Les voix des fleuves Crossing the water

After two years of preparation, the Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art will welcome the public from September 21, 2024, to January 5, 2025. Welcome to the 17th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art!

The Biennale d’art contemporain de Lyon has been a major event on the international contemporary art scene since its first edition in 1991, supporting the creative arts, engaging with the public, and encouraging visitors to interact with the artworks. The Biennale has played an important part in the development of the whole region (the City of Lyon, the Greater Lyon area and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region). It also contributes vastly to France’s international reputation and has been a force for innovation in France, the Region, the City of Lyon and the Greater Lyon area. It all starts on September 21, 2024. We are delighted to welcome you aboard a 100-day cruise, taking in nine very different venues and seventy-eight artists. —Laurent Bayle, President, and Sabine Longin, General Director

The Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, one of the major milestones in the international cultural calendar, maintains its artistic momentum with this 17th edition, “Les voix des fleuves Crossing the water.” An important aim this year has been to do even more to strengthen the Biennale’s local roots through long-term initiatives in the city itself, the Greater Lyon area and the whole of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. 78 artists from the French and the international contemporary scene, some born as early as the 1940s and some as recently as the late 1990s, are taking part in this year’s Biennale. Nearly seventy new works are on show, including a number of long-standing collaborative projects with the residents and users of various neighbourhoods in the region. —Isabelle Bertolotti, Artistic Director

Human relationships and welcoming the Other are at the heart of this invitation to artists and to the public. The artists have freely interpreted this theme, injecting into it their own visions and experiences of what connects us, separates us, or brings us together. The works created for this edition speak of belief in the power of the collective, of the necessity for dialogue between human beings and with their environment in order to build, pass something on and to be at one with society. It is what Sally Rooney argues for and displays in her literary work, and particularly in Conversations Between Friends. She describes their complexity and the choices her characters face as they chart their course through the shifting landscape of their present, building alliances over the course of each encounter as if these were the foundations of their lives.

In a world where being open to the Other and engaging in dialogue have all too often become impossible, this 17th edition of the Lyon Biennale demonstrates its confidence in the art of our time by giving the artists their voice. What they have come up with is often very personal, but has also created a fertile dialogue with the spirit of the venues. The project has actually been devised on the basis of conversations with the artists, and dialogue between the artists and the venues. Over the weeks, this has turned into a chorus of narratives about one’s state of being with oneself, with the other, in an environment and with history–one’s own and that of others. A gaze turned upon oneself, but attention also turned towards others, are a thread that runs through the poems and writings of Sylvia Plath; it is asserted as an expression of the need to be able to speak with and about others. Drawing on the physical geography of this region, which is criss-crossed by waterways that serve as routes of communication, exchange and encounter, this edition of the Biennale pays homage to the voices and stories carried by rivers–waters to be crossed in order to reach out to others. —Alexia Fabre, Curator

78 artists / Almost 280 artworks, more than 100 never-before-seen ones, including 70 produced by the Lyon Biennale / nine venues / nine artists across 15 territories, working over an extended period of time, have carried out the creation of works alongside amateur participants, residents and users. / 300 events organized by more than 150 organizations across the entire territory as part of the Résonance program / More than 2000 art professionals and journalists are expected during the professional days from September 18 to 20.

Participating artists
Majd Abdel Hamid, Chantal Akerman, Pilar Albarracín, Iván Argote, Andrius Arutiunian, Delphine Balley, Taysir Batniji, Oliver Beer, Joséphine Berthou, Alix Boillot, Christian Boltanski, Aglaé Bory, Michel de Broin, Pavel Büchler, Mona Cara, Malo Chapuy, Nathan Coley, Tohé Commaret, Clément Courgeon, Luo Dan, Jérémie Danon, Bastien David, Jeremy Deller, Hélène Delprat, Julien Discrit, Edi Dubien, Latifa Echakhch, Elsa & Johanna, Sylvie Fanchon, Omer Fast,  Olivia Funes Lastra, Robert Gabris, Hilary Galbreaith,  Agnès Gayraud, Ludivine Gonthier, Juliette Green, Tirdad Hashemi & Soufia Erfanian, Healthy Boy Band feat. Public Possession, Vir Andres Hera, Chourouk Hriech, Suzanne Husky, Gözde Ilkin, Victoire Inchauspé, Jesper Just, Nadav Kander, Meri Karapetyan, Ines Katamso, Nadežda Kirćanski, Lina Lapelytė, Ange Leccia, Seulgi Lee, Clara Lemercier Gemptel, Guadalupe Maravilla, Florian Mermin, Annette Messager, Myriam Mihindou, Sahil Naik, Deimantas Narkevičius, Grace Ndiritu, Bocar Niang, Otobong Nkanga, Jean-Christophe Norman, Matthias Odin, Nefeli Papadimouli, Lyz Parayzo, Mathieu Pernot, Jennetta Petch & Szymon Kula, Liesl Raff, Lorraine de Sagazan, Sofía Salazar Rosales, Hajar Satari, Hans Schabus, Jalal Sepehr, Shivay la Multiple, Anastasia Sosunova, Zuri Camille de Souza, Stéphane Thidet, Feda Wardak.