EKATERINBURG .- The Ural Industrial Biennial is one of the largest internatonal projects in the feld of contemporary art in Russia, organized and conducted by the Natonal Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA) as part of ROSIZO in Ekaterinburg and the Ural region since 2010. The Biennial ofers a new vector of territory development and uses art as an actual resource. The industrial specifcity of the Urals has become a constant theme of this cultural project, which allowed it to take a unique place in the internatonal biennial movement.

Geography of 4th Ural Industrial Biennial covers 27 cites atractng more than 60 artsts from 21 countries and utlizes 20 locatons during the parallel program. The exhibiton of the main project will be developed on an area of more than 10,000 square meters in the former building of the Ural Instrument Making Plant in the heart of Ekaterinburg. Total length of the routes of the Artst-in-Residence program will be 19,000 km. More than 100 hours of educatonal and intellectual program actvites are planned.

The Ural Industrial Biennial is not only a unique event in terms of concept and scope, but also a platorm for cooperaton with business community, enterprises, and key cultural insttutons of the Urals. Contemporary art gives a new impulse to the development of industry, which becomes partcularly important in context of revitalizing the industrial heritage.

The theme of the 4th Ural Industrial Biennial is "New Literacy", it refers to work and leisure of the near future. It antcipates changes that will soon take place in the social, economic, cultural areas.

"Image as witness / Capitalism choreographies / Persistent word" is this year Biennial's main project curated by João Ribas.

"The 4th industrial revoluton is being shaped by new literacies around images, movements, and languages. All industrial revolutons transform our relaton to space and tme, as well as work and play. Today most of us walk around every day with an immense archive of images in our pockets; the changing nature of work, and the movement of the body, both individual and collectve, defnes a kind of choreography; language is adaptng once again to this new revoluton. The 4th Ural Biennal will explore this through its themes of “image as witness, the choreographies of capital,” and “the persistence of the word," – says João Ribas.

Along with leading internatonal artsts from around the world, the 4th Ural Industrial Biennial also includes Russian artsts, both established and young, from throughout the country, including the Ural Region.

"The curator has chosen a variety of names, from early cinema experimenters to contemporary generaton of media artsts, who research how technology infuences today’s reality. He spent a considerable amount of tme getng familiar with the Ural art scene, and among the chosen artsts are those, for whom the biennial is their frst experience of internatonal exhibiton", – explains Alisa Prudnikova, the biennial commissioner.

Dates: 14.09.2017 – 12.11.2017