The President of the Stella Art Foundation and Commissar iof Russian Pavilion, Stella Kesaeva, announced that Vadim Zakharov will represent Russia at the 55th Venice Biennale.
Art critic Boris Groys will be the curator of the exhibition. Zakharov, who has a long international career, exhibited in the 49th edition of the Venice Biennale (2001) and in 2006 he won the Innovation Prize for Contemporary Art in Russia. In 2011 Kesaeva proposed Andrei Monastyrski & Collective Actions, also curated by Groys. Of her choice she says: “In 2011 Russia was represented in Venice by Boris Groys curating an exhibition by the artist Andrei Monastyrski. These two key figures of Russian contemporary art came together to create a project that aroused great interest, and the work of Monastyrski – the founder of the Moscow Conceptualist School – attracted the highest praise from international publications. In 2013, we continue to present the most important Russian contemporary artists to the world audience, and have chosen Vadim Zakharov. I believe that Vadim Zakharov’s talent and his experience of work on the international arena make him eminently suited to present our Pavilion in a highly topical manner”.