1 June – 15 October, 2011
Ca’ Foscari
Free Entry

The Hermitage chooses Venice, Ca’ Foscari and la Biennale, for “a first” in its contemporary history.

The great Russian museum, whose vast, world-renowned treasures of antique and old art have been seen in Italy time and again, has picked the 54th International Art Exhibition la Biennale di Venezia as an occasion to introduce the Italian public to its modern identity. The new image will be launched by a solo exhibition of Dmitri Alexandrovich Prigov (1940-2007), one of the most important and, perhaps, most audaciously unorthodoxof the Russian conceptualists.

The exhibition set up by the State Hermitage will run from 1 June to 15 October at the Ca’ Foscari University’s exhibition halls in the magnificent historic palace on the Grand Canal. It is important to emphasise that the St Petersburg museum is not acting as a mere lessor but as the initiator and chief curator of Dmitri Prigov’s exhibition, which is taking place for the first time since the museum got custody of a major part of the artist’s works from his Family Foundation. The collection to be displayed is unique and it is currently being researched by a team of experts set up by the Contemporary Art Department of the State Hermitage and the Ca’ Foscari University’s Centre for the Study of Russian Culture.

The exhibition will present Dmitri Prigov’s conceptual drawings and objects, many of which have not yet been exhibited. Installations of wood, ropes and glass will be built, for the first time, based on the artist’s preparatory sketches. The curator Dmitri Ozerkov will undertake the project, supervised by the Prigov Foundation and supported by the Centre for the Study of Russian Culture. The other rooms will be used to show video recordings of Prigov’s poetic performances. The whole will present Dmitri Prigov’s unique universe as multimedia Gesamtkunstwerk, through objects, images, light and sound. TD