The 6th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art has announced its theme and curator for the 2018 edition of the show. Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti, a young independent curator from Italy, will be heading the exhibition under the theme “Abracadabra,” with an emphasis on performance, video, and sound. 

Calabrò Visconti is currently a participant in the curatorial programme of De Appel Arts Centre in Amsterdam. Previously, she’s worked as artistic advisor for Artissima and assistant curator for “Tutttovero” by Francesco Bonami and “Shit and Die” by Maurizio Cattelan, Myriam Ben Salah, and Marta Papini.

The biennial is one of the largest events pertaining to contemporary art in Russia, and Calabrò Visconti has an ambitious project on her hands. “The biennial’s main project, ‘Abracadabra,’ will be dedicated to the pressure to perform of contemporary life, in which the boundaries between what is private, professional and public have been completely blurred,” she explains.

“The title refers to the archaic incantation ‘Abracadabra’ as well as to the homonymous disco song by the Steve Miller Band, popular in the ’80s. The metaphor of the dance floor will be a red thread and framework to investigate the relationship between independent agency, pleasure and commitment,” Calabrò Visconti says, adding that the theme lends itself to inclusions by artists who work primarily with performative practices, moving images, and sound.

The Moscow Biennale for Young Art was first held in 2008, and grew from the combined efforts of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA) and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA) to offer a platform for emerging artists.

The previous edition of the Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, which took place in 2016, was curated by independent curator Nadim Samman and followed the theme of “Deep Inside.”