In the summer of 2014, Moscow will host the International Biennale for Young Art for the fourth time. This year, Artistic Director of the Biennale is David Elliott, who proposed the motto A Time for Dreams as the general Biennale theme, and selected works for the Main Project. The Biennale program includes several Strategic Projects that will be on view at three exhibition venues. These are the exhibition halls of the Biennale organizers – National Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA) and Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA), as well as a new spot on the Moscow map of contemporary art – Tsvetnoy Central Market.

STRATEGIC PROJECTS OF THE BIENNALE AT MMOMA:

ASTAR
Curator: Nailya Allakhverdieva (Russia)
Artists (Azerbaijan): Agil Abdullayev, Tahmina Ali, Farkhad Farzaliyev, Lala Gasim, Sitara Ibrahimova, Elturan Mammadov, Nazrin Mammadova, Samir Salakhov, Fidan Seidova, Zamir Suleymanov and Emin Azizbeyli

The artists participating in the exhibition are visionaries and eyewitnesses. They don’t judge but eagerly study the world they are in. They care less about the issues of national identity or close integration with European culture (which are so important for Azerbaijani artists of the previous generation) than their personal freedom and possibility of speaking out, unbound by the requirements of ‘corporate ethics’ or ‘political correctness.’ It is through this prism of freedom that they assess everyday communal life, Soviet legacy, traditional culture, and the long and fascinating history of their country – in all of this they are looking for hidden meanings, reasons, and the ‘lining’ of things. This is why the works by these artists are at once analytical and dreamy – imagination helps better than deduction in penetrating beyond the ‘lining of reality.’

A Brief History of Memory
Curator: Lauren Reid (Australia – Germany)
Artists (Thailand): Nontawat Numbenchapol, Tulapop Saenjaroen, Chulyarnnon Siriphol
A Brief History of Memory draws together three Thai experimental filmmakers who use spirituality and metaphor to deal with the complexity of personal, historical and political ordeals on the people of Thailand. They speak of personal loss, civil unrest and a conflicting sense of national identity.

Exploitation of the Imaginary
Curators: Sergei Klimko, Lesya Kulchinskaya (Visual Culture Research Centre, Kiev, Ukraine)
Artists (Ukraine): Dana Kosmina, Igor Okuniev, Yevgeny Samborsky, Vladimir Vorotniov, Zigendemonic
The project proposed by the Visual Culture Research Centre in Kiev, focuses on our speculative future, and the ‘imaginary’ of the masses in the world where it can be technically reproduced, where the main tension lies 
between the virtualized post-politics and utopian practice.

Pasture Still Green?
Curator: Hajra Haider (Pakistan) 
Artists (Pakistan): Sajjad Ahmed, Aamir Habib, Fazal Rizvi, Muzzumil Ruheel
Dreams tainted with disillusionment. Ideals intruded upon and disturbed by reality. Greener pastures – do they exist? Where do they exist? Recognizing, questioning and tackling, four artists respond to their perception of truth.

Peripheral Vision
Curator: Václav Janoščík (Czech Republic)
Artists (Czech Republic): Jan Chlup, Lucia Kotvanová (Slovakia) and Lucie Kordačová; Lucie Doležalová, Jan Lesák, Richard Nikl, Ondřej Roubík, Roman Štětina, Mirka Večeřová and Pavel Příkaský, Viktor Vejvoda
Curatorial project Peripheral Vision aims at presenting the youngest generation of Czech artists that are on a long-term scale connecting post-conceptual or post-medial art with certain renewed interest in visual quality. Particular artists are in a way resigning on the creation of images; rather they are being generated in the process of reflection upon the medium or material, in order to engage us in an unseen yet touching experience.