and is stating its increased social status. "It is a logical and reasonable line of conduct of the state, which has been shaping its new image and on a par participates in the world processes," the ROSIZO director noted.

Minister of Culture of Russia Mikhail Shvydkoi, commenting in Venice on the plans to hold the 1st Moscow Biennale, said that it was an important stage of the pursuance of the country's new cultural policy, an attempt to give the inhabitants of Russia access to the world context of visual culture. "Normal entry into the normal, civilised world of general culture, where modern art circulates, is one of the present-day problems of Russia," the Minister emphasized. As he said, quite a number of breakthroughs have taken place in this direction, first of all in music and theatre. Changes are perceptible also in the sphere of fine arts but it is necessary to make another effort to turn Moscow into a world centre of the present-day artistic process.