Elena
Sorokina is a Russian-born, Paris based curator and art historian, alumna of
the Whitney Museum of American Art ISP in New York.
She obtained her masters degree in art history from the Friedrich Wilhelm's University in Bonn, Germany. She recently co-organized "Spaces of Exception" a special project for the Moscow Biennial, the symposium "What is a postcolonial exhibition?", a collaborative project of SMBA/Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Stedelijk Museum.
Her recent exhibitions include (selection): "Temps Trituré. Agnes Varda" at LVMH in Brussels, "Petroliana" at Moscow Museum of Modern Art; "Laws of Relativity" at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; "On Traders' Dilemmas" at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; “Scènes Centrales" at Tri Postal, Lille; "Etats de l'Artifice" at the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and others. She published in numerous catalogs, and has been writing for Artforum, Flash Art, Cabinett Magazine, Manifesta Journal, Moscow Art Magazine, and other publications.
Sorokina is a frequent speaker in international conferences and has been invited as guest lecturer to ISCP, New York; Garage CCC, Moscow; Centre Pompidou, Paris, and other institutions.
She obtained her masters degree in art history from the Friedrich Wilhelm's University in Bonn, Germany. She recently co-organized "Spaces of Exception" a special project for the Moscow Biennial, the symposium "What is a postcolonial exhibition?", a collaborative project of SMBA/Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Stedelijk Museum.
Her recent exhibitions include (selection): "Temps Trituré. Agnes Varda" at LVMH in Brussels, "Petroliana" at Moscow Museum of Modern Art; "Laws of Relativity" at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; "On Traders' Dilemmas" at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; “Scènes Centrales" at Tri Postal, Lille; "Etats de l'Artifice" at the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and others. She published in numerous catalogs, and has been writing for Artforum, Flash Art, Cabinett Magazine, Manifesta Journal, Moscow Art Magazine, and other publications.
Sorokina is a frequent speaker in international conferences and has been invited as guest lecturer to ISCP, New York; Garage CCC, Moscow; Centre Pompidou, Paris, and other institutions.
PROJECTS
(SELECTION)
REALIZED
IN FRANCE
Etats
de l'Artifice
Musee
d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 2010
With
Viktor Alimpiev, Chto Delat, Olga Chernysheva, Nikolay Oleynikov
Scènes
Centrales
TriPostal,
Lille, 2009
With
Danica Dakic, Anatoly Osmolovsky, Igor Grubic, Said Atabekov,
Stealth, Gulnara Kasmalieva/Muratbek Djumaliev and others
Communisms'
Afterlifes
Co-curated
with Natasa Petresin Bachelez
Beton
Salon, WIELS (Brussels)
Series
of conferences on transformations and current rearticulations of the
so-called "post-communist condition" and its diverse
legacies.
REALIZED
IN THE NETHERLANDS
What
Is a Postcolonial Exhibition?
Symposium
Stedelijk
Museum Amsterdam and SMBA, March 2012
with
Chris Decon, Jesus Carillo-Castillo, Abdellah Carroum, Irit Rogoff,
WHW, and others
REALIZED
IN BELGIUM
TEMPS
TRITURE. AGNES VARDA.
Exhibition
at LVMH space Brussels
September
2012
NEWTOPIA.
The state of human rights
Curated
by Katerina Gregos
Curatorial
consultant
Mechelen,
Belgium, September-December 2012
Zero
Gravity Revolt. Nikolay Oleynikov (Chto Delat)
Exhibition
at Komplot, Brussels, January 2011
Film+Nights
Conference
With
Pivi Takkala, Ieva Epnere, Hou Chien Cheng
Netwerk
Center for Contemporary Art, March 2012
REALIZED
IN THE USA
Online
Biennial. (Director Jan Hoet)
April
2013
Modernism
revisited from the East
Volta,
New York, March 2010
Conference
On
Traders’ Dilemmas
Yerba
Buena Center for the Arts
San
Francisco, USA, 2008
Mapquest
PS122,
New York, 2006
Contested
Spaces in Post-Soviet Art
City
University of New York, 2005
Terrorist
Naturalism and Other Methods
Location
One, New York, 2005
Conference
with Katerina Degot, David Riff, Anatoly Osmolovsky, Dmitry Gutov
Russia
Redux #1,
Art
in General, Location One, New York, 2005
At
the Mercy of Others. The Politics of Care,
Whitney
Museum of American Art, Curatorial Program ISP, New York, 2004
Enemy
Image,
Momenta
Art, New York, 2004
Crude
Oil Paintings,
White
Columns, New York, 2003
REALIZED
IN RUSSIA
Space
of Exception
Special
project for the Moscow Biennial, September 2013
Moscow
The
Dutch Pavilion
Moscow,
September 2013
Postcommunist/Postcolonial
Garage
Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2009
Conference
with Alfredo Jaar, Irwin, Chto Delat and others
Petroliana
Moscow
Museum of Modern Art, 2007
On
Curatorial Practices
National
Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2007
Conference
REALIZED
IN CENTRAL ASIA
From
Project to Ruin,
conference
at the BOOM/BUM international art exhibition,
Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan, 2008 (with Franck Leibovici, Anouk de Clercq, Jane
Calovsky/Christiva Ivanoska)
Zone
of Risk/Transitions
Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan, 2006
REALIZED
IN ITALY
Laws
of Relativity (La legge e relativa per tutti)
Sandretto
Re Rebaudengo Foundation, Turin, 2007
PUBLICATIONS
(SELECTION)
IN
GERMAN
Between
2000 - 2007, I have been writing art critisism in German for the
following publications: Die Tageszeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau,
Wirtschaftswoche, Junge Kunst, Die Welt, Die Zeit
IN
RUSSIAN
Mis/Communication
with the Homeland
In
Russian Art Abroad,
National
Center for Contemporary Art, 2010
Bum/Boom
Catalog
Art
East, Bishkek, 2010
Co-editor
of the catalog
Almost
Built:
Contemporary
art practices and architecture in Central Asia
In:
Bum/Boom, Art East, 2010
Bornhouse.
Architectural project by Yuri Avvakumov
Interros
Magazine, March 2009
Since
2005
I have been a contributing editor for the Moscow Art Magazine,
publishing numerous texts
Between
2000 and 2007
I have been writing art critisism in Russian for the "Nezavisimaja
Gazeta" (Independent Newspaper), Moscow, publishing numerous
texts
IN
FRENCH
Frontiéres
Invisibles,
exhibition catalog Lille, France , 2009
Co-editor
of the catalog
Performing
the Documentary
In:
Mutations. Perspectives on Photography, Steidl, 2011
Since
2011, I have been
writing for Archives de la Critique d'Art, France, and reviewed the
following:
*Les
Promesses du Passé, Centre Pompidou, 2010
*Contrepoint,
l’art contemporain russe : de l’icône à l’avant-garde en
passant par le musée
*Ce
que fait l’art / Ce qui fait l’art. La Peinture après la
peinture / L’Expérience du monde + Manifestes
*Olivier
Vargin, Regards sur l’art contemporain russe 1990-2010
IN
ENGLISH (selection)
Newtopia:
The State of Human Rights, 2012
Co-editor
of the catalog
Pacific
Perspectives
In:
Paradigm Shifts, ed. Hou Hanru,
SFAI,
San Francisco, 2011
Starring
Abramovic, Playing Herself
In
Manifesta Journal, N9, 2010
Performance
Practice of Elena Kovylina
Catalog
of the Sidney Biennial, 2006
Into
the Future,
Gulnara Kasmalieva and Muratbek Djoumaliev,
Artforum,
October Issue 2006
On
Interventionism.
Dialogue with Gregory Sholette.
Documenta
12 Journal, 2007
Terrain
Vague as a Stage:
Chinese Video at PS1 in New York
Performance
Art Journal, MIT Press. 2004-2005
Russian
Art in Translation, 2007
Co-editor
of the publication
"Russia"
At Guggenheim in NYC
In
Artmargins, December 2005
The
Moscow State Biennial
In
Artmargins, January 2005
Crude
Oil Paintings,
2004
Editor
of the catalog
Grants
Exhibition
Grant from the Trust for Mutual Understanding, for the exhibition
"Contested Spaces in Post-Soviet Art", New York, 2004
Residency
at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy, 2007
The
Harald Szeemann Grant from the IKT (International Association of
Curators of Contemporary Art), 2010
Education
2003-2004
- Independent Studies
Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art
2001-
DEES "Coopération Artistique Internationale", Université
Paris VIII
2000
- Masters in Art History at the Friedrich Wilhelms Universität Bonn.
Thesis - Ilya Kabakov: Theory of the "Total Installation"
and the “Toilets” at the documenta 1992