Del 591: Periferins höst

Hösten kommer så småningom och när vi blickar dit kan konstateras att den domineras av De Asiatiska biennalerna, en kritikerslinga med 5 utställningar – och vi frågar oss, kommer det att förändra konstens geografi? Störst är Enwezors tillställning i Gwangju.

The 7th Gwangju Biennale
Sept. 5-Nov. 9, 2008
For ”Annual Report: A Year in Exhibitions,” artistic director Okwui Enwezor is not assembling his own contemporary art survey, but rather restaging shows that have taken place elsewhere in 2007, including the Whitney Museum’s Gordon Matta-Clark retrospective and David Adjaye’s ”African Cities” show at Harvard. Eighty-six artists are participating in all, with special commissions and new group exhibitions, dubbed ”Position Papers,” slated for the biennale’s five different venues.

Busan Biennale
Sept. 6-Nov. 15, 2008
This famously tripartite show — a contemporary art exhibition titled ”Expediture, Art, Culture,” a ”sea art festival” dubbed ”Voyage without Boundaries” and a sculpture project named ”Avant-Garden” — is organized by Hongik University prof Kim Won-bang and features works by 183 artists from 34 countries at South Korea’s Busan Museum of Modern Art and other venues.

Shanghai Biennale
Sept. 9-Nov. 16, 2008
Curator Zhang Qing and his team have selected more than 40 artists for this show, dubbed ”Translocalmotion” and focusing on the effects of migration, economic growth and social change on Chinese culture. Located at the Shanghai Art Museum, the exhibition boasts mini-retrospectives of three older artists as well as works sited in the adjacent People’s Square. Other public spaces, such as the central train station and the international airport, are also housing works in the biennial.

Singapore Biennale
Sept. 11-Nov. 16, 2008
For its second installment, this government-sponsored exposition — optimistically titled ”Wonder” — brings 50 artists from Asia and the world to a new Shigeru Ban-designed pavilion at the city’s Marina Bay development as well as to City Hall and several other venues. The selection of artists, which shows director Fumio Nanjo’s taste for new talent, ranges from Tarek Talat Al-Ghoussein (UAE) and Shirin Aliabadi and Farhad Moshiri (Iran) to Ben-David Zadok (UK) and Sima Zureiket (Jordan).

Yokohama Triennale 2008
Sept. 13-Nov. 30, 2008
Artistic director Tsutomu Mizusawa, whose curatorial team includes Daniel Birnbaum and Hans Ulrich Obrist, has selected ”Time Crevasse” as the theme of this exhibition, which presents works by more than 60 artists at several sites along the city’s waterfront. ”Art shakes up our everyday perceptions,” Mizusawa writes, adding that it ”gives us glimpses of the abyss we normally fail to notice.” Among the artists are John Armleder, Matthew Barney, Cao Fei, Paul Chan, Elmgreen & Dragset and Douglas Gordon.
Här ligger alltså konstens förnyelse i ambitionen att förflytta konstvärldens tyngdpunkt (och som ni ser är vår Daniel Birnbaum också inblandad tillsammans med den outtröttlige biennalveteranen Obrist). Ett annat uppslag kommer vi att möta i São Paulo biennalen i oktober där curatorn Ivo Mesquita kommer med In Living Contact som kretsar kring icke-utställningen Void. Performance och föreläsningar kommer att ersätta den traditionella uppställningen med bilder och installationer.

Som sagt, när det inte händer i konsten får det hända runt omkring. Och den som trodde något annat: Biennalkonceptet lever och frodas.