Tate Liverpool artistic director heads for Moscow

Italian art expert, Francesco Manacorda former artistic director of the Tate Liverpool gallery has joined Moscow's V-A-C Foundation.

Established by Russian billionaire Leonid Mikhelson, the foundation aims to develop and present Russian art for the international audience and to support home grown talents and young artists. Mikhelson is CEO of Russian gas company Novatek and a member of the Tate's International Council.

Manacorda brought solo exhibitions to the Tate Liverpool by contemporary artists that included Nasreen Mohamedi and Piet Mondrian, Maria Lassnig, Francis Bacon, Ella Kruglyaskaya and many others.

He was co-curator of the 2016 Liverpool Biennial and has worked on acclaimed exhibitions including Radical Nature—Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969-2009 (2009) at the Barbican in London. In 2007 he curated the Slovenian Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale and in 2009 the New Zealand Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale.

“I have followed closely the developments of V-A-C Foundation since it was established in 2009 and have been a huge admirer of their risk-taking, rigorous and experimental approach," Manacorda said. "I am delighted to join the team in a moment of great expansion in Moscow and Venice that will cement V-A-C’s international reach and present incredible opportunities for artists from all over the world.”

V-A-C is now building a major new contemporary art museum in Moscow on the site of the GES-2 power station built in 1907. The opening is planned for 2019.

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