The 20th Biennale of Sydney

Stephanie Rosenthal, Artistic Director of the 20th Biennale of Sydney, has announced details of the first 71 artists to exhibit at seven venues across Sydney, along with various “in-between projects” around the city for the Asia-Pacific’s largest contemporary visual arts event, to be presented from 18 March until 5 June 2016.

Inspired by a quote from leading science fiction author William Gibson, the 20th Biennale of Sydney is titled “The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed”. Following on from that theme, the seven main venues were 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). And, for the first time, a former train station, Mortuary Station (Embassy of Transition) will also be a venue.

“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,” says Rosenthal. “They will provide safe spaces for thinking, convening for the three-month duration of the Biennale.”

biennaleofsydney.com.au

Helen Marten, ‘Parrot Problems’, 2014

Mella Jaarsma, ‘Until Time is Old’, 2014

Feature image and above, Ming Wong, ‘Windows On The World (Part 1)’, 2014

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