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Antarctic
pav ilion
Antarctica
Commissioner
Alexander Ponomarev
Curator
Nadim Samman
I invite you to board my ship
and step onto its deck
And set out upon Adventure
to the new shores of art!
I am organising a topsy-turvy Biennale!
An upside-down Biennale,
a head-over-heels Biennale
In the Antarctic close to the South Pole.
I urge you to show your artistic activity
Where it is not so easy to get to!
Where there are no viewers, nobody but birds, fish and
penguins.
You can hardly hold an exhibition there and
There is neither overt nor covert commerce.
Instead
You can vent your lungs and clean them of the stuffy air
of galleries and museums!
You can cleanse your eyes!
And all of us, brought together from different continents
On this snow-white continent,
Will start art on a white sheet of paper!
Alexander Ponomarev
мobilis in mobile
antarctic
biennale
international art exhibition
philosophy
We are organising the 1st Antarctic Biennale of
Contemporary Art.
Antarctica is the last continent of freedom. Under the
1959 international treaty it belongs to no state and
is intended exclusively for creativity ‘in the interests
of the entire mankind’. Antarctica (from the Greek
antarktikos, opposite) is pure, hard-of-access and
enigmatic like art itself! This white continent is like
a white sheet of paper on which artists of different
lands and nationalities will try to write new rules of
cooperation.
motto
нead-over-heels вiennale
“Mobilis in mobile” (Motto of Captain Nemo and his
Nautilus)
structure
The Biennale is to be held aboard research ships
Akademik Ioffe and Akademik Sergey Vavilov
of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
These expedition ships are well-suited for sailing
southern latitudes and are capable of comfortably
accommodating the Biennale team.
The Biennale activities will take place
during the voyage from the port of Ushuaia
(Argentina) to the Falkland Islands, South
Georgia and on through the Drake Passage,
when the expedition arrives to the Antarctic
continent and goes ashore in the area
of the Antarctic Peninsula. During these
landings the artists participating in the
project, jointly with the support group, will
make objects, installations, performances
and stage actions. Their constructs are to
be portable, designed to withstand weather
conditions, to cause no hazard to the
environment and to be dismantled by the
end of the stopover.
Every landing is to be documented in detail
with the help of cameras and camcorders.
Several laboratories, including photo,
graphic and video, as well as a discussion
club will function onboard during the
voyage.
The expedition may have from 50 to 100
members. The artists are to account for
nearly one half of the expedition, with
the other half to consist of organisers,
the technical support group, critics and
reporters, as well as guests of honour to be
represented by sponsors, museum workers
and collectors.
A filming crew will shoot a documentary.
After the journey several exhibitions are
to be staged at Russian and European
museums.
In advance the ships will cruise from
Kaliningrad, their port of registration,
calling at a European port to take onboard
elements of artistic structures and special
equipment. Next the ships will head for
Argentina (if wish be some participants
may cross the Ocean). The main group is to
come to Ushuaia by plane and to board the
ships there.
Biennale activities are to last from 12 to 15
days. Depending on expedition goals and
weather conditions, the ports of calls are
subject to change.
The Organizing Committee
of the 1st antarctic biennale
of contemporary Art
Antarctic
pav ilion
The Antarctic Pavilion brings together leading international architects and artists to explore
present and future models of living with Antarctica.
Almost without exception, Antarctic stations are designed by engineers with minimal aesthetic regard for living
conditions. How does their pseudo-architecture circumscribe man’s relationship with the continent? More
importantly—What are the alternatives? The projects featured in this pavilion are directed towards other pasts,
presents and futures whose relevance and power transcend South Polar geography. They propose an expanded
Antarctic imaginary.
The overall scenography of the exhibition has been designed by Alexey Kozyr architectural studio. It invokes
the provisional nature of architecture in Antarctica – as well as the logistical reality of having to transport
all building materials into the continent. A series of flight-cases, of same kind used to transport scientific
equipment, will act as plinths for maquettes by contributing architects.
The Antarctic Pavilion is a long-term project, initially focused on alerting the architectural profession to its
disregard for what is built in the South Polar region. In time, our program will impact upon the design of real
stations.
The Pavilion’s status as a ‘[trans]National Pavilion’ also constitutes a polemical engagement with the
Biennale’s nationally over-determined structure: a quasi-institutional claim to represent a transnational sphere,
out of line with the festival’s politics of territorial representation. More importantly, it points to Antarctica as a
Giardini of sorts, in which the sovereignty-obsessed cultural ambitions relevant two centuries ago still seem to
hold sway – for the worse.
Despite all the kilometres of ground untrodden by human foot, mountains unnamed and creatures unknown,
Antarctica is a cultural space. The projects featured in this pavilion are testaments to the Antarctic community
that would yet know itself – and the continent – in ways transcending national-scientific missions. Among
enthusiasts and unbuilt schemes dwells the promise of a new Antarctic man.
The Antarctic Pavilion is initiated by the artist Alexander Ponomarev. Drawing upon his background in
nautical engineering and early career as a submariner, Ponomarev’s work chiefly invokes journeys at sea and
remote terrain – contexts in which to explore the relationship between illusion and reality, the utility of art, and
the shifting tides of personal and cultural history. Ponomarev is a regular visitor to Antarctica, and has realized
numerous projects on the continent. The Antarctic Pavilion draws upon his longstanding interest in Antarctica’s
potential as a cultural field.
The Antarctic Pavilion is a European interface platform for a biennale to be held in Antarctica, also devised
and implemented by artist Alexander Ponomarev, and curated by Nadim Samman. The Antarctic Biennale will
be take place in 2015-2016 aboard international research vessels. The Antarctic Biennale is conceived as a
cultural exchange between artists and the continent’s scientists and support staff.
ANTARCTOPIA
commissioner Alexander Ponomarev
curator Nadim Samman
exhibition architect Alexey Kozyr
exhibition graphic designer Alena Ivanova-Johanson
exhibition manager Katja Scholz
organizer Oceanic Fund Projects
general partner ANDREY CHEGLAKOV (AVC Charity Foundation)
partner Ismail Akhmetov FOUNDATION
Alexey Kozyr
Ilya Babak
ARCTIC POPPY
Orangery in Antarctica
ANTARCTOPIA
zaha hadid
STUDIO ZAHA HADID – VIENNA
Transformable Antarctic
Research Facility
ANTARCTOPIA
hugh Broughton
Life in the Freezer
ANTARCTOPIA
Nadim Samman
Alexander Ponomarev
Antarctic
pav ilion
ALEXANDER PONOMAREV
56th Venice Biennale of Art
Fondaco Marcello,
Calle dei Garzoni, Grand Canal
May – November 2015
Curator Nadim Samman
Alexander Ponomarev
Maya: A Lost Island, 2000
Action in collaboration with the Northern Fleet
of the Russian Navy, Barents Sea
Alexander Ponomarev
Memory of Water,2002
Museum of Science and Technology, Paris,
general view of the installation
Alexander Ponomarev
SubTiziano, 2009
Universita Ca’Foscari, Venice Grand Canal
Official Collateral Project, 53rd Venice Biennale
Alexander Ponomarev
Verticale Parallele, 2007
Chapelle St-Louis-de-la-Salpêtrière, Festival d’Automne,
Paris, France.
Alexander Ponomarev
Baffin Figure, 2006
Performance
Baffin Sea
ponomarev’s pocketbook
64
Alexander Ponomarev
One of a Thousand Ways
To Defeat Entropy, 2011
Official Collateral Project
54th Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art
65
Alexander Ponomarev
voice in the wilderness, 2014
Agafay Desert, Marrakesh
Official Collateral Project, 3rd Marrakesh Biennale
Alexander Ponomarev
voice in the wilderness, 2014
Agafay Desert, Marrakesh
Official Collateral Project, 3rd Marrakesh Biennale
Antarctic
pav ilion
Antarctic
pav ilion
56th Venice Biennale of Art
Fondaco Marcello, Calle dei Garzoni,
Grand Canal
May – November 2015
Alexander Ponomarev
Following the critical success of the Antarctic Pavilion’s inaugural exhibition at the 14th Architecture
Biennale – a major installation by the celebrated Russian artist Alexander Ponomarev.
Artist:
Alexander Ponomarev
Curator:Nadim Samman
Concordia is the Latin word for ‘harmony’, which refers to the Roman goddess of agreement and peace – the
personification of concord; a treaty or pact. It is also name basis of the Costa Concordia, a mega cruise liner
that was wrecked off the coast of Isola del Giglio, Italy, in 2012 after a catastrophic blunder by its captain
Francesca Schettino – who abandoned ship before the safe evacuation of his 3229 passengers.
For the 56th Venice Biennale of Art, Alexander Ponomarev’s installation deploys the Costa Concordia disaster
– specifically, the broken pact between captain Schettino and his passengers – as a provocative lens through
which to view the fragility of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. This agreement suspended military activity and
sovereign claims on the continent’s territory, limiting human activity there to the pursuit of peaceful scientific
endeavour. As the global struggle for resources intensifies, the future of this treaty is in peril. In Ponomarev’s
sculptural intervention a scale model of the grounded Concordia, tilting like a tipped iceberg or perhaps a
shift in the polar axis itself, stands as an image of terrestrial re-orientation: A new worldview. Elsewhere in the
exhibition, fire invokes a notorious act of arson by a staff doctor from the Argentinean Almirante Brown station,
who burnt his baseto the ground when the setting sun announced the onset of winter.
Further works on show are based on the artist’s recent expedition to the (Russian Orthodox) Trinity Church
of Antarctica - along with the Pavilion’s curator and exhibition team - wherein the whole expedition party
received marriage sacraments from the southern continent’s only resident monk. In addition to its invoking of
paradigmatic disasters, Concordia is a meditation on community, responsibility, security and the strength of
the ties that bind us together amid shifting personal and political landscapes.
Concordia features a scale model of the Costa Concordia and works across a variety of media, including video
and works on paper.
Tне Antarctic Pavilion is a long-term project whose status as a ‘[trans]National Pavilion’ constitutes a
polemical engagement with the Biennale’s nationally over-determined structure: a quasi-institutional claim
to represent a transnational community, out of line with the festival’s politics of territorial representation. Its
program is inspired by the vision of Antarctica as a cultural space. Its projects are testaments to the Antarctic
community that would yet know itself – and the continent – in ways transcending national-scientific missions.
The Antarctic Pavilion is a European interface platform for The Antarctic Biennale, to be held in Antarctica –
also devised and implemented by artist Alexander Ponomarev, and curated by Nadim Samman. The Antarctic
Biennale will take place in 2016 aboard international research vessels. The Antarctic Biennale is conceived
as a cultural exchange between artists and the continent’s scientists and support staff.
Praise for Antarctopia - The Antarctic Pavilion’s exhibition at the 14th Venice Biennale of Architecture:
makes a compelling argument for the ice sheet as a frozen Giardini of sorts, “in which the
sovereignty-obsessed cultural ambitions relevant two centuries ago still seem to hold sway”
– The Guardian
‘Venice Architecture Biennale: the Top 10 Pavilions’
Standing proud from their snowy surroundings, almost looking like new elements of the landscape,
are the projects on display at the Antarctic Pavilion […]a series of fascinating interventions.
– The Telegraph
‘Top 10 Pavillions’ – Architecture Weekend
‘Top 25 Exhibitions’ – Wallpaper*
Alexander Ponomarev and Nadim Samman named by Foreign Policy Magazine among the ‘100 Leading
Global Thinkers’ of 2014 ‘for designing a blueprint for Antarctic culture […] the duo’s vision of Antarctica
wasfuturistic, beautiful and hospitable’.
Notes to Editors
Press view: Vernissage:
7 May, 2-4pm. Fondaco Marcello
7 May, 6-9pm. Fondaco Marcello
Commissioner Alexander Ponomarev
Curator Nadim Samman
Exhibition Architect Alexey Kozyr
Exhibition Manager Anja Henckel
Exhibition Graphic Designer Alëna Ivanova-Johanson
Web Alexandra Macdonnell
Organiser Oceanic fund projects (Paris)
General Partner AVC Charity Foundation
Website www.antarcticpavilion.com
How to get there:
The Fondaco Marcello is located on the banks of the Grand Canal, very close to the Palazzo Grassi and
between the Academia and Rialto bridges, in front of the San Tomàvaporetto station. Fondaco Marcello
can be reached by vaporettoSant’Angelo; traghetto from San Tomà to Sant’Angelo; and direct taxi boat
landing at Pavilion.
Thanks go to:
One Ocean Expeditions,
AVC Charity Foundation
UniversitaCa’ Foscari, Venice (Italy).
Alexander Ponomarev
Alexander Ponomarev graduated from the USSR Nautical Engineering College in 1979, following a period at
the Orel Art School. He is an Officierd’Artset de Lettres (France) and a member of the Russian Academy of
Arts. In 2007 he represented Russia at the 52nd Biennale di Venezia and in 2009 docked his handmade
submarine, SubTiziano, on the Grand Canal as an Official Collateral Project of the 53rd Biennale. In 2012 he
represented Ukraine at the 13th Venice Biennale of Architecture.
C O LL E C T I O N S
Centre George Pompidou, Paris
FNAC (Fonds Nationa d’Art Contemporain), , France
FRAC (Fonds Regional d’Art Contemporain), Bretagne, France
Ministry of Culture, Moscow
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The State Hermitage Museum
Picardy Art Museum, Amien, France
National Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow
Multimedia Art Museum,Moscow
Orel Museum of Fine Arts, Orel, Russia
Collection of the Great Duchess of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
National Museum Singapore, Singapore
Foundation F.R. Weisman, Los Angeles
Judishes Museum Reihnsburg, Reihnsburg, Germany
University Jaume l, Castellon de la Plana (Spain).
Zimmerli Art museum, Rutgers University, New Brunsvick,USA
Universidad Jaume I, Castellon de la Plana, Spain
Art Museum of Nizhny Tagil, Russia
Art Museum of Ekaterinburg, Russia
Art Museum of Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Nadim Samman
Nadim Samman is an independent curator and art historian based in London and Berlin. He read Philosophy
at University College London before completing a doctorate at the Courtauld Institute of Art. He has written
for publications including Third Text, The Art Newspaper, Art Review, Contemporary, Asian Affairs, Art India,
Artchronika, Erotic Review, Naked Punch, Under/current and WestEast. He has also been an invited speaker
at MoMA Warsaw, UniversitàCa’ Foscari, the 798 Beijing Biennale, Christies and SoAs. His curatorial projects
in London, Moscow, Berlin, Venice, Zurich and Marrakech have included presentations of leading modern and
contemporary artists. In 2012 he curated the 4th Marrakech Biennale with Carson Chan. Projects in 2014
include Antarctopia: The Antarctic Pavilion and Treasure of Lima: A Buried Exhibition - a unique site-specific
exhibition on the remote Pacific island of Isla del Coco Nadim is Co-Director of Import Projects (Berlin). For
more information see
www.import-projects.org and www.nadimsamman.com
All enquiries, high res images and further information:
Chloe Nelkin, ChloéNelkin Consulting
E:[email protected], M: 07764 273 219
W:www.chloenelkinconsulting.com