The 17th Biennale of Sydney
There are two ways to view a biennale; the first is as a collection of (contemporary) art, so large that it only comes but once every two years; the other is as a museum show around a certain theme. The perspectives are similar, but differ at one crucial point. A museum show relies on a curator to direct the works in response to the subject, a collection of contemporary artists and their work does not. On a smaller scale the curation is important, however, as the scale increases it becomes increasingly difficult to link a hugely diverse group of artists together. This difficulty either leads to a failure in the curation, or a limited reading of the works.
Neither is a fair outcome. To expect a curator to maintain a tight theme amongst so many artists is unreasonable, and to force a diverse group of artists who all have strong individual practices into a box does not give them sufficient credit.
A way around this is to have a very general theme that can be associated with next to anything. This is not as bad as it sounds, an artistic director is an essential element to the organisation of a biennale, and they are always going to have some kind of thinking to justify their decisions, at least the broader themes allow for a more diverse range of artists to be brought to Sydney. There is a level of smugness that one must feel being able to choose any artist one wants and justifying through a vague concept of distance. Whether this has been used to its fullest advantage is debatable. The artist’s from the ‘new world’ feature prominently, some more deservedly than others.
Regardless, the 17th Biennale of Sydney has brought together a fantastic group of artists who have produced some fantastic works. My recommendation is to view them independently of the idea of ‘The Beauty of Distance: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age” and appreciate the dialogue that happens naturally between the works.