OSLO.- osloBIENNALEN FIRST EDITION 2019–2024 officially launched the first set of projects and participants during its Opening Weekend on 25 and 26 May 2019, which will be followed by the Prologue Symposium on Monday, 27 May.
Free, accessible and often unexpected, art in public space is different from art in a museum. osloBIENNALEN FIRST EDITION 2019–2024 sets out to explore the unusual contexts and questions it presents with an evolving programme of art that unfolds over five years.
Proposing a new biennial model, co-curators Eva González-Sancho Bodero and Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk note in their curatorial statement: “The works pose questions about the timeframes and situations in which they operate, contexts that overflow conventional, institutional time/spaces. How are such works produced and presented? How do they engage with audiences, or enter an art collection? What kind of curatorial framework supports these works and their timeframes, which may stretch indefinitely beyond the one-off event? How might this framework be designed or constituted?”
With varying tempos, rhythms and life-spans, the projects presented respond to the contingent contexts of public space. During the opening weekend, visitors can discover a range of projects encompassing sculpture, text works, experiences, performances, painting, sound, public outreach and workshops by Mikaela Assolent (FR), Benjamin Bardinet (FR), Julien Bismuth (FR), Carole Douillard (FR), Ed D’Souza (UK), Mette Edvardsen (NO), Jan Freuchen, Sigurd Tenningen and Jonas Høgli Major (NO), Gaylen Gerber (US), Hlynur Hallsson (IS), Rose Hammer, Marianne Heier (NO), Michelangelo Miccolis (IT/MX), Mônica Nador and Bruno Oliveira (BR), Michael Ross (US), Lisa Tan (US/SE) and Øystein Wyller Odden (NO).
On Monday, 27 May, under the title “What does it mean to launch a biennial that breaks with the usual ways of addressing space, time and theme?”, the Prologue Symposium will introduce the biennial and its four conceptual premises: Art Production within a Locality; New Institutional Ecologies, Addressing the Myriad; and A Collection for the Passerby.
In October 2019, a second set of projects will be launched, featuring works by Adrián Balseca (EC), Marcelo Cidade (BR), Jonas Dahlberg (SE), Anna Daniell (NO), Edith Dekyndt (BE), Tomáš Džadoň (CZ), Oliver Godow (DE), Javier Izquierdo (EC), Graziela Kunsch (BR), Belén Santillán (EC) and Knut Åsdam (NO).
Over the course of the next five years, the expanding programme for the years ahead will be announced at regular intervals as the biennial moves forward in time.
Initiated and financed by the City of Oslo, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Norway, osloBIENNALEN FIRST EDITION 2019-2024 opens on 25 May 2019 and runs until 2024. The biennial is the result of OSLO PILOT, a two-year experimental and research-based project that laid the groundwork for the biennial curated by Eva González-Sancho Bodero and Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk.
