The 16th Biennale of Sydney

As Curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
Open: 18 June–7 September, 2008

Among Exhibiting Artists:
aiPotu
Lene Berg
Annie Anawana Haloba Hobøl
Pushwagner

With special projects by:
Vibeke Tandberg
Matias Faldbakken

www.bos2008.com

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'The impulse to revolt — revolving, rotating, mirroring, repeating, reversing, turning upside down or inside out, changing perspectives' — these are the words used by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, curator of this edition of one of the oldest and more formidable international exhibitions — the Biennale of Sydney, to describe her motivations in drafting Revolutions — Forms that Turn.

In searching out works that incorporate literal and formal devices that employ aesthetic, psychological, radical and social perspectives, Bakargiev maps out an exhibition that serves as a 'constellation of historical and contemporary works of art that celebrate and explore these dynamics, both in art and in life.' In response to the curator's visit to Norway in January 2007 as part of OCA's International Visitor Programme, Bakargiev was introduced to an array of work that responded to her curatorial investigations, resulting in the unprecedented selection of seven artists from Norway and in the selection of an important historical work — Viktor Vasarely's Vega 222 (1969–70) — from the private collection of the Oslo based collector Erling Neby.

Biennials are important opportunities for artists to produce new work and as such, Bakargiev commissioned the Norwegian artist and filmmaker Lene Berg (b. 1965 in Oslo, lives and works in New York), to produce The Drowned One (2008). In her practice, Berg often refers to found film footage in an effort to re-evaluate given interpretations about 'historical givens'. In the work produced for this biennial, the artist proceeds from an image claimed to be one of the earliest photographs in history. Referring to Hippolyte Bayard's notable Self Portrait as Drowned Man (1840) as a point of departure, Berg develops a work that expounds on the paradoxes and indexical complexities implicit to the photographic medium.

Annie Anawana Haloba Hobøl (b. 1978 Zambia, lives and works in Oslo and Amsterdam), who has also recently participated in other important international Biennials including the Sharjah Biennial 8 (2007) and Trans Cape in Cape Town (2007) has been commissioned by the Sydney Biennial to produce the video installation entitled When the Private Became Public (2008) — a film about five female participants from different cultural backgrounds, set against the Australian desert landscape. The work explores the revolutionary turns that have resulted in women traversing the private realms and now entering into the public sphere traditionally not attributed to them — providing a contemporary perspective on pre-feminist ideologies. Anawana Haloba will hold a talk at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney on 22 June at 12:40..

aiPotu, a collective consisting of the artists Anders Kjellesvik (b. 1980 in Oslo, lives and works in Berlin) and Andreas Siqueland (b. 1973 in Oslo, lives and works in Paris), formulates a mobile art project to reveal the process oriented and interactive nature of their production: Island Tour. For the Sydney Biennale, the artists produced an installation of posters, entitled If you don't like the weather — wait 15 minutes, containing documentation of their expedition to Iceland in 2007. The artists are also working on building a maritime camp entitled Boomerang Boat on Cockatoo Island.

Having received important international critical acclaim following the exhibition of his work, Soft City (1968–1976) at the Berlin Biennial and at the support of OCA, a selection from Pushwagner's (b. 1940, lives and works in Oslo)   pictorial novel Soft City is exhibited in Sydney. In addition the artist's paintings Self-Portrait (1979/1993) and Klaxton II (2000) and a video transfer based on the prints from Soft-City are presented.

In addition to these individual projects installed throughout the physical territory of the biennial, Bakargiev invited former Sydney Biennial participants Vibeke Tandberg (b. 1967 in Oslo, lives and works in Oslo) and Matias Faldbakken (b. 1973 in Hobro, Denmark, lives and works in Oslo) to contribute with online projects. Tandberg, who exhibited in the 2002 edition of the Biennale of Sydney, participates with videos Old Man Going Up and Down a Staircase (2003) and Redo (2004). Matias Faldbakken, who exhibited in the 2004 edition of the Biennale of Sydney, contributes with the work Untitled (Young is Better than Old) (2007).

An extensive Biennial catalogue has been published, in cooperation with Thames and Hudson. The publication includes essays by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Iwona Blazwick, Johnathon Crary and Charles Harrison.

The 2008 Biennale of Sydney has been supported with a grant from OCA's International Support Programme. A portion of this grant is provided by 03–funding.

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