Seven Oaks Magazine.

Engage Yourself: The ‘Emergency Biennale in Chechnya’
August 8, 2006
Dawn Paley

At first, the red letters scrawled on the window at the corner of Hastings and Carrall street might make passersby cringe, thinking that Centre A, the Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, has been vandalized just a year after relocating to the former BC Electric Building. As it turns out, the prominently spray painted ‘OUSSS’ is an installation piece by Koo Jeong-A, a part of the ‘Emergency Biennale in Chechnya’ which is showing at Centre A until August 19th.

‘OUSSS’ might not mean anything at all, but it does call passersby to take a closer look, and look they do. According to Babak Golkar, Centre A’s exhibition manager, the Emergency Biennale in Chechnya has provoked one of highest visitor turnouts in memory. A walk through the gallery is well worth an afternoon’s time: more than 60 artists working across media break the silence about Chechnya, and speak to issues like racism, war and occupation; issues that are too often sidelined in contemporary art.

The Emergency Biennale was spearheaded by Paris based curator Evelyne Jouanno, who asked selected artists to submit two copies of a work that would fit inside a suitcase that would be sent to Chechnya. One copy of each piece was sent to Groznyy, Chechnya’s capital, and the second became part of the touring exhibition. As the Emergency Biennale tours the world, local artists are asked to create and contribute works, more suitcases are sent to Groznyy, and the exhibit grows. The works sent to Groznyy will stay there, eventually forming a part of the permanent contemporary art collection in the war-torn city.

Often overlooked in the face of more visible conflicts in the Middle East, Chechens have been engaged in a series of protracted wars for independence, wars which have intensified since 1994. The region is home to 1.4 million people, the majority of whom are ethnic Chechens, their territory covering a strategic part of oil and gas reserves exploited by Russia. Since 1994, it is estimated that intense fighting between Russian troops and Chechen fighters has resulted upwards of 150,000 civilian casualties. The conflict is ongoing, and while the Chechen government has declared independence, Chechnya is not yet recognized as independent by any other state.

Vancouver based artist Mo Sa’lemy, who contributed a piece entitled “How to Assemble an Atomic Bomb” to the show, describes the Emergency Biennale as “a breath of fresh air in Vancouver.” He continues to explain that “the topic is interesting and more engaging than the mundane concerns of contemporary art these days,” concerns which he feels are “too esoteric, and too often addressing the cultural and moneyed elite, and not working and middle class audiences.” Sa’lemy is one of eight local artists whose works are included in the Emergency Biennale.

“We’ve had extremely positive feedback from our visitors,” says Golkar, indicating that Vancouverites are a ready audience for more politicized forms of contemporary art. The Emergency Biennale in Chechnya certainly suggests new ways of communicating issues of great importance and urgency, while at the same time giving something back to people in struggle.

The Emergency Biennale in Chechnya is on exhibition at Centre A, 2 West Hastings, until August 19, 2006. Entrance is free.