The Foundation for Art and Culture (Bonn) and the State Tretyakov Gallery announce a mobile group exhibition
Diversity / Unity. Contemporary European Art. Moscow. Berlin. Paris. The Tretyakov Gallery will host the first exhibition of works by European artists, and later the exposition will move first to Berlin and then to Paris (2021).
The exhibition will demonstrate the scope and diversity of European culture and will draw attention to the issues of European unity in times of political instability. The exhibition explores contemporary European art formed after the fall of the Iron Curtain and emphasizes the importance of intercultural dialogue today.
The large-scale project addresses issues of freedom, dignity, democracy and respect, and demonstrates the artistic life of the Continent in the context of historically significant and relevant topics, including political and personal identity, migration, the (intellectual) landscape, gender and equality issues, nationality, territory, geopolitics and social conflicts.
The exposition will include about 200 works created by European artists living in different countries. Among the 81 artists participating in the project there are Eija-Liisa Akhtila, Monica Bonvicini, Olafur Eliasson, Aslan Gaisumov, Mona Hatoum, Ilya Kabakov, Zhanna Kadyrova, Alicja Kwade, Roman Ondak, Wolfgang Tillmans, Erwin Wurm, Nil Yalter and the Slavs and Tatars Art Group.
Walter Smerling, Chairman of the Foundation for Art and Culture, and Zelfira Tregulova, General Director of the State Tretyakov Gallery, lead a curatorial committee that includes curators from different countries: Simon Baker (European House of Photography, Paris), Faina Balakhovskaya (State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), Kay Heymer (Kunstpalast Museum, Düsseldorf), Pontus Kiander (writer/curator, Helsinki), Camille Morineau (AWARE, curator, Paris), Johanna Neuschäffer and Anne Schwanz (Office Impart, Berlin), Hilke Wagner (Albertinum, Dresden), and Peter Weibel (ZKM, Karlsruhe).