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Sydney Biennale: A real success?
This contribution has been submitted to Webdiary by a student in the Online Journalism unit for the Masters in Media Practice and Masters in Publishing courses at The University of Sydney as part of the unit's assessment. The topics covered in the pieces awaiting publication are interesting – and diverse. We hope that Webdiarists will enjoy reading them, as well as giving these aspiring journalists plenty of constructive commentary.
Sydney Biennale: A real success?
by Nicola Mele
On 7th September the 16th Sydney Biennale came to an end. As I am originally from
The theme of this year’s Biennale was Revolutions – Forms That Turn. “The space explored by this exhibition is the gap between the first part of the title – revolutions – which suggests a directly political and content-based exhibition, and the subsequent phrase – forms that turn – which alternatively suggests the autonomy and isolation of the art object, spinning on its own and detached from daily life, or the energy and potential latent in forms themselves (turns that form),” said Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, artistic director of the Biennale. During the opening press conference when a journalist asked her what her main objective as curator of the event was, she explained that she was aiming to reach as many people as possible by presenting a wide variety of artists from all over the world, with different backgrounds, styles and stories (the Biennale featured more than 180 artists from 42 countries). And if her only objective was to gather the biggest number of visitors, she successfully achieved it since more than 435,000 people visited the Biennale over twelve weeks, with an increase of 37% on the 2006 edition of the event.
But the price to pay for compromising with the requests of the crowd might be a loss of quality. And this was the case of this year’s Biennale, whose works and artists were heavily criticised in terms of quality and originality. The British magazine Aesthetica defined the art festival ‘boring’ and some of the featured artists ‘amateurs’. Furthermore several critics from all over the world were unanimous in their negative impressions on the exhibition. “I came all the way from
The originality of some installations was another issue that generated controversy. It was announced that 65 artworks featured in the various venues were exclusively created for this edition of the Sydney Biennale. But it was not always true. Joannis Kounellis’ installation Senza Titolo (untitled) for example, was announced as conceived by the artist expressly for
Considering the huge response of public that the art festival had, many people were expecting Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev to be reconfirmed as artistic director. But it was announced that British curator David Elliot will be replacing her for the 2010 Sydney Biennale. The official reason that Marah Braye (chief executive officer of the Biennale) gave, was a previous commitment that Christov-Bakargiev had with the Castello di Rivoli Museum for Contemporary Art in
I am not an art expert, but I was looking forward to visiting the various venues of the Biennale. I did enjoy the experience, but I wasn’t fully satisfied with the artworks. The theme of the event was interesting and could have been developed differently by analysing more in-depth the humane desire of revolution instead of focusing on the political aspect.
Did you visit the Biennale? What was your general impression on the event and on the artworks featured?
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An Australian reality
While it is disappointing that the credibility of the Biennale has allegedly been compromised, if it has led to a 37% increase in attendance, then I think it is a necessary sacrifice. While Lucchetti is right – it is contemporary, not popular, art – there is no reason why it cannot be both. In the long term, I think it is important for there to be an emphasis on audience development. More Australians should be interested in art, but are unlikely to unless there is a concerted effort to involve them. Eventually (hopefully) the quality will return, and the audiences will stay, and appreciate.
To be honest Nicola
To be honest Nicola, this to me is gobbledegook
"..forms that turn – which alternatively suggests the autonomy and isolation of the art object, spinning on its own and detached from daily life, or the energy and potential latent in forms themselves (turns that form)”
Art critics and artistic directors do rather have a habit of making these sorts of statements.
I did not see the Biennale, as I rarely get to Sydney, but from what you write it sounds like it has lost credibility with the overseas art critics. Given the title which could mean almost anything that does not surprise me.
I really have a problem with art that is totally obscure in what it is attempting to portray, depict or say to the viewer. If all it is meant to be is visually pleasing then that is OK, but the use of the word Revolution suggests that that was not the intent of the works to be exhibited - in other words entries were expected to address in some form the subject of revolution. If not, then why use it?