freedom of expression

Aichi Triennale tests the limits of freedom of expression in Japan

Vincent Pruden talks to the Aichi Triennale’s Chief Curator, Iida Shihoko.

When shown at Gallery Furuto in Tokyo in 2015, the Freedom of Expression?, exhibition assembling works that had earlier been rejected or removed by other exhibition organizers in Japan amid controversy, went almost unnoticed. When the updated version of the show opened as part of the 2019 Aichi Triennale, earlier this year, it ignited extreme reactions and re-opened debate over the increasing prevalence of censorship in Japan. Vincent Pruden talks to the Aichi Triennale’s Chief Curator, IIDA Shihoko about the aftermath of the controversy which represents a serious threat to the future existence of one of the most important biennials in Asia.
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The “Photographic” as Lingua Franca – interview with the Tallinn Photomonth 2019 curators

Piret Karro talks to Ingel Vaikla, Hanna Laura Kaljo, Post Brothers and Heidi Ballet.

This fall Tallinn becomes overrun with exhibitions and art events revolving around the theme of photography, visuality, and its relationship with the body, the enfleshed. There are three international curator projects in Tallinn Photomonth 2019 main programme: curator Heidi Ballet navigates questions surrounding environmental change in the group exhibition When You Say We Belong to the Light We Belong to the Thunder at the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM). Hanna Laura Kaljo focuses on the body and its presence in the tides and shifts of the surroundings in Let the field of your attention…. soften and spread out at the newly opened Kai Art Center. And Post Brothers has taken a more direct approach to the materiality of photography in the group project at Tallinn Art Hall, Mercury, a visual essay created in collaboration with the artist Simon Dybbroe Møller. Joined here by the curators, we will open up the thought processes behind the exhibitions by discussing the phenomenon of visuality in the face of the current climate urgency.
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Exodus: the 4th Mediterranean Biennial of Contemporary Art

Anne Murray, talks to Sadek Rahim and Tewfik Ali Chaouche, curators and co-founders of the Mediterranean Biennial of Contemporary Art of Oran.

What makes the Oran Biennial unique is the city and its people, who are open to Mediterranean cultures and to the world – they are welcoming and curious about contemporary art. On the economic plane, Oran is the 2nd largest city in Algeria after the capital. With the oil terminal of Arzew and its industrial zone, Oran has been rapidly growing since 2010. As part of the urban development, the city has invested in the restoration of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Oran, where the biennial is held this year. What makes the Biennial in Oran unique is also its grassroots character – it is independently run by a civic cultural association, without any involvement by state authorities.
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What are we building down there? – Interview with Niels Van Tomme, curator of the Bucharest Biennale 7

Laura Herman interviews Niels Van Tomme, curator of the Bucharest Biennale 7

In a valiant effort to reimagine what a biennale can be, the seventh edition of Bucharest’s Biennale for Contemporary Art What are we building down there? comes with a concept that is both simple and smart. Rather than housing art in various galleries and venues, Belgian curator and critic Niels Van Tomme reshapes our expectations by integrating advertising billboards in the capital city’s infrastructure…
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Bart De Baere talks about the 6th Moscow Biennale

Sam Steverlynck talks to Bart De Baere about the 6th Moscow Biennale

The 6th Moscow Biennale was not your average biennale concocted with the classic ingredients copied worldwide without questioning. Not only did it run for just ten days, it also felt more like a meeting place than a static biennale presenting existing – or some commissioned – works. With talk shows, debates and lectures by people like Yanis Varoufakis, sociologist Pascal Gielen and futurologist Maya van Leemput, it was a social-artistic laboratory that created quite a buzz. We met up with the curator, M HKA director Bart De Baere – who invited Nicolaus Schafhausen and Defne Ayas as co-curators – to find out more about the biennale’s genesis and the many challenges leading up to it.
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