- First contemporary exhibition to be presented in the galleries of the Winter Palace, St Petersburg with Marc Quinn's works integrated amongst the Museum's 3,000-piece collection - Showcases existing works including Bread Sculptures (1988-1994), The Complete Marbles (1999-2005), and many more Marc Quinn is an internationally-celebrated British contemporary artist whose work includes sculpture, installation and painting. Quinn explores 'what it is to be human in the world today' and uses materials varying from blood, bread and flowers, to marble and stainless steel. In 2020 Quinn presents a major exhibition at The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg from 22 May to 23 August 2020 - the first contemporary exhibition to be presented in the galleries of the Winter Palace. This book accompanies the exhibition, and brings together around 70 works, including a number of new pieces created especially for the exhibition. Quinn's work uses the language of Classical sculpture to explore the fundamental subject of human existence, cultural perceptions of beauty and expressions of identity. Through interviews and essays, this publication discusses Marc Quinn's practice in the context of ancient and Classical sculpture, explore contemporary sculpture techniques and examine new charitable projects that engage with some of the most important issues of our times. Marc Quinn was born in 1964 in London, where he lives and works. He belongs to the Young British Artists group, which became famous in 1997 through the legendary Sensation exhibition of works from Charles Saatchi's collection.

Quinn's pioneering sculpture was Self, a frozen sculpture of his head, made with 4.5 liters of his own blood, extracted over five months. In 2005 his statue of Alison Lapper, a woman born with no arms and severely shortened legs, attracted much attention. The 15-ton marble statue, exhibited from 2005 until 2007 on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, was extremely controversial. With his materials and techniques, Quinn - who studied history of art at Robinson College, Cambridge, in the early 1980s - challenges the boundaries between art and science. Besides using ice, glass, metal, marble and lead, he has experimented with flowers and plants frozen in silicon in order to conserve the beauty of their full bloom. Many of Quinn's works are in the vanitas tradition, showing clear, concrete references to classic works of art history. Text in English and Russian.

Germano Celant (born 1940 in Genoa) is an Italian art historian, critic and curator who coined the term 'Arte Povera' (poor art) in 1967 and wrote many articles and books on the subject. Adam David Rutherford is a British geneticist, author and broadcaster. He was an audio-visual content editor for the journal Nature for a decade, and is a frequent contributor to The Guardian. Alain de Botton was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1969 and now lives in London. He is a writer of essayistic books that have been described as a 'philosophy of everyday life'. Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky is the director of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. He is an author of over 250 works on art history. Natela Tetruashvili - Curator, Contemporary Art Department, State Hermitage Museum.

Dimitri Ozerkov - Director, Contemporary Art Department, State Hermitage Museum.