30 Jun 2024
© Laura Peh
The most prevalent international biennial (or triennial) model today cites the original Venice Biennale of 1895 as a key reference and starting point. In 1893, the Venice City Council passed a resolution to stage an exhibition of contemporary Italian art, with the aim of revitalising the Giardini - then a large deserted area on the Eastern part of the main island. An exhibition space was constructed with a section allocated to present invited foreign artists. Over a fixed period of time, large-scale artworks were installed in the purpose-built space and opened to the public. The exhibition was deemed a success having attracted 224,000 visitors. Since then, biennials have become one of the most essential and visible public platforms for the production, distribution and discourse of contemporary art.
Today, different models of biennials exist with some solely taking place inside white-box spaces (Whitney, Sao Paolo), others located all around a city (Berlin, Sydney, Liverpool, Sharjah), and a handful with additional “national pavilions'' - inviting different countries to present an exhibition of their choosing (Venice, Gwangju). Despite its constant evolution, the core of a biennial, in loose terms, remains the same:
To present a survey of contemporary art – depending on the objectives, theme and curatorial concept, local and/or international artists are selected and commissioned for a biennial, introducing diverse art practices and ideas to the local population
To establish itself as a key reference point in the history of art – by presenting artists relevant to the biennial theme (often highlighting current issues that the world and society face), biennials have become a source for curators, institutions, art historians and collectors looking out for artists that could contribute to the evolution and transformation of art history and artistic practices
Urban renewal and cultural regeneration – through site-specific and large-scale commissions, forgotten or under-utilised public spaces are reinvigorated to house artworks. These often include warehouses, old train stations, schools, parks, purpose-built spaces and white-box art institutions located in isolated areas
Tourism – while majority of biennials aim to engage the local community, the celebration of the cultural life of a city is the crux that attracts both domestic and international visitors, and helps develop the brand of a city or country
Soft power – a platform to present national ideologies to the world, promoting a country’s artistic language and talent; through the “national pavilion” format - developing deeper relationships between countries and cultivating diplomatic relations with new countries through cultural exchange
These key features fall under two broad objectives – economic development and community development. Both require a long-term view of how biennials can shape and impact a city and its community - also known as sustainable change, which is the process of making improvements that will last over time, meeting the needs of the people today without impeding future generations. Sustainable change is achieved through leadership commitment, strategic alignment, community engagement, key performance indicators and evaluation. On average, biennials run between three to eight months, attracting up to 800,000 visitors as per the case of the Venice Biennale in 2022. Staging a biennial is an expensive venture, with budgets largely falling between 5 to 20 millions Euros per edition. For example, the Bruges Triennial 2024 (considered a "mini" biennial based on the number of artworks - 12) has a budget of 2.4 million Euros, of which 2.1 million is funded by the city of Bruges, with the Flemish Community contributing 200,000 Euros and the National Lottery of Belgium granting 100,000 Euros. Because of this, city biennials are often government-led, state-funded, and spearheaded by civil servants and government-affiliated agencies. In line with current national and future strategic plans, domestic and international interests, policymakers are increasingly observing how cultural placemaking initiatives can advance their objectives in areas such as city branding, transportation, housing, employment, social development, mobility, health care, environmental sustainability and education. This results in a collaborative approach from the beginning, involving a number of institutional and private stakeholders, urban planners, arts organisations and community groups. Different reasons exist as incentives for non-government stakeholders to support a biennial, which may include assuming corporate social responsibility, indicating personal interests as well as furthering organisational strategies in the region.
Regardless of where funding is sought, a key measure of success of a biennial is the response and engagement of the local community. Thus, leveraging the power of arts and culture to drive societal change and strengthen social bonds should be prioritised. Therein lies a tacit understanding that the local community must feel included – not only through a sense of belonging but also carrying the impression that they, too, can be active participants in the creation process. This means being accessible - which includes but is not limited to, financial, intellectual and physical factors. In turn, this structure creates jobs - in association with the biennial - for the local population, forming a fundamental building block for a healthy ecosystem and a knowledge hub for the operations and production of contemporary art.
The historic centre of Bruges in the West Flanders region of Belgium was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. Decades before, a series of visual arts triennials were organised in the years of 1968, 1971 and 1974, focusing on contemporary Belgian art and located in a museum-centric context. The biennial concept was revived again in 2015 by the City of Bruges, with the objective of developing its image of an “art city” - one that is equally contemporary as it is historical. But with its UNESCO stamp, the city faced a different set of challenges:
How can a protected city, where the focus is on non-construction, deal with change?
How can urban adaptations take place between the historic buildings?
How can the city handle the masses of tourists?
How can all these transformation ideas be implemented sustainably?
In greater depth, this edition of the Bruges Triennial, titled ‘Spaces of Possibility’, invites twelve artists and/or architecture firms to investigate and respond to these specific questions:
How can we safeguard the liveability of Bruges in a protective way?
How do we approach concepts such as sustainability and change in a UNESCO-protected environment where preservation is central?
How can contemporary art and architecture create a new framework for these issues?
The co-curators of the Bruges Triennial Shendy Gardin and Sevie Tsampalla are based in Belgium and assumed to be familiar with the city of Bruges. Together, they bring a selection of new local and international voices from 11 countries to the triennial, whose practices revolve around heritage, nature, urban environment to create fresh social, societal and ecological narratives that transcend the dominant paradigms.
The temporary nature of a biennial means boundaries can be shifted, ideas tested and fresh concepts implemented for each edition. The fourth edition of the Bruges Triennial runs for five months, taking over the historic centre of Bruges, coastal region of Zeebrugge as well as lesser-known districts in West Bruges. These areas were selected by the city of Bruges, having recently undergone a major transformation or had been hidden from view over the past decades. With just 12 site-specific installations, the triennial takes place entirely outdoors with visitors having to walk or cycle between locations. By spreading out artworks around the city, visitors are encouraged to explore parts of the city that they may not necessarily come across. The triennial is open 24 hours and seven days a week, free-of-charge and with informative text (available in English, French and Dutch) at each location that is comprehensible to the layman. A broad range of public programming from workshop to tours to seminars engage individual visitors, school groups, participating artists and curators of the triennial, opening up opportunities for discussion and education.
In the last decade, it has been noted within the art industry that biennials have become increasingly commercially-driven through various aspects including funding sources (e.g. sponsorship from brands with commercial interests), collateral events (e.g. commercial galleries presenting shows in the city in conjunction with the biennial) and intersecting with entertainment culture (e.g. collaborations with pop culture; immersive exhibitions that have proven to attract more audiences). This is not to say that the artistic quality and intellectual purity of biennials has diminished, but the probability of this happening can be expected. As a counter-argument to this consequence, we must look back at the underlying objectives of a public biennial - economic development and community development. The priority of the five core points of a biennial remains largely with the organisers and commissioning body, and accomplished by the appointed curators and their curatorial and programming teams. If the curator(s) have sufficient time, knowledge, training and creativity, it is not unreasonable to expect fresh ideas and appropriate artists to not only satisfy the terms and conditions that they are obliged to follow, which may include censorship, approval procedures and restrictions. These five points also enable a more functional and productive city, which directly impact foreign investment through city branding and revenue-generating activities in the community, which translates to positive impact and outcome. It is the amalgamation of all these factors that add value to the city becoming a more attractive destination, as well as helping to accelerate sustainable and lasting change in the city and its people.
The Bruges Triennial runs from 13 April to 1 September 2024, and is co-curated by Shendy Gardin (b. 1987, Bruges, BE) and Sevie Tsampalla (b. 1977, Kos, GR).
My Three Favourite Installations from the Bruges Triennial
1) ‘Grains of Paradise’ by Sumayya Vally (b. 1990, Laudium, ZA) comprises fourteen blackened pirogues that are moored at the Minnewater Bridge, in the south of Bruges near the train station. The slim canoes are filled with live plants, spices and herbs, including meleguenta pepper imported in bulk from the Gulf of Guinea. The canoes floating on water references the history of commercial exchange and trade of Bruges at its peak in the 14th and 15th centuries, particularly between West Africa and Belgium, which continues today. By installing this artwork on the Minnewater (lover’s lake), the irony of “lovers” can be interpreted as a nod to the city’s prosperous trade with West Africa, but also an acknowledgement to the city’s role in African slavery - majority of merchants lived in the trading cities of Antwerp and Bruges and (in many cases) undocumented Black Africans were transported in by ship as slaves in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese households. Vally, a Muslim South African, invites visitors to question the Western European perspective on colonial history and the effect of commercial interests and soft power in obscuring facts.
2) ‘Firesong for the bees, a tree of clay’ by Mariana Castillo Deball (b. 1975, Mexico City, MX) is a site-specific installation that can be found deep in the heart of the Sebrechts Park in the western part of Bruges in Belgium. Three light teal beehives, housing live bees, stand atop a large brown wooden structure, supported primarily by four pillars and an additional structure. These reinforcements are embedded with two-dozen handmade vessels, each carrying a unique design - a reference to historical apiculture (beekeeping) where hives were created from straw, clay and fired ceramics, before decorations were added to differentiate them. Alluding to ancient practices as well as the sacredness of beeswax and honey, three ceramic objects have been placed on the hives like altarpieces.
Climate change, biodiversity, extractivism and modernisation are integral topics of discussion today. As pollinators, bees are integral to the preservation of the natural ecosystem. The viewer is urged to reflect upon how the sustained existence of pollinators can be protected in the industrialised world of today. Castillo Deball highlights forgotten iconographies through ceramics and traditional methods of apiculture through the structure of housing an essential living species that are often forgotten. By integrating and presenting archaeology as contemporary art, we are confronted with the influence of ordinary objects on art history, and pushed to think about why these objects are often kept in ethnographic and anthropological collections, and not art museums. Paradoxically, it leads us to wonder if contemporary art would one day be classified as archaeology, anthropology or ethnography.
3) ‘Full Swing’ by Mona Hatoum (b. 1952, Beirut, LB | UK) calls for a single visitor to descend into a narrow, subterranean passage that has been excavated from the garden of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouw psychiatric hospital, bordering the train station in Bruges. The entire installation has been constructed from gabions - wire mesh cages filled with locally-sourced stones. In military and prison environments, gabions are a known containment system used to create partitions in both private and public spaces. After much caution and some concentration, one finds himself standing before a swing at the bottom of the stairs. Sitting on the swing, our body suddenly becomes liberated moving in a space replete with restriction, oscillating between discomfort and joy, imprisonment and freedom - just for a short period of time, allowing us to experience what patients feel like to exist within conditions of confinement. Full Swing is an extension of Hatoum’s long-standing interest in systems of discipline and control, as represented in the context of detention and imprisonment - tension that exists through the nature of the location as well as the architectural design of the installation.
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