On the eve of the 19th Biennale of Sydney, Art Almanac spoke to Artistic Director Juliana Engberg about her inspirations, ideas and what to expect from this year’s event.
What is your curatorial vision for this particular Biennale?
A Biennale lives within a place and time – it is responsive to its cultural moment. I think I immediately wanted to establish a Biennale that reasserts excitement about art, puts art front and centre, and gives the audience something to connect to and work with. It has a lot of ‘art’ art in it; it is a less documentary style Biennale, with not a lot of text reading, or deliberately didactic work. It is generous to an audience who come in search of that imagination and desiring, and leaves a way for them to enter on their own account. It has, I hope, a set of sophisticated layering.
Did you aim to put the focus on audience more so than other years?
There is really the opportunity for the audience to be more involved. I think the truth is that the ‘Biennale of Sydney’ is a big audience event, and if you were to deny the audience, it would be insane really! So for me it was extremely important to acknowledge the different sets of audiences who come to this. I have actually made quite a deliberate effort to include projects that are appealing for children and adults.
Can you talk a bit about how you came to settle on your chosen theme – ‘You Imagine What You Desire’ – and what it means to you?
It isn’t a theme, so much as a title. It’s a title that does indicate my intent – to examine art that is full of imagination and creativity, and made as a consequence of this amorous procedure that artists are involved in – the fact that they are driven to do that and can’t do anything else in a way. They make things that don’t seem all that necessary or useful but are, ultimately, extremely useful for our sense of society and wellbeing, imagination and desire. I wanted to make an evocative Biennale, not a terse, defeatist, negative display. I wanted there to be something that people can grapple with.
What was your process in selecting artists?
I used the same methodology I always use. I wanted it to be genuine, authentic research, so I literally sat down with artists on the hour, sometimes over 12 a day, every day, whenever I was travelling. I put space and theme together quite quickly, so even when speaking to artists I knew exactly where they would fit.
I notice quite a few Dutch artists?
The Dutch contingent is quite strong! And I must be truthful, there could have been more. It was an especially strong visitation in Holland. Something has happened lately in Amsterdam.
What sort of artistic responses should we expect from this concept?
For me, each project has this singularity that behind it is built upon this whole history, even though it may seem fanciful or entertaining on first glance. This history can often take you down an interesting and quite serious path, of theoretical investigation or political, ethical investigation. All of these live behind that singular moment, and we then have a multiplicity of those moments that gather themselves in a kind of force of creativity, which I think is quite good.
19th Biennale of Sydney
You Imagine What You Desire
March 21 to June 9, 2014
Eva Koch, I AM THE RIVER, 2012, video installation, 1200 x 700cm
Courtesy the artist; Martin Asbæk Gallery, Copenhagen; and Galería Magda Bellotti, Madrid
Juliana Engberg
Photography by Jillian Grant
