17th Biennale of Sydney announces public program highlights

The 17th Biennale of Sydney announces highlights of its 2010 public program. Designed to engage audiences with the themes and works presented in the Biennale, the program includes forums, lectures and special events featuring Biennale artists as well as curators, writers and commentators from around the world. These programs will engage with the issues surrounding art today, explore connections between the visual arts and other art forms, and discuss different aspects of the curatorial concept of the Biennale, THE BEAUTY OF DISTANCE: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age.

The Biennale Keynote Address will be delivered by Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, whose site-specific installation Faraday Cage (2010) will premiere in the old Power House on Cockatoo Island. The Address will be presented at the City Recital Hall, Sydney on Thursday, 13 May at 7 pm. 

The Opening Week Forum: Power, Poverty, Equality and Freedom (and how we relate to art ...) will be hosted by the Art Gallery of New South Wales on Friday, 14 May and Saturday, 15 May from 9.30 am until 5.30 pm. This two-day event considers the external forces and hierarchies that affect how we perceive art and comparative aesthetics, bringing together speakers from different disciplines and cultures. The Forum will conclude with the inaugural Nick Waterlow Memorial Lecture, presented byLawrence Weschler on the subject 'Serenity and Terror in Vermeer, and After'. Speakers at the Forum include David A. Bailey, Professor Amareswar Galla, Steven Loft and Dr Gerald McMaster OC, along with exhibiting artists Enrique Chagoya, Dana Claxton, Claudio Dicochea, Fiona Pardington, Fred Tomaselli, Ben White and Eileen Simpson. 

Biennale Focus I: Distance, Diaspora and Aesthetics in African and Caribbean Art will be hosted at SuperDeluxe@Artspace on Thursday, 13 May at 2 pm. This discussion features panelists David A. Bailey, Roger Ballen, Isaac Julien, Nandipha Mntambo, Professor Colin Richards and Barthélémy Toguo, who discuss issues around diaspora, displacement, poverty and cultural production. 

Biennale Focus II: NORTH–SOUTH DIALOGUE will be hosted at Campbelltown Arts Centre on Friday, 21 May from 11 am until 4 pm. Co-convened by Djon Mundine OAM (Indigenous Curator, Contemporary Art, Campbelltown Arts Centre) and Dr Gerald McMaster OC (Fredrik S. Eaton Curator, Canadian Art, Art Gallery of Ontario), the session will consider historical ideas of a north–south dialogue, along with key turning points in art practice and policy for Aboriginal art in both Canada and Australia. It also addresses issues of 'otherness' and aboriginality, as well as new agendas for emerging aboriginal artists. Biennale artists taking part in the dialogue include Fiona Foley, Kent Monkman, Christopher Pease, Skeena Reece and Christian Thompson. 

PechaKucha
PechaKucha, the onomatopoeic Japanese word for 'chit chat', was devised by Tokyo-based architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham for SuperDeluxe Tokyo in 2003. PechaKucha Nights are informal gatherings where people get together and share their ideas, works, thoughts, passions and unusual collections. A twelve-week program of PechaKucha Nights will be presented at SuperDeluxe@Artspace. The opening PechaKucha will include David Elliott, James Putnam, Nandipha Mntambo, Fred Tomaselli, Angela Ellsworth and Martin Jacques.

Artists' Talks
Over 50 artists' talks will take place across all exhibition venues providing first-hand opportunities to hear artists discuss their practice in an intimate and engaging forum.

All events are free. Bookings are essential for selected events. Book online from 3 May athttp://www.bos17.com

The Biennale of Sydney gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the following organisations who have made these programs possible: Deutsche Bank; puma.creative; International Curators Forum; the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS); the United States Studies Centre (USSC) at The University of Sydney; the Faculty of Arts and The Power Institute Foundation for Art and Visual Culture, The University of Sydney; Canada Council for the Arts; Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada; British Columbia Arts Council; and the Consulate General of Canada, Sydney.

By E-flux: [email protected]