Moscow - The third Moscow Biennale had its official opening Thursday with exhibitions of contemporary art by more than 80 artists from 25 countries. Jean-Hubert Martin, a French museum director and curator of the exhibition, is showing works from Africa, Afghanistan and Oceania in the "Art Garage" art gallery under the title "Against Exclusion."
"We are exhibiting works from artists who work on the edge of an overheated market, from countries that aren't on the map of contemporary art," said Martin before the opening.
But the exhibition, which opens to the public on Friday, will remain a platform for Russian and Western art.
As part of the Biennale, over 100 exhibitions will be on display in 50 different locations, including the Tretyakov Gallery, the Central House of Artists and Winzavod, a contemporary art centre.
Martin is aiming to bring a breath of fresh air into Moscow's traditionally conservative art scene. The theme of the exhibition was also intended to prevent the isolation of Russian art in the West, he said.
As curator of the Parisian Centre Pompidou in the 1970s, Martin showed one of the first exhibitions of Soviet art in the Western world.
Also included in the Biennale are works by performance artist Marina Abramovic and the Blue Noses, a Siberian group regarded as pornographic by the Russian authorities.
Western artists whose work is on display include Tony Gragg, Spencer Tunick and Anish Kapoor. A special exhibition dedicated to the work of Oleg Kulik, the patriarch of the Russian avantgarde, will be on display in the city centre.
