19th Biennale of Sydney: You Imagine What You Desire, Sydney, Australia
After the artist boycotts over founding sponsor Transfield and the Biennale’s decision, following much pressure, to sever ties with its longstanding funder and supporter, it’s time for the show to begin. Any viewing of this 19th edition of the Biennale can’t help but be affected by the incursion of the real-world politics of asylum seekers and their treatment by the Australian state – the issue that sparked the initial open letter to the Biennale’s organisers, demanding they part company with Transfield. (Not that any of the controversy has stopped the usual self-congratulatory missives, seemingly crafted in an international art bubble, dropping into our inboxes via e-flux.)
Curated by Juliana Engberg and presented across Sydney including various harbourside locations, the Biennale features 90 artists from 31 countries. “An energy-filled biennale that presents a grand multiplicity of things,” says Engberg. “It is an exploration of the world and contemporary aesthetic experience through inventions, desires and propositions.” Perhaps most significantly, it’s a biennale whose organisers have recognised that contemporary art doesn’t exist in isolation from the world around it – and that the concerns of artists, without whom there would be no high-profile international biennales, are too important to not be listened to.
21 March – 9 June, 19bos.com
Art Paris Art Fair, Paris, France
140 international galleries from 20 countries come together at the Grand Palais in Paris, presenting modern and contemporary art, including photography, design and art publications. As part of the fair’s ongoing ambition to be European while also engaging with the Middle East and Asia, this year there is a special focus on China, with 90 artists represented by galleries from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
27-30 March, www.artparis.com
Time Pieces: the video art collection of Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Gelsenkirche, Germany
Video works from the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, presented in the north Ruhr city of Gelsenkirche. NBK has one of the oldest and largest video art collections in Germany. Founded in 1971, it includes more than 1,600 works and Time Pieces will show pieces by international artists and artist groups, including John Baldessari, Joseph Beuys, Johan Grimonprez, Ugo Rondinone and The Solanas (Dave Allen, Douglas Gordon, Constanze Haas, Raimar Stange, Silke Wittig).
23 March – 21 December, www.nordsternturm.de
Per/Form: How to do things with[out] words, Madrid, Spain
The Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo presents this exhibition around the idea of performance, featuring 16 installations plus workshops and live performances. There will be three ‘intensity days’ during the show, taking place on 22 March, 10 May and 20 September, which will see concentrated and increased levels of activity such as special performances and talks. Featuring a wide-range of artists including Camille Henrot, Haroon Mirza, Ryan Gander and Carey Young, a space described as ‘The Intensity Lab’ will present archive material generated during the ongoing project.
22 March – 21 September, www.ca2m.org
