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The Biennale of Sydney is located on the traditional lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land and pay respect to Elders, both past and present.

I managed to catch Sydney Biennial in its last week. Venue after venue, it seemed as if after the 2014 edition with its Israel sponsorship controversy and the future-focused 2016 one that put it back on the agenda of interesting art events, the 2018 edition struggled with its own identity. Some reviewers called the exhibition quietly contemplative and subtle, but then there was the Ai Weiwei’s refugee boat in the middle of Cockatoo Island (the venue itself steeped in history of shipbuilding and migration). It seemed like an attempt to put current politics into the event, albeit a rather unsuccessful one given the banality of the work on the one hand and the lack of works engaging with Australia’s home made refugee crisis (although there are many interesting pieces about migration in general, especially within the Asian context). The title of the biennale chosen by the artistic director (the first Asian curator of the Biennale) Mami Kataoka was “Superposition – equilibrium and engagement” and was apparently inspired by quantum mechanical theories, but all this offered little clue as to how to navigate the show. After trying to unpack some curatorial threads in vain, I succumbed instead to the experience of enjoying (or not) single artworks and their relationships and juxtapositions. Perhaps this was the crux of the curatorial concept.

It was certainly a great experience to visit all the Biennale venues that included Sydney’s main galleries and museums such as Art Gallery of NSW, Carriageworks, Cockatoo Island, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia or Sydney Opera House. But I felt the works on display were mostly lacking in urgency and political agency, even of the more quiet, contemplative, or documentary kind. One exception was Cercle d’Art Des Travailleurs de Planation Congolaise – Renzo Marten’s new work done in collaboration with Congolese plantation workers to be sold in the art market with the profits shared in a cooperative model.

The state of belief in political agency of art was perhaps best symbolised by Marco Fusinato piece titled “Constellations” and shown at Carriageworks. A baseball club was chained to the wall for visitors to hit the wall with. This sanctified pseudo-violence on the body of a white cube, but only allowed within the parameters of the chain, reminded me of ritualisation and sanitisation of many protests; a liberal, middle-class outlet for frustration, but with the status quo unbruised. It was a depressing metaphor of expecting political art in galleries to do anything and it further strengthened my conviction that art remains mostly irrelevant to the wider world as long as it is only confined to  the symbolic plane of its institutions.

When Sydney Biennale was launched in 1973 it was the third biennale in the world, but with the proliferation of similar events worldwide it has lost its importance. Perhaps a look at the pertinent and politically urgent local issues closer to home will resuscitate it. Brook Andrew, the artistic director of the 2020 Biennale of Sydney said on his appointment that he was interested in “shining a light on the active, stable and rich pre-existing collaborations and connectivity of Indigenous and Edge cultures”.

Or perhaps biennale as a format has served its time and needs to be replaced with a more relevant one. I, for one, can’t wait for that to happen.

 


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