Teresa Iarocci Mavica Appointed Commissioner of Russian Pavilion at Venice Biennale

Russia has appointed Teresa Iarocci Mavica as the new Commissioner of its Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, effective November 8, 2019. Mavica is the founder and director of the V-A-C Foundation, established in Moscow in 2009 with Leonid Mikhelson to promote Russian contemporary art. The foundation opened a Venice venue at Palazzo delle Zattere in 2017, a historic building owned by the Port Authority of Venice and leased exclusively to V-A-C for 18+18 years after restoration. In September 2020, V-A-C will open GES 2, a new museum in Moscow housed in a former early-20th-century power plant on Bolotnaya Embankment on Balchug Island, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop since 2014. Strategic management of the Pavilion has been entrusted to Smart Art, an art consultancy founded in 2016 by Anastasia Karneeva and Ekaterina Vinokurova, under a 10-year agreement to ensure financial independence and sustainable development. Smart Art plans to restore the Pavilion, including fire safety, accessibility, and air conditioning. An international Art Council has been formed with the Ministry of Culture, including artists Emilia Kabakov and Vadim Zakharov, curator Francesco Bonami, M HKA director Bart de Baere, and Pushkin Museum director Marina Loshak.