New Now at Manege: Ralph Rugoff, Curator 58th Venice Biennale

May You Live in Interesting Times — the exhibition takes its title from a fictitious ancient Chinese proverb presumably fabricated by a British diplomat in the 1930s. The interesting times is the ‘post-truth’ era we live in with its active use of manipulation and fake news transferred through the mass media and social networks. The worlds of alternative facts and parallel realities are presented in an innovative split of the presentation in the Giardini and the Arsenale into two separate exhibitions: Proposition A and Proposition B. Selected to participation are 79 living artists and art-groups from all over the world. They explore problematic histories and social situations by mixing documentary traditions with subjective or theatrical elements; other participants explore histories related to race, gender and sexuality. The exhibition aims at re-imagining the possibilities of the interesting times through artistic practices. Art is seen as an opposite to the narrowing of communication in the era of lies that is able to activate viewer’s responses and interpretations. It helps incite multidimensional feelings and make new unexpected connections between things. Ralph Rugoff told about the novel approach he'd taken to the curating of the biennale, including the selection of the theme, artists and artworks, as well as the open-ended character of the artist-viewer exchange; the effects the biennale has on the global cultural processes; about his own curatorial projects in the making and overall, about his experience of curating in interesting times. New Now at Manege is Manege’s annual initiative presenting a series of stimulating talks with leading figures of the international cultural processes. Programme curated by Anna Kirikova (Manege).