The Asia Pacific’s largest contemporary visual arts event Biennale of Sydney, has announced its 2014 program for March through to June next year.
In its 19th year, the Biennale will boast over 90 artists from 31 countries at five venues across Sydney. The heritage-listed buildings on Cockatoo Island and at the newly expanded Carriageworks will be utilised, as well as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), Artspace and several locations in the CBD for performative exhibitions over the opening week.
Curated by writer, publisher and designer Juliana Engberg, the 2014 edition, titled 'You Imagine What You Desire', will explore global contemporary aesthetics.
“For me, artists are active philosophers who seek to engage the audience and viewer in an exploration of our world through metaphor, narrative and poetry,” said Engberg at the unveiling at Sydney Opera House. “They do this so that we might find inspiration in the sensations and intensities produced by art, and so that we might, temporarily, step aside from our commonplace experiences and feel something uncanny and unusual.”
Marah Braye, Chief Executive Officer, Biennale of Sydney said: “Juliana Engberg is curating a much-anticipated exhibition that will be remembered by audiences for many years to come […] As we celebrate our 40th anniversary in November – making the Biennale of Sydney one of the oldest exhibitions of its kind – we are proud to present one of the world’s truly great biennale experiences.”
Some of the artists to be featured include Polish performative artist Hubert Czerepok, who will send children marching through the city with placards featuring positive adages, Scotland’s Nathan Coley who is famous for his text-constructed installations, Turner Prize winner Douglas Gordon who will present a multimedia installation using the voice of Rufus Wainwright and Chinese-born, Germany-native Yingmei Duan who, over the twelve weeks, will take visitors inside her exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW where she will interact with them through written well-wishes and instructions.
The 19th Biennale of Sydney is presented free to the public at five venues across Sydney from March 21 - June 9 2014.
- Poppy Reid
