This celebration is held each year on April 25 as the annual migration of these adorable flightless birds begins.

During one of the landings, at Petermann Island, Antarctica, a participant in the Antarctic Biennale, Alexander Sekatskii, an Associate Professor of St. Petersburg University, writer and philosopher, held the first-ever “Lecture to the Penguins.“ Sekatskii noted that though he was more accustomed to lecturing students, “the penguins were a grateful and keen audience too.” The lecture was dedicated to the idea of pure contemplation, without which human beings can’t find a common language with Nature and wildlife. Such a language, is the language of art.
The Antarctic Biennale incorporates artistic, scientific, and philosophical methodologies to address “shared spaces” such as Antarctica, the Ocean and the Cosmos.

Antarctica is a continent that encourages people to think about the future of humanity and culture, and provides an opportunity to create new ways of approaching and seeing life on our planet.

Music: Requiem for the Antarctic Coast
Created for the Antarctic Biennale
Composer: Lou Sheppard

Eulalia Valldosera (Spain) shares her contribution to the Antarctic Biennale in her blog.

The art project is called PENELOPE HAS A VOICE and was created in the Pyrenees, where the artist decided to stay to engage, by means of telepathy, with several animal species of Antarctica, asking them for their feelings towards the expedition and towards humanity. Eulalia recorded their voices in 6 messages that were broadcasted through the audio system built on the ship during the journey.

As the artist claims: “This project engages art and science through a visionary subject: the awakening of telepathy in humans, as a tool for a deeper understanding of our environment that we share with other sentient beings”.

You can check out Eulalia’s project here.

Faena Art Center held the homecoming reception that crowned the Antarctic Biennale with the presence of the Minister of Culture of Argentina, Pablo Avelluto.

The expedition of the First International Antarctic Biennale, held under the patronage of UNESCO, started on the shores of the Tierra del Fuego on March 16, 2017, and concluded with a ceremonial reception in honor of the participants in the biennale in Buenos Aires on March 29. On the mainland, the travelers were met by the Minister of Culture of Argentina, Pablo Avelluto, who stressed the importance of the brave researchers’ mission and the significance of international collaboration on scientific, cultural and artist issues. “It’s impossible to overestimate the cultural significance of this project. It’s astonishing how, united by a common idea, and solidified by a powerful spirit of collaboration, experts from different spheres are discovering new horizons of knowledge and stepping beyond the limits of innovation, creativity, and the avant garde, skillfully bringing together and combining various forms of art.”

During the mobile exhibition that was set up in Buenos Aires, one of the Antarctic Biennale projects was presented – a robotized art object, the “Glaciator”, created by the Argentine artist Joaquin Fargas with the support of Kaspersky Lab. The artistic concept for “Glaciator” is in keeping with Kaspersky Lab’s basic mission – to save the world. So Kaspersky Lab is sending a machine on a mission to keep the earth safe – this time not in cyberspace, but in Antarctica. The technologies of Kaspersky Lab provide reliable protection of the security of the robot’s computer systems.  Glaciator compresses the snow as it steps on it. Glaciator is a “Firn-Maker”, firn is an intermediate state between snow and glacier ice. This process contributes to accelerate the formation of a glacier protecting it from the impact of global warming.

Bon voyage! Today, the Antarctic Biennale, project under UNESCO patronage set sail from Ushuaia at the southernmost tip of Argentina, the beginning of an artistic voyage to Antarctica.

It marks the culmination of more than a year of preparation for a team of artists, philosophers, researchers and multidisciplinary cultural professionals from more than 30 countries. They are traveling on the seasoned Antarctic research vessel Akademik Sergey Vavilov, which left the port of Ushuaia at 4pm.
 
The ship is a floating studio, meeting space and exhibition venue. Participating artists will create temporary installations and give site-specific performances during more than a dozen landings at different locations in Antarctica. A diverse array of works deal with concepts such as environmental preservation, sustainable consumption and how mobility can affect the creative process.
 
The project is described as ‘a head-over-heels biennale’ and ‘an upside-down biennale’ by founder and commissioner Alexander Ponomarev. At a welcome dinner on March 16, he encouraged participants to think carefully about how to produce their pieces in harsh conditions during the voyage. His agenda leaves ample space for spontaneous collaborations, inspired by Captain Nemo’s famous motto – “mobilis in mobile!”
 
Contributing artists: Adrian Balseca (Eсcuador), Cinemateque de Tangiers (Morocco), Constant Dullaart (Netherlands), Eli Maria Lundgaard (Norway), Emile Brout and Maxine Marion (France), Emmy Skensved+Gregoire Blunt (Canada), Etienne de France (France), Eva and Franco Mattes (Italy), Hans Op de Beeck (Belgium), Jessica Sarah Rinland (UK), Julian Charriere (France / Switzerland), Karin Ferrari (Austria), Katya Kovaleva (Russia), Marcel Dinahet (France), Paul Rosero Contreras (Ecuador), Swetlana Heger (Sweden), Young Hae-Chang Heavy Industries (Korea), Yto Barrada (Morocco).
 
When the expedition is complete, the crew will host a homecoming reception at the Faena Arts Center in Buenos Aires on March 29, featuring audiovisual presentations and video clips from the journey. Selected artworks will later be exhibited at leading international museums.
 

ABOUT THE ANTARCTIC BIENNALE
 
This creative journey aims to expand the parameters of what art can be today and might be in the future. It aims to raise awareness about the importance of international coordination in addressing the effects of climate change.

 
ARTISTS

Abdullah Al Saadi (UAE)

Alexander Ponomarev (Russia)

Alexis Anastasiou (Brazil)

Andrey Kuzkin (Russia)

Eulalia Valldosera (Spain)

Gustav Dusing (Germany)

Joaquin Fargas (Argentina)

Julian Charriere (France/Switzerland)

Juliana Cerqueira Leite (Brazil)

Julius von Bismarck (Germany)

Lou Sheppard (Canada)

Paul Rosero Contreras (Ecuador)

Shama Rahman (Bangladesh/UK)

Sho Hasegawa (Japan)

Tomas Saraceno (Argentina/Germany)

Yasuaki Igarashi (Japan)

Yto Barrada (Morocco)

Zhang Enli (China)

INTERDISCIPLINARY PARTICIPANTS

Adrian Dannatt (UK)

Alexander Sekatskii (Russia)

Barbara Imhof (Austria)

Carlo Rizzo (Italy/UK)

Elizabeth Barry (USA)

Hector Monsalve (Argentina)

Jean de Pomereu (France)

Lisen Schultz (Sweden)

Miguel Petchkovsky (Angola/Portugal)

Nicholas Shapiro (USA)

Sergey Pisarev (Russia)

Susmita Mahanty (India)

Wakana Kono (Japan)

ARTISTIC ADVISORY BOARD

Alexander Ponomarev – Commissioner, Antarctic Biennale (Russia)

Hani Rashid – Co-founder, Asymptote Architecture (Canada / USA)

Hans-Ulrich Obrist – Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries (Switzerland/UK) Nadim Samman – Curator and Co-director, Import Projects (Germany)

Sam Keller – Director, Fondation Beyeler (Switzerland)

Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimi – President and Director, Sharjah Art Foundation (UAE)

PRINCIPLES OF THE BIENNALE

Supranationality          Developing Antarctica’s potential as a cultural space belonging to no specific nation – international voices, imagining the future of global community

Interdisciplinarity         A visionary collective effort to find new approaches to solve the problems the humanity is facing using the achievements of numerous academic disciplines
Intercultural Exploration         Re-imagining the function of culture in the 21st Century

Mobilis in Mobile!        A biennale in process. One that creates a new ‘mobilis in mobile’ art concept, according to the motto of Captain Nemo.

On December 1st the international jury of the Antarctic Biennale Open Call will announce its final selection. The winning applicant will receive an invitation to join a group of distinguished artists, scientists and visionaries on an expedition to the Southern Continent in March 2017, to realize a proposed artwork. In addition, 15 finalists will be granted the opportunity to exhibit their work at the Antarctic Pavilion during the 57th Venice Biennale of Art, 2017.

Members of the Artistic Advisory Board and BMW Group invite special guests and media representatives to share this announcement during an exclusive event at the Fontainebleau Hotel on 4441 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33140, Function Room: Splash 4. This event will also be live streamed on the Antarctic Biennale Facebook account. In addition, there will be visual presentation of proposals by finalists, and a selection of works by other biennale participants.

The winner and finalists were selected from a pool of over 500 applications, from 59 countries, by an independent jury comprising the Commissioner of the Antarctic Biennale, Alexander Ponomarev, and members of the Artistic Advisory Board – Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Hani Rashid, Sheikha Hoor al-Qasimi and Nadim Samman.

Announced in August 2016, the Open Called requested a strong conceptual outline and strict consideration of ecological regulations circumscribing Antarctic enterprise. The most active applicant countries were the USA (72 applications), UK (45 applications) and Russia (38 applications). The top 10 active participating countries also included France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Australia, Turkey and Mexico.

The AB Vision Club`s research session “The future of the ‘shared spaces’ and the role of Antarctica” will be held in international press briefing center in Moscow on Monday, November 21 at 3 p.m. The main issue of this event is to discuss a variety of major scenarios our civilization has on possible future of the ‘shared spaces’ and the role of Antarctica.

Our special guest the Commissioner of Antarctic Biennale Alexander Ponomarev will held a speech on upcoming expedition to Antarctica and will answer questions from the audience.

We are glad to introduce the speakers of the session:
Pavel Luksha, Head of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Antarctic Biennale, Professor at the Skolkovo School of Management;
Barbara Imhof, Member of AIAA Space Architecture Technical Committee;
Sergey Pisarev, leading research associate of P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology.

The Antarctic Biennale event was successfully held in the New York` National Arts Club. The presentation by world known architect Hani Rashid, who is also the member of the Antarctic Biennale Artistic Advisory Board, became the main part of the evening.

On October, 27 the Antarctic Biennale is to be presented to NY art-community and members of the National Arts Club. The event will be open with an introducing video of Alexander Ponomarev, the Comissioner of the Antarctic Biennale. The guest speaker for the evening will be Hani Rashid, a member of Artistic Advisory Board of the 1st Antarctic Biennale. Hani is an architect and artist with a notable portfolio of futuristic megaprojects around the planet. He explores fragile boundaries between virtual and physical worlds. He is also the design partner and co-founder of Asymptote Architecture New York that has received numerous awards.

The audience of the event are members of the National Arts Club, diplomats, representatives of the art-filed, scientists and artists.

BMW Russia, Special Partner of the Antarctic Biennale, will support up to 50 applicants and pay their entry fees.

To grasp these special terms, the applicants have to take following steps:

1) Like Antarctic Biennale and BMW Россия pages on Facebook or Instagram.

2) Answer the questions, “What is special about my project and why it should be supported?” on their Facebook or Instagram page on or before October 25 (23:59 CEST). All formats are accepted: texts, videos, pictures, etc.

3) Use hashtags #AntarcticBiennale_Calls and #bmwru

On October 27, a day before open call extended deadline, Antarctic Biennale and BMW group Russia will announce a list of finalists chosen to apply for the Open Call for free with the support of BMW Russia.

Thank you and good luck!

The Antarctic Biennale extends the submission period for Antarctic Biennale_Calls, an open contest for young artists, thanks to a new special partner of the project, BMW Group Russia, thus giving a chance for greater number of talented artists to manifest themselves, join the 1^st Antarctic Biennale, and create an artwork, which will be able to reveal and emphasize challenges we face when exploring ‘shared spaces’, such as Antarctica and the World Ocean.

Young artists may now submit their Open Call applications until October 15 inclusively, with the finalists and the winner to be declared in November and December 2016, respectively.

Application form is available on http://www.antarcticbiennale.com/opencall/

“We are happy to support such an ambitious project initiated by interdisciplinary and intercultural Antarctic Biennale. A reliable partner boasting a well-developed international network and deep versatile expertise, BMW Concern also respects and understands needs of all parties involved. This is a customary approach, which we adopt to offer our support and bring true value to the partnership. BMW Group guarantees complete artistic freedom in any project it contributes to, as this is a core principle to create both outstanding masterpieces and successful business innovations,” said Elena Smirnova, CEO, BMW Group.

“The fact that it is a young artist who will win an additional place in the expedition is dramatically important for the project, I believe. We need more brave and breakthrough ideas for humanity about how to live together in the future, reconsider our relationships with wildlife, and elaborate fresh unconventional approaches to pressing issues, which disturb the mankind on Earth and, if unresolved, may go with us to other planets we are to explore someday. We decided to give young creators some more time to think what they would like to propose as part of our project,” said Alexander Ponomarev, Commissioner of the 1st Antarctic Biennale.

Over the coming year, the Antarctic Biennale and BMW Group Russia will hold a range of joint events for artists and everyone interested in art, where our speakers – notable figures of the world of art and members of the AB Artistic Advisory Board – will include Alexander Ponomarev, Commissioner of the 1st Antarctic Biennale; Alena Ivanova-Yohanson, Artist and Project’s Art Director; Nadim Samman, Coordinator of International Artistic Advisory Board and Independent Curator; artists Paul Rosero Contreras and Juliana Cerqueira Leite who participate in the 1st expedition, and BMW concern’s experts curating global cultural projects.