The international platform of contemporary art led by Anibal Jozami and Diana Wechsler from Argentina reaffirms its standing as a global collaborative network that upholds the right to culture while advocating the local in the global and singularity in diversity.
The fourth edition of BIENALSUR will take place from July to December 2023 in over 70 cities and 28 countries throughout the five continents with exhibitions and actions focused on environmental issues, gender perspectives, the construction of narratives, "fake news", and democracy.
It will open on July 1st at the MAR, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina, with works by 20 artists from Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Brazil, Turkey and France as part of the exhibition "EXTRA/ordinary", thus unfolding an 18,370-kilometre cartography that spans from Km 0 in Buenos Aires to Tokyo, reinforcing BIENALSUR’s presence in Africa.
Among other artists, this edition will feature the American choreographer William Forsythe, who developed his career in Germany; Olga Huyke and Beatriz González from Colombia; Daniel Buren and Pierre Ardouvin from France; Ursula Biemann from Switzerland; Jordi Colomer, Marc Villanova, Cristina Lucas, Daniel Canogar and Bárbara Sánchez Barroso from Spain; Regina Silveira, Bianca Turner and Alice Miceli from Brazil; Sara Abdu and Moath Alofi from Saudi Arabia; Nelo Akamatsu from Japan; Amine el Gotaibi from Morocco; Pedro Tyler from Chile; Marco Maggi from Uruguay, and Marta Minujín, Marie Orensanz, Julio Le Parc, Max Gómez Canle, Yuyo Noé, Adriana Bustos, Mariana Tellería, Eugenia Calvo, Esteban Ávarez, Gaspar Libedinsky, and Leandro Erlich from Argentina.
Diana Wechsler, Artistic Director of BIENALSUR points out: “Environmental issues will play a key role in the 2023 biennial, with exhibitions that foster reflection upon our contemporary experience with a focus on gender, migration, and the construction of possible futures in tension with dystopian imagination. Considerations on democracy and its current possibilities will take centre stage: the construction of narratives, the plurality of voices involved, the fictional dimension, poetics, politics, and ‘fake news’”.
“In dialogue with these matters, the memory of recent - or not so recent - forms of authoritarianism resonates in the artists' reflections as a warning and an invitation to build a contemporary humanism that embraces diversities and is inclusive, democratic and environmentally conscious. The history of BIENALSUR has been shaped through dialogue, creativity, and daily construction, seeking the inclusion of diverse voices and perspectives in a spirit of coexistence. For this reason, this fourth edition will open with an invitation to re-imagine the everyday, to rethink ourselves and to propose the outlines of a contemporary humanism”, maintains Aníbal Jozami, the General Director of BIENALSUR.
This new edition of BIENALSUR will feature, for the first time, the participation of Algeria, Croatia, Lebanon, Dominican Republic, Norway, Senegal, Tunisia and Turkey.
Spain, France, Italy, Morocco, Australia, Japan, Peru, Guatemala, Paraguay, Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, Chile, Costa Rica, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia are some of the other countries that will be hosting exhibitions and actions.
The most noteworthy events in Argentina include the opening exhibition, “EXTRA/ordinary”, at the MAR in Mar del Plata; “Real Fictions” at the Centro Cultural Kirchner; “Puzzles”, “Syndemic, Andean Explosions” and “Jordi Colomer. Casas vacías no hacen ciudad” at MUNTREF KM 0, in the City of Buenos Aires, in addition to those to be held in La Plata, Córdoba, Tucumán, Rosario, Tilcara, San Juan and other cities.
Other major exhibitions will be hosted by the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Santiago, Chile; the Mambo in Bogotá, Colombia; the Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales in Montevideo, Uruguay; the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, Spain - where a contemporary art show will be presented for the first time under the concept of “active archives”; the Maison de l'Amérique Latine in France with the exhibition “Ways of Vanishing, Chapter 1”; and the Frac Bretagne, with “Ways of Vanishing, Chapter 2”.
This list also includes the Musée de la Photographie de Rabat in Morocco; the Samoca-Museum of Contemporary Art in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which will open with the exhibition “Imagine” within the framework of BIENALSUR; the African Renaissance Museum in Dakar, Senegal, the Casa de América in Madrid and the Pompidou in Málaga, Spain; the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia; the Casona de San Marcos, the LUM (Place of Memory) and the Inca Garcilaso Museum in Lima, Peru.
In an effort to strengthen collaboration strategies, BIENALSUR has been implementing projects that bring together institutions, artists, and audiences from all over the world. In this fourth edition, it incorporates into the network of international residencies countries that will participate in the experience for the first time, such as Senegal, alongside the traditional residencies in Malaga (Spain), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Corsica (Italy) and Buenos Aires (Argentina), and the residencies shared with other countries, such as France and Cameroon, among others. Likewise, it also continues to work in collaboration with universities, institutions and networks, such as the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, a platform of historic sites, museums and initiatives from all over the world that harnesses the power of places of memory to engage the public in a deeper understanding of the past and the construction of a fairer future, as well as with the French Regional Fund for Contemporary Art FRAC, which houses public collections from different French regions.
