04 Feb 2013

Biennial Foundation speaks with Liverpool Biennial’s Program Director Paul Domela on the specificities of this biennial, the largest international contemporary art festival in the UK.

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BTV is Biennial Foundation‘s ongoing series of interviews with directors of contemporary art biennials. The series gives insight to the origins, mission and developments of biennials and sheds light on specific features.

Biennial Foundation speaks with the Liverpool Biennial’s Program Director Paul Domela on the various specificities and characteristics of the Liverpool Biennial, as well as on his views and knowledge on the biennial as an exhibition platform in general.

Paul Domela is an Advisory Committee Member of Biennial Foundation.
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21 Jan 2013

In an open letter undersigned by biennial institutions and related practitioners, Biennial Foundation asks the Kerala Government and the Ministry of Culture in New Delhi to renew financial support for the first biennial of contemporary art in India.

The letter has circulated among all participants of the World Biennial Forum No1 that took place in Gwangju, South Korea in October 2012, and which was attended by over seventy international biennale institutions and representatives.

The initiative can be seen as one of the first outcomes of the World Biennial Forum, where it was jointly agreed to create a stronger professional alliance and a support system amongst biennial colleagues around the world.
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11 Dec 2012

Biennial Foundation and Kochi-Muziris Biennale present ‘Site Imaginaries’, a two-day symposium on the occasion of the inauguration of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India’s first biennial of contemporary art.

Biennial Foundation and Kochi-Muziris Biennale present Site Imaginaries, a two-day symposium on the occasion of the inauguration of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India’s first biennale of contemporary art.
Dates: 15th & 16th December, 2012
Venue: Outset Carnoustie Pavilion, Aspinwall House, Fort Kochi, Kerala, India
Language: English

Symposium Topics:

The Biennale in the Indian Context –
Perceptions of Change and Realities of Exposition.
Knocking Down Roadblock.
Biennale as Imaginary: An Artist Prepares.
New Beginnings.
Biennale as a cultural exercise.
Artist as social commentator: generating discourse.

Participants:

Aman Mojadidi, Amar Kanwar, Ariel Hassan, Ashok Sukumaran (Camp), Clifford Charles, Shahidul Alam, Gayatri Sinha, Geeta Kapur, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Jonas Staal, Joseph Semah, Marieke van Hal, Nalini Malani, Nancy Adajania, Paul Domela, Ranjit Hoskote, Riyas Komu, Robert Montgomery, Sarat Maharaj, Tasneem Mehta, Vivan Sundaram, Vivek Vilasini.

Site Imaginaries:

The Kochi Muziris Biennale actively engages the rich domain of cosmopolitanism and modernity that is rooted in the lived and living experience of this old trading port, which, for more than six centuries, has been a crucible of numerous communal identities.

It is necessary to explore and retrieve memories in the current global context to posit alternatives to political and cultural discourses, and build a platform for dialogue for a new aesthetics and politics rooted in the Indian experience.

From a global perspective we also need to examine the artist as manifest in expanding geographies, and a redefinition of the regions of art. The two-day international symposium to coincide with the first Kochi-Muziris Biennale will discuss these issues pertinent to the biennale.
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15 Oct 2012

Biennial Foundation presents the World Biennial Forum No 1, 27-31 October 2012, in collaboration with the Gwangju Biennale Foundation in Gwangju, South-Korea.

Biennial Foundation presents:

World Biennial Forum No 1:
Shifting Gravity

Gwangju, South Korea, 27-31 October 2012

Organized by:
Gwangju Biennale Foundation
Biennial Foundation
i.f.a. Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen

Co-directed by:
Ute Meta Bauer
Hou Hanru

Initiated by: Biennial Foundation

While most Western countries are experiencing fiscal austerity and slower growth, some of the emerging nations within the Asian continent are handling the strong forces of rapid progression. For centuries the West used to be the economical and cultural center of attention. Now there is an important shift of focus to Asia, a continent that has seen vibrant and innovative developments undergoing economic, cultural and social change, whilst its population calling for more open and democratic structures within society.

The rapid expanding activities in contemporary art and the rising number of biennials established in Asia during the last two decades has implications for the construction of contemporary art history. How can we undo the teleologies of Euro-centric modernity? Do art biennials inspire and strengthen art communities and help to lay foundations for sustainable infrastructures? Facing increasingly homogenic and universal models of traditional art institutions, are biennials still alternative and sites for experimentation capable of resistance?

The World Biennial Forum No 1 will present keynotes speeches by:

Wang Hui, Professor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at the Tsinghua University, Beijing.
Nikos Papastergiadis, Professor for Cultural Studies and Media & Communications at the University of Melbourne.
Chantal Mouffe, Professor of Political Theory and Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, London.

Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, Exhibitions and Programmes, and Director of International Projects, Serpentine Gallery (London) in public conversation with Moon Kyung Won and Chun Jun Ho.

Case study presentations of a wide range of biennales throughout Asia will be introduced, aiming to broaden the understanding of the specificity of each context, the conditions of production and the conceptual discourses they generate.

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