VESNA MIDDELKOOP/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg will organize the exhibition in the Russian Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale, the Art Newspaper reports. The Hermitage is the first institution to organize a pavilion at La Biennale, which this year runs from May 11 to November 24, and Mikhail Piotrovsky, the museum’s general director, will oversee curatorial operations for the show.
The Russian Pavilion exhibition’s title, “Lc. 15: 11-32,” alludes to the Gospel of Luke and the parable of the prodigal son. The presentation will feature an installation by the Russian film director Alexander Sokurov as well as a contribution from theater artist Alexander Shishkin-Hokusai. Other artists participating in the exhibition, which will be held in the Giardini della Biennale, will be announced in May.
“We create precedents, being first is our style,” Piotrovsky told the Art Newspaper. “The idea of the project is to outline the influence a universal museum—as a keeper of world culture—has on a contemporary artist.”