“The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed”
‘The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed’, a quote from leading science fiction author William Gibson is the source of inspiration for the 20th Biennale of Sydney.
On Thursday 29 October, Stephanie Rosenthal, Artistic Director of the 20th Biennale of Sydney, announced details of the first 71 artists exhibiting at seven venues across Sydney, along with various ‘in-between projects’ around the city for the Asia Pacific’s largest contemporary visual arts event, presented from 18 March until 5 June 2016.
In 2016 the Biennale will be presented at seven main venues conceived as ‘embassies of thought’. Understood more as temporary settings rather than fixed locales – transient homes for constellations of thought – the embassies are: Cockatoo Island (Embassy of the Real); Art Gallery of New South Wales (Embassy of Spirits); Carriageworks (Embassy of Disappearance); Artspace (Embassy of Non-Participation); Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (Embassy of Translation); and a bookshop (Embassy of Stanislaw Lem). For the first time, a former train station, Mortuary Station (Embassy of Transition) will also be a Biennale venue.
The Biennale will extend beyond Sydney Harbour and the Central Business District, with more than a third of artworks to be presented at venues in Sydney’s vibrant inner west. There will also be a commissioned series of performances and site-specific installations taking place at locations throughout inner Sydney, including a work created by Bo Christian Larsson at Camperdown Memorial Rest Park. Performance is an integral part of this Biennale, presented at each embassy and elsewhere by artists including boychild, Boris Charmatz, Neha Choksi, Mette Edvardsen, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Mella Jaarsma, Lee Mingwei, Adam Linder, and Justene Williams with Sydney Chamber Opera.
Artistic Director Stephanie Rosenthal said: “If each era posits its own view of reality, what is ours? One of the key ideas this Biennale explores is how the common distinction between the virtual and the physical has become ever more elusive. The embassies are also inspired by the unique locations and individual histories of each venue; they will provide safe spaces for thinking, convening for the three-month duration of the Biennale. A focus on ‘in-between spaces’ is key: in terms of our interaction with the digital world, displacement from and occupation of spaces and land, and the interconnections and overlaps between politics and financial power structures.”
Rosenthal added: “We’ve taken an artist-centric approach, exploring the represented artists’ practice in depth by showing several works by many participants. I’ve also encouraged artists to make works that are site-specific, and around 70 per cent of artists participating in the 20th Biennale of Sydney are presenting new commissions.”
20th Biennale of Sydney
18 March until 5 June, 2016
Sydney
Lee Mingwei, Guernica in Sand, 2006 and 2015, mixed-media interactive installation, sand, wooden island, lighting, 1300 x 643 cm. Courtesy of JUT Museum Pre-Opening Office, Taipei. Photograph: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei
