Shanghai Biennale officials have called on Anton Vidokle, a Russian-American artist and founder of the art magazine e-flux, to organize the planned fourteenth edition of the Shanghai Biennale. will take place from November 9, 2023 to March 31, 2024 at the Power Station of Art. Vidokle, based in New York, is known for his interest in cosmism: with Arseny Zhilyaev, he co-founded the Institute of the Cosmos, an online publication and open archive of research devoted to the subject. In a statement, Vidoke revealed that the upcoming Biennale “will reflect on how artists have advanced our understanding of the relationship between life on earth and the cosmos that nurtures and conditions it.” He further noted that “Shanghai is particularly suited for such a project because of the rich history of China’s philosophical and artistic engagement with the cosmological, cosmopolitan history of the city as a connecting point of the world. ‘East Asia to the world’.
Born in Moscow, Vidokle was introduced to cosmism in 2012 through conversations with Boris Groys and Ilya Kabakov. Since then he has made seven short films based on the work of cosmist authors, including Nikolai Fedorov, Vasily Chekrygin, Valerian Muraviov, Aleksandr Svyatogor and Vladimir Vernadsky. Additionally, he wrote extensively on the subject and facilitated the English translation and subsequent publication of a number of historical texts on the subject. Vidokle has participated in various iterations of documenta, Venice Biennale, Shanghai Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, Taipei Biennale, and Yokohama Triennial; his work has been exhibited at institutions such as the National Gallery, Washington, DC; Tate Modern, London; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Center Pompidou, Paris; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp; the Seoul National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art; and the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
