The European Biennial of Contemporary Art

28 June 31 October 2014

St. Petersburg, Russia The State Hermitage Museum

Art-laboratory

Alexander Efremov (b. 1984) is an artist, Ph.D. in biology and professor at the Research Institute of Medical Sciences and Experimental Medicine. He proposed a workshop based on science-art within a Biology class (7-10 grades). Alongside the artist, school students were invited to create "sensitive paintings" responding to experiments they made during biochemical reactions. For example, where the color of the image varied depending on the fermentation of saliva. The purpose of his practical workshops was to show the fragility of the boundaries between art and science and to acquaint students with contemporary biology and DIY aesthetics.

14 April 2014 – School №619, Kalininsky District
17 April 2014 - School №210, Central District
8 May 2014 - School №402, Kolpinsky District

Pavel Brat (b. 1987) is an artist who graduated from the Voronezh State Pedagogical University. He was nominated for the Sergei Kuryokhin's prize for "The best work of visual art" in 2013. His workshop was about the interrelationship between different materials within a Physics class (6-7 grades). Working with the laws of pressure, the school children were invited to pour water onto paper strips held within a solid frame to create new pictorial volumes as the paper expanded with the water.

18 April 2014 - School №53, Primorsky District
28 April 2014 - School №568, Krasnoselsky District
16 May 2014 – School №355, Moskovsky District

Evgenia Golant (b. 1973) is an artist who graduated from the Stieglitz St. Petersburg State Art and Industry Academy. She is a member of the Union of Artists of Russia. She had solo exhibitions in Russia, Germany, France, USA and the Netherlands. Her works are in private and public collections in Russia, Germany, USA and the Netherlands. Her workshop aimed at replacing a traditional drawing class (7-8 grades) with an exploration around the topic of the "Portrait" . The artist offered students a new way to look at this genre and experiment with different materials. To create a non-standard portrait, school children were offered paint, brushes and "found materials" (bags, newspapers, etc.).

26 April 2014 - School №234, Admiralteysky District
13 May 2014 - School №146, Kalininsky District
15 May 2014 - School №604, Fruzhensky District 

Olga Jitlina (b. 1982) is an artist and art historian, who graduated from the Repin Academy of Arts. She was a finalist of the international art competition Henkel Art Award in 2012, and winner of the CEE Young Artist's Prize in 2012. She developped her workshop together with Andreĭ Yakimov (b. 1988), an expert on dealing with ethnic minorities and migrant workers for the anti-discrimination center "Memorial". Based on Yakimov's own experiences of having defended the human rights of immigrants entering Russia, they developed a board game on this theme which they introduced together during social science classes to school children (9-11 grades). By playing the game, the pupils learned of the difficulties and obstacles that immigrants face when trying to integrate after having moved to Russia.

10 April 2014 - School №207, Central District 
15 April 2014 - School №441, Fruzhensky District 
26 May 2014 – School №425, Kronshtadtsky District