19th Biennale of Sydney: You Imagine What You Desire
21 March–9 June 2014
The 19th Biennale of Sydney public program will include artists such as Tacita Dean, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Nathan Coley, Hubert Czerepok, Douglas Gordon, Callum Morton and John Stezaker, among others, in addition to numerous visiting curators and academics.
Underpinned by a schedule of talks, tours and film screenings, major events, performances and forums will take place across the 12-week period, with extensive opening, middle and end programs.
Opening weeks
The 19th Biennale’s opening weeks provide special opportunities to witness artist performances by Eglė Budvytytė, Hubert Czerepok, Sara van der Heide and Tori Wrånes, and performance works by Yingmei Duan, Bianca Hester and Mel O’Callaghan.
Acclaimed artist Douglas Gordon will deliver the Keynote Address on the Biennale’s opening evening on Friday, 21 March.
An Artist One-on-One program will be held on 20 to 21 March, in which members of the public will be given the opportunity to connect individually with artists such as Søren Thilo Funder, Mikhail Karikis, Ann Lislegaard, Mathias Poledna, Randi & Katrine and Yhonnie Scarce. Audiences are invited to express their interest through the Biennale website, with participants selected via a ballot system and paired randomly with participating artists.
During the opening weekend (22–23 March), Artistic Director Juliana Engberg will lead a series of In Conversation talks with Biennale artists, featuring Bindi Cole, Nathan Coley, Gabriel Lester, Callum Morton and John Stezaker.
On Monday, 24 March, independent Polish curator Agnieszka Pindera will join 19th Biennale artists Hubert Czerepok, Agnieszka Kalinowska, Norman Leto and Agnieszka Polska for “Future Poland,” a panel discussion that will explore the transformative potential of artists in contemporary Poland. The next evening, artists Bodil Furu, Siri Hermansen and Susan Norrie will participate in “Where Angels Fear to Tread,” a panel discussion focusing on artists who embed themselves into communities to produce longer, documentary-style films.
Middle program
The Biennale’s middle program will take place from 30 April to 4 May, marked by the unveiling of the inaugural City of Sydney legacy artwork, a major new commission created especially for Sydney by renowned artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller.
From 1 to 4 May, the Biennale of Sydney and Carriageworks will present the world premiere of a commissioned work by celebrated artist Tacita Dean. Furthering Dean’s exploration of the relationship between the aural and the visual, Event for a stage (2014) will undoubtedly be a Biennale highlight. Four ticketed performances will be held across the performance dates, with Tacita Dean also participating in an In Conversation talk with Juliana Engberg on 4 May.
Closing the gap between the fields of art and cognition, the Art Gallery of NSW will present “The Amorous Procedure” on 3 May. Featuring keynote speaker Semir Zeki, Professor of Neuroesthetics at University College London, the forum examines the phenomenology of imagination, cognition and neural activity. On 4 May, Chief Curator at London’s Hayward Gallery, Stephanie Rosenthal, will present a lecture examining the production and presentation of performance in public institutions.
End program
The 19th Biennale’s final weekend begins with “Dream Factory,” a forum on Saturday 7 June that explores how the perceptive and psychological qualities of film influence the practice of contemporary artists. Hosted by Carriageworks, “Dream Factory” includes a keynote by Russell Ferguson, Professor of Art at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Joining forces with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Female Voices of VOX (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs), the Biennale will present Henrik Håkansson’s epic THE END (2011) at historic Pier 2/3 in Walsh Bay. Bringing together cinema and sound, this powerful work of life, death, tragedy and comedy is a climatic event to mark the final days of You Imagine What You Desire.
For the full announcement and public program details, visit 19bos.com.
Media information:
Oceania, Americas, Asia
Kym Elphinstone
Director, [art]iculate
T +61 (0) 421 106 139 / kym [at] articulatepr.com.au
Europe
Rhiannon Pickles
T +31 (0) 6158 21202 / rhiannon [at] picklespr.com
