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| Designed by architect David Adjaye, the ARENA presented a gathering-place for spoken word, music, scores, scripts, recitals, film screenings, and public discussions devoted to diverse theories and explorations of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. Padiglione Centrale, Giardini 56, Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte - la Biennale di Venezia, All the World’s Futures 56th International Art Exhibition, 2015. Photo: Courtesy of la Biennale di Venezia. |
Reclaiming Biennials’ Positioning in the 2020s: A Forum to Synergize and Galvanize
By Marloes Lagerweij
"In a sense, it’s not an exhibition that is necessarily, in my view, you know,
about projecting into some kind of wonderful thing, but to look at the here and now, and
how can we think together about this question of inhabiting the same fragile ecology."
[Okwui Enwezor, 56th Venice Art Biennale "All the World's Futures"]
Anno 2020: biennials no longer need to serve as platforms to tell us what is going on globally – the internet has taken care of this. However, we are in desperate need of solutions to the issues that recent biennials have spotlighted repeatedly, for instance, global warming and migration. If there is anything that the age of COVID-19 and climate change has told us, it is that we are in it together. What can be the role of biennials in this regard?
Biennials have a unique convening power to bring together the brightest minds on a topic within an impartial, creative space. Since the first Venice Biennale in 1895, these coming-togethers have been orchestrated as competition within and, increasingly, between biennials. For instance, in 2020, both Manifesta 13 and the Venice Architecture Biennial explored the same theme: how to not only live but flourish together in harmony. We can’t help but question what the answer might be if both organizations had joined forces and expanded the debate to non-art-related civil constituencies, perhaps along with a beyond-the-façade public program. Why can’t biennials become a forum for discussions and decision-making?
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| IdeasCity’s Public Conference between designers, artists, technologists, and policymakers on key forces that shape Arles, engaging the public’s participation, building upon discussions initiated at IdeasCity Detroit and Athens, and feeding into future projects of Arles-based Atelier LUMA, April 2017. From the April 2017 edition of the bi-annual IdeasCity initiative of the New Museum. Photo: Courtesy of IdeasCity |
If biennials really are to touch upon the most pressing sociopolitical and environmental challenges, a shift in focus from awareness raising to real change-making is essential. That’s where the real added-value of biennials lies: in their untapped, exceptional potential of galvanizing cross-sectoral, concrete actions for the collective good.