Abstract
This article analyzes the exhibition project of Manifesta 10 (St. Petersburg, 2014) as a complex of narratives including media texts and artists’ myths and stories. Two main, mutually affecting themes of the Manifesta 10 narrative are defined as a dialog between classical and contemporary art and an idea of “total work of art” in the context of the theory of “Gesamtkunstwerk”. The basis of the theory was laid by R. Wagner, and it had later continued in contemporary cultural studies in relation to interactivity of contemporary art. Big exhibition projects transform the idea of “total work of art” into the concept of unity of different artistic elements (artistic methods, media, art spaces, mythologies, commentaries, critical texts) in the whole of the exhibition. The curator’s idea of dialog between classical art and contemporary artworks stresses the key role of the Hermitage in the project of Manifesta 10 and demonstrates benefits and disadvantages of an exhibition mega-project in a classical museum. The “big story” about the opposition of contemporary art and tradition consists of minor stories of particular projects in the exhibition. In this regard, the criteria of Manifesta 10’s critical reception and interpretation are considered.
Highlights
In 2014, the State Hermitage Museum was selected as the main place for Manifesta 10
Largescale contemporary art exhibitions, like projects of the Viennese biennale, documenta in Kassel, or the European biennial Manifesta can be considered as big curatorial projects
The big curatorial project definition will be as follows: it is a visual and contextual unity, which may be described as a cultural event representing a certain complex of meanings relevant to contemporary artistic paradigm
Summary
In 2014, the State Hermitage Museum was selected as the main place for Manifesta 10. Besides the Hermitage, the project of Manifesta 10 was presented across the city of Saint-Petersburg, reaching the broader audience through events and exhibitions in historical buildings, streets and a row of art galleries. The desire for “total artwork” is an inherent characteristic for any large-scale exhibition project of contemporary art In this regard, we may consider the project of Manifesta 10 in comparison with other major projects of exhibition institutions, i.e. the Venice Biennale, documenta in Kassel, and in the context of Gesamtkunstwerk idea by analogy with the exhibition In Search of Total Art Work (1983) of Harald Szeemann. The idea of Gesamtkunstwerk is still vivid in big exhibition projects, though its representation can be blurred by complicated involvement of different media This idea is the symbolic theme of the Manifesta 10 narrative with reference to the contemporary cultural situation
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