The biennial debate will never be the same

Bergen Biennial Conference
17th - 20th of September 2009

Bergen Kunsthall
Rasmus Meyers alle 5
5015 Bergen
Norway
E: bbc2009@kunsthall.no
T: +47 55 55 93 10

http://www.bbc2009.no /
http://www.kunsthall.no

This autumn one of the most extensive discussions about biennials to date will take place in Bergen, Norway. Thirty three professionals from all over the world were given a reader containing seminal texts on biennials. We gave them homework and we did ours because we wanted this conference to make a difference.

Now they are coming to speak about the most vital topics related to biennials.
This is not your ordinary conference. Join us, take part in the think tank!

The Bergen Biennial Conference will bring together an international group of curators, critics, artists and art historians so as to benefit from their discussions of their findings, and create the occasion to reflect collectively about the practice and potential of biennials as institutions. Based on an earlier Call for Biennial Knowledge the organizers of the conference have identified and explored existing knowledge from different regions of the world. The conference will be made up of lectures as well as seminar style workshops with young and leading experts in the field. It will be complemented with an extensive publication, The Biennial Reader, aiming to be an important resource, and including existing seminal texts on biennials from around the world as well as newly commissioned essays.

As scholars and curators have acknowledged, the history of exhibitions is both one of the most vital and, paradoxically, ignored narratives of our cultural history. And given the increasing role of biennials and other perennial exhibitions of contemporary art in contemporary culture, it seems all the more necessary to critically examine them today. The impetus to do so now comes in response to the Bergen City Council's plans to establish a biennial for contemporary art in Bergen, for which the Bergen Kunsthall has taken up the task of organizing an international conference and think tank to study and discuss the status of the biennial as an exhibition model, and also to launch a debate concerning the plans for a biennial in Bergen.

With: Sara Arrhenius, Carlos Basualdo, Ute Meta Bauer, Ina Blom, Charlotte Bydler, John Clark, Ann Demeester, Donna De Salvo, Jonas Ekeberg, Elmgreen & Dragset, Gridthiya Gaweewong, Ranjit Hoskote, Maria Hlavajova, Caroline A. Jones, Yakouba Konate, Sarat Maharaj, Vittoria Martini, Ivo Mesquita, Gerardo Mosquera, Paul O´Neill, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Olu Oguibe, Tommy Olsson, Rafal Niemojewski, Marit Paasche, Nikos Papastergiadis, Anri Sala, Vinicius Spricigo, Monika Szewczyk, Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk, Mahita El Bacha Urieta, Jan Verwoert, Sabine B. Vogel.

At the occasion of the conference the entirety of the Wanda Svevo Historical Archive (Arquivo Histórico Wanda Svevo) on international biennials that was conceived as part of the 28th São Paolo Biennial (2008) and constituting the most comprehensive documentation source on biennials anywhere, will be present and available for consultation in the Bergen Kunsthall.

Conference program conceived by: Solveig Øvstebø, Marieke van Hal and Elena Filipovic.

Conference founded by the City of Bergen, by the Departments of Cultural Affairs, Business Development and Sports.

Supported by Hordaland County and Arts Council Norway.

Dates:
17th - 20th of September 2009

Contact information:
Bergen Biennial Conference
Bergen Kunsthall
Rasmus Meyers alle 5
5015 Bergen
Norway
E: bbc2009@kunsthall.no
T: +47 55 55 93 10

http://www.bbc2009.no /
http://www.kunsthall.no