|
|
| YINCHUAN BIENNALE FOR AN IMAGE, FASTER THAN LIGHT CURATED BY BOSE KRISHNAMACHARI September 9 - December 18, 2016 |
 |
|
The first edition of the Yinchuan Biennale which will open on September 9, 2016 with the participation of 74 artists from 33 countries including China and will culminate on December 18, 2016. The YC Biennale 2016 is contextualizing some of the most important issues confronting the world from the scientific to the spiritual, from the psychic to the philosophical, from the catastrophic to the celebratory. The theme chosen for this edition curated by Bose Krishnamachari - For an Image, Faster Than Light - is an eonic examination in eternities that the contemporary artists are engaging in to find answers to the questions confronting a vitiated social, political, economic and physical environment, which, of course, is in a permanent flux and perhaps is elliptical in shape where the beginning suffuses with the end. Contemporary creation, social dynamics and cosmic connections are the investigative avenues artists, curators, critics, and scholars are being invited to discover as part of the happenstances and interactions programmed during YC Biennale 2016. The Chinese Year of the Monkey, which includes all the elements of nature, can be a springboard to begin a collective assertion of the value of art in imagining productive projects for the future: think the unthinkable and do the impossible. Consumption, the forbidding fallout of capitalism, has dropped us into the black hole of climate change. So this moment must be seized to examine the public costs of private profit; ascertain if capitalism can be aligned with ecological capacities. This is an attempt to feel the presence of a new sunlit pastoral beginning from the future. A light to be seen through art's eyes. YC Biennale brings the best of contemporary art from the art world. This biennale would be the first ever common meeting ground for artists like Anish Kapoor, Ai Weiwei, Yoko Ono, Liam Gillick, Mary Ellen Carroll, Liu Wei, Cao Fei, Ivan Navarro, Santiago Sierra, Slavs and Tartars, Song Dong and the latest BMW Art Journey award winner Abigail Reynolds. Among the artists are the Rolls Royce artist of the year Sudarshan Shetty who is also the curator of the forthcoming edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Apart from them there is an amazing array of creative minds from all over the world, each artist known for his/her unique and extremely individualistic art practices. They will be fashioning a biennale laying out a smorgasbord of delightful artistic delicacies. The hors d'ouevres will also include one of the youngest and brightest artists on the horizon like Alaa Mahmoud Alqedra from Sharjah to Kartik Sood from India to Farzana Ahmed Urmi from Bangladesh, the oldest among painters, 68 year-old Lala Rukh from Pakistan and the pivotal work of the late Gordon Bennett. The biennale also showcases the best selection of moving images to be screened in the specially created dark rooms in the white cube for the works of The Abraaj Group Art Prize 2016 winner Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, the mystical sojourn of Khaled Sabsabi, the Pacific quest of Lisa Reihana, the physical mediations of Yee I-Lann and the search for the missing, misplaced and displaced lives by filmmakers and artists Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige. For An Image, Faster Than Light has been conceived by Bose Krishnamachari artist, curator and co-founder of the Kochi Biennale Foundation and the co-curator of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale's first edition. In that respect he is a man of many firsts and has been the catalyst for many successful events. The inaugural Yinchuan Biennale proposes to create a discourse on all the conflicts that the world is currently confronted with and perhaps make possible propositions through a global creative confluence. With that ambitious goal in mind it seeks to have multiple disciplines, numerous components and several locations - indoors and outdoors. The YC Biennale 2016 is being created by the Museum of Contemporary Art Yinchuan, which reflects the Yellow River, set up by Madam Liu Wenjin and her sole funding. It aspires to be an international platform for creative artists who are exceptional to the world in general. The functions and programme of MOCA Yinchuan is conceptualized by its Artistic Director Xie Suchen. http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/yinch/ |
| Complete Artist List: |
| Abigail Reynolds (England), Achia Anzi (Israel), Ai Weiwei (China), Alaa Mahmoud Alqedra (UAE), Alke Reeh (Germany), Allard van Hoorn (Netherlands), Alvin Zafra (Phillipines), Ammar Al Attar (UAE), Andrew Miller (Scotland), Anish Kapoor (England), Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme (US), Basir Mahmood (Pakistan), Benitha Perciyal (India), Boedi Widjaja (Singapore), Brook Andrew (Australia), Cao Fei (China), Charbel-Joseph H. Boutros (Lebanon), Cristiana de Marchi (Italy), Dana Awartani (Saudi Arabia), Danie Mellor (Australia), Daniel Arsham (US), Dia Mehta (India), Donna Ong (Singapore), Fabrice Hyber (France), Farzana Ahemd Urmi (Bangladesh), Fred Eerdekens (Belgium), George Osodi (Nigeria), Gordon Bennett (Australia), Hassan Sharif (UAE), He Xiangyu (China), Heman Chong (Singapore), Hicham Berrada (Morocco), Hit Man Gurung (Nepal), Ivan Navarro (Chile), Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige (Lebanon), Jyothi Basu (India), Kartik Sood (India), Khaled Sabsabi (Lebanon/Australia), Lala Rukh (Pakistan), Larissa Sansour (Palestine), Li Jinghu (China), Liam Gillick (England), Lisa Reihana (New Zealand), Liu Shiyan (China), Liu Wei (China), Mao Tong Qiang (China), Mary Ellen Carroll (US), Matias Faldbakken (Norway), Min Thein Sung (Myanmar), Mohammed Kazem (UAE), Newsha Tavakolian (Iran), Nidhal Chamekh (Tunisia), Riyan Riyadi alias the Popok (Indonesia), Riyas Komu (India), Robert Montgomery (Scotland), Ryota Kuwakubo (Japan), Santiago Sierra (Spain), Shahpour Pouyan (Iran), Sherman Ong (Malaysia/Singapore), Shi Zhiying (China), Slavs and Tatars (Iran/Poland), Song Dong (China), Sonia Mehra Chawla (India), Sudarshan Shetty (India), Sushanta Kumar Maharana (India), Tim Silver (Australia), Tita Salina (Indonesia), Tu Hongtao (China), Valsan Koorma Kolleri (India), Yang Hongwei (China), Yee I-Lann (Malaysia), Yoko Ono (Japan), Zhang Ding (China) and Zihan Karim (Bangladesh) |
| CURATORIAL STATEMENT YINCHUAN BIENNALE 2016 For an Image, Faster Than Light The origin is the end, and the end is the origin. It is a circle. The distinction between the subtle and gross is in your ignorance. — Rabindranath Tagore The world we now live in is broken. That is a given. We try to heal it with the written word. The written word, however, is an afterthought, because the word only gave form to the image. An image that was lit by the light of our consciousness. A light that was colourful enough to make us understand the difference between the state of red and green. Red, a state of dominance and Green, a state of acceptance. Yinchuan stands at the cusp of the fault-line of these two colors. It is only natural that the Yellow river runs through it. Humanity on either side of the flowing water is aware of the impending doom that lies deep on the riverbed. It seeks the light that emanates within, waiting to be led from fear to freedom, chaos to order. In the search for modernity, mankind went astray in the here and now and left Truth by the wayside. There is recourse to be found in ancient scriptures like in the line from the Indian Upanishads–Tamaso mājyotir gamaya which pleads to be led from darkness to light, an elliptical flight that could take humanity back to its origins. That flight can be aided by the image in posterity, seen through the frosted glass on which soft fingers draw outlines to sift through the mist. The Truth, however, lies past that window, across the river. One needs to swim against the tide, like a blind man seeking the impossible language. A language that can only be felt on the tips of the fingers, a traversing to be sought only through artistic endeavors. Like picking pebbles from the river of thoughts and piling them one atop another so high as to reach the light, the light of collective enlightenment. We are grappling between an in-your-face inequality and a total and conscious refutation of the idea of equitable distribution of wealth. We’ll have to choose between the unpredictability of the complex world we occupy and the definitiveness of the destruction we leave behind. We have to go for either the eternal promise of the future or the potential of catastrophe lying underneath. We need to restore, reconstruct and rejuvenate that part of nature that society has damaged or conceive a radical new ‘dark ecology’. We have to account for the unscrupulously designed displacement of people’s destinies or work towards the inclusion of those doomed to be refugees forever. We can either isolate ourselves into different silos of religions or unite ourselves in the universal faith of humanity. And to think that a river of ideas can carry it with its flow! So what is the way forward from this quagmire that we find ourselves in? How do we extricate ourselves from the dilemma? The Chinese Year of the Monkey which includes all the elements of nature can be a springboard to begin a collective assertion of the value of art in imagining productive projects for the future: Think the Unthinkable and Do the Impossible to tackle the manifold troubles that has pushed the globe to the edge of an abyss. This biennale in China can thus postulate different themes, including spiritual and social consciousness, an examination of political narratives and critical global engagement and an acknowledgment of a collective responsibility therein. At the same time, also evaluate the dichotomy between the traditional and the contemporary vis-a-vis the use of technology. It is only if dialogues present persuasive perspectives that they can turn into sinews of seamless imagination. Conversations in Continuum. That which cruxes through dialogue the discrepancies between Need, Greed, Bleed and Feed. Consumption, the forbidding fallout of Capitalism, has tipped us into the black hole of Climate Change. It is essential that this moment must be seized to examine the public costs of private profit; ascertain if Capitalism can be aligned with ecological capacities. We need to determine how this greed-driven system, this runaway suicide machine can be dismantled. This is also the time to ask the question on whether a section of humanity, saddled with the cold comforts invented during its unsighted pursuit of happiness, has been afflicted by a white blindness. Whether that blessed percentage of humanity needs the warmth of a dotted language akin to Braille. So that it can thus feel the presence of a new sunlit pastoral beginning from the future that is just at a hand’s distance. A light to be seen through art’s eyes. It is indeed a circle, which we seek, from beginning to end, a light to hold within the image of a finger-bowl. Let’s traverse through the subtle and the gross to chase that light. Yinchuan Biennale The inaugural Yinchuan Biennale proposes to create a discourse on all the conflicts that the world is currently confronted with and perhaps makes possible propositions through a global creative confluence. With that ambitious goal in mind, it seeks to have multiple disciplines, numerous components and several locations — indoors and outdoors. It is being spearheaded by the Yinchuan’s Museum of Contemporary Art (YMoCA), which reflects the Yellow River. It will be held from September 9th 2016 to December 18th 2016. -Bose Krishnamachari February 22, 2016 |
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
 |
||
 |
|
 |
||
| Visit to Yinchuan Biennale Site | ||||
| Visit to Sonia Mehre Chawla's Page (Yinchuan Biennale Site) | ||||