Celebrating its 45th anniversary next year, the Biennale of Sydney will be presented over twelve weeks from Friday, 16 March until Monday, 11 June 2018 (Preview 13-15 March), at multiple locations throughout Sydney. It will feature major new commissions and recent work by contemporary artists from Australia and around the world.

Mit Jai Inn, Junta Monochrome #1, 2016, oil on canvas. 800 x 800 x 50 cm.

Courtesy the artist; Gallery Ver, Bangkok; and Cartel Artspace, Bangkok Photograph: Jirat Ratthawongjirakul

The 21 artists announced today as part of the first reveal include one artist duo, ten artists from throughout Asia, five European artists, four Australian artists and one artist from North America. The initial list of artists is as follows:

• Eija-Liisa Ahtila (Born 1959 in Finland, lives and works in Helsinki)
• Ai Weiwei (Born 1957 in China, lives and works in Beijing)
• Brook Andrew (Born 1970 in Australia, lives and works in Melbourne)
• Oliver Beer (Born 1985 in England, lives and works in Paris and London)
• Anya Gallaccio (Born 1963 in Scotland, lives and works in San Diego)
• Laurent Grasso (Born 1972 in France, lives and works in Paris and New York)
• N.S. Harsha (Born 1969 in India, lives and works in Mysore)
• Mit Jai Inn (Born 1960 in Thailand, lives and works in Chiang Mai)
• Kate Newby (Born 1979 in New Zealand, lives and works in Auckland and New York)
• Noguchi Rika (Born 1971 in Japan, lives and works in Okinawa)
• Nguyen Trinh Thi (Born 1973 in Vietnam, lives and works in Hanoi)
• Ciara Phillips (Born 1976 in Canada, lives and works in Glasgow)
• Koji Ryui (Born 1976 in Japan, lives and works in Sydney)
• Semiconductor (Ruth Jarman, born 1973 in England, and Joe Gerhardt, born 1972 in England,
live and work in Brighton)
• Yasmin Smith (Born 1984 in Australia, lives and works in Sydney)
• George Tjungurrayi (Born c. 1943 in Australia, lives and works in Kintore)
• Nicole Wong (Born 1990 in Hong Kong, lives and works in Hong Kong)
• Wong Hoy Cheong (Born 1960 in Malaysia, lives and works in Kuala Lumpur)
• Yukinori Yanagi (Born 1959 in Japan, lives and works in Hiroshima)
• Haegue Yang (Born 1971 in South Korea, lives and works in Berlin and Seoul)
• Jun Yang (Born 1975 in China, lives and works in Vienna, Taipei and Yokohama)

Artistic Director, Mami Kataoka (Tokyo-based Chief Curator of the Mori Art Museum) said: “We are delighted to reveal the first 21 artists who will participate in the 21st Biennale of Sydney on will include around 70 artists in total, with conversations presently underway with more than 40 artists from around Australia and, including some of the world about their participation in the 45th anniversary edition.”

Commenting on the curatorial premise for the 21st Biennale of Sydney, Kataoka said: “Next year’s Biennale will explore multiple viewpoints in search of a state of equilibrium. With a holistic view, the 21st Biennale of Sydney will also seek in-depth engagement with individuals and communities while exploring a range of perspectives and meanings of abstractions. Rather than focusing on a specific concept or theme, the exhibition will suggest multi-layered perspectives of the world and its histories simultaneously. In July this year, the exhibition title will be announced along with details of the themes and concerns informing this edition.”

Kataoka described the Biennale experience as: “a journey; a walk through microcosms of the world today based on the stratum of history, human knowledge, emotions, desires and beliefs, as well as the mysteries of natural phenomena and the whole of the universe.”

To commemorate the organisation’s 45th anniversary, the exhibition will revisit the Biennale’s rich history through a close examination of its Archive, drawing on 45 years of art and encounters. Since its inception in 1973, the Biennale of Sydney has showcased the work of nearly 1,800 artists from more than 100 countries, building a reputation as one of the leading international art events.

To view more detailed information on this initial list of artists participating in the 21st Biennale of Sydney, please visit biennaleofsydney.com.au

Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation and Three Shadows Photography Art Centre are delighted to announce Katarzyna Kozyra’s first solo exhibition in China, opening on July 16, 2016 at the Beijing branch of Three Shadows Photography Art Centre.
Jointly curated by Beijing-based art critic and curator Manuela Lietti, Warsaw-based curator and Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation Director Anna Walewska, as well as the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre’s in-house curator Chen Shen, this exhibition acts as a retrospective featuring the most significant pieces of Kozyra’s artistic practice. The show, co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in Poland, touches upon all the major issues investigated and questioned in Kozyra’s body of work from the very beginning of her career in the 1990s to the present day. The body, (self-)identity, female physicality, contemporary concepts of beauty and gender, and the often-difficult encounter with the Other are just some of the issues that play a prominent role in Katarzyna Kozyra’s oeuvre, and have also made the artist one of the most acclaimed yet controversial contemporary artists, in Poland and around the world. Thanks to her commitment to such universal issues, Kozyra has also been a key figure in pushing Polish art into the international realm, making it an active player in global contemporary discourse.
Pyramid of Animals, the piece that brought the artist to international prominence and marked her debut in the contemporary art scene, will be partially re-created on site by showing never-before-seen archival materials and drawings that describe the genesis of one of the most controversial pieces of art ever created by a contemporary artist. Four videos (Cheerleader, Diva.Reincarnation, Il Castrato, and Summertale), part of the cycle In Art Dreams Come True, will show the artist’s focus on her own self-definition and on the boundaries within this process that stretch beyond stereotypes and fixed societal roles. Men’s Bathhouse, first exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and for which Kozyra won an honorable mention, will be presented through a selection of video stills and a video. Casting. Mor, focusing on Kozyra’s project for an autobiographical film, will be juxtaposed with her ongoing project Looking for Jesus, a documentary film in which Kozyra is not an actor, but a spectator who investigates the effects and “faces” of the Jerusalem syndrome through the eyes and actions of people who believe themselves to be present-day Messiahs. Self-irony and mockery dominate The Midget’s Gallery, a series of artistic interventions that redefined or at least shed new light on the global art market and the history of art. The exhibition will also feature a completely new site-specific arrangement of two of Kozyra’s major pieces devoted to the world of dance: Faces and The Rite of Spring.
This exhibition highlights the specific yet universal nature of Kozyra’s performative ethos in light of Chinese performance art practice and Chinese contemporary art. Kozyra’s approach is the result of a specific methodology applied to create artworks where performance, documentary, cinema, and photography mix and shape new trajectories for art itself. This blending of genres is rarely found in the work of Chinese artists of the same generation, making her contribution even more valuable.

About the artist:
Katarzyna Kozyra was born in 1963 in Warsaw. She is a sculptor, photographer, performance artist, filmmaker, and author of video installations and artistic actions. In 1993, she graduated from the Sculpture Department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In 1998, she finished her postgraduate work in the New Media Department at the Hochschule für Graphik und Buchkunst in Leipzig with Prof. Helmut Mark. In 2011, she obtained her doctorate from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.
Kozyra’s activities have been crucial in the development of the new Polish art movement known as Critical Art, and they have heavily influenced Polish contemporary culture, often as a starting point for a broader discussion at an international level. In 2013, the Huffington Post named Katarzyna Kozyra one of the ten most important female artists of the new millennium.
Over the last few decades, Kozyra’s work has been exhibited at major museums and institutions worldwide, including the Venice Biennale (Venice), São Paulo Biennale (São Paulo), Sidney Biennale (Sidney), Busan Biennale (Busan), Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen (Düsseldorf), Kulturhuset (Stockholm), Museum Voor Moderne Kunst (Arnhem), Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig (Wien), Brooklyn Museum (New York), Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki), CCA (Tel-Aviv) among others.
She has received the Paszport Polityki Award (1997), the Award of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2011), and the Polish Film Institute / Museum of Modern Art Award at the 39th Film Festival in Gdynia for her idea for an experimental movie Project X. In 1999, she received an honorable mention at the 48th Venice Biennale for the video installation Men’s Bathhouse, exhibited in the Polish Pavilion. She has received a number of grants, such as the DAAD Scholarship (Berlin 2003) and the Kosciuszko Foundation Scholarship (New York 2000). In 2012, she established the Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation, which focuses on supporting women’s activities in the area of culture and art.
www.katarzynakozyra.pl

About Three Shadows Photography Art Centre:
Three Shadows Photography Art Centre is a non-profit art centre in Beijing established in 2007 by photographers RongRong and inri. Three Shadows is the first contemporary art space dedicated exclusively to photography and other lens-based art in China. A converted auto repair yard, the 4,600 square meter complex includes 880 square meters of gallery space and was designed by renowned artist and architect Ai Weiwei. Three Shadows is situated in the art district of Caochangdi, on the outskirts of Beijing.
www.threeshadows.cn
About the curators:
Manuela Lietti is an independent Italian art critic and curator specialized in contemporary Asian art. In 2003, she graduated from the department of Oriental Languages and Civilizations at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, having written her bachelors’ thesis on contemporary Chinese artist Yang Shaobin. After her graduation, she moved to Beijing where in 2007, she obtained her master’s degree in Chinese History of Art and Art Criticism from the Academy of Art and Design of Tsinghua University. Since 2003, Manuela has been active as a curator, critic, and coordinator in the field of gallery and museum exhibitions as well as public art projects, in China and abroad. She has cooperated with CAFA Art Museum (Beijing), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Venice Biennale (Venice), Israel Museum (Jerusalem), DSL Collection (Paris), Galleria Continua (Beijing), Associazione Arte Continua (San Gimignano, Beijing), The Chinese Ministry of Culture, The Italian Ministry of Culture. She is a correspondent for the art magazine Arte e Critica-Art and Criticism and regularly contributes to a number of other art publications included Frieze, Flash Art, artforum.com.cn and Artron.net.
Anna Walewska graduated from the Art History department of the University of Warsaw in 2012. Her research interests include mainly contemporary art and film history as well as women’s issues. During her studies she completed an internship at the Institute of Industrial Design (2008, Warsaw) and Zacheta – National Gallery of Art (2010, Warsaw). From 2008 to 2010 she worked at the Department of Education of the National Museum in Warsaw. Since 2010 she has been working with Katarzyna Kozyra, initially as her personal assistant. Her professional experience includes working as an editor (for Rochstar Sp. z o.o., and Agora S.A., among others) and as a business manager. Anna is also a curator and producer of artistic and film projects. She is also the Director of the Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation, which she has been creating from its outset.

Chen Shen, who was born and raised in China, holds an MFA in photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan; an M.Sc. in New Media from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; and a B.A. in International Politics from Peking University, Beijing. Chen Shen is currently the curator of Three Shadows Photography Art Centre for which he curated and organised numerous exhibitions included “The 7th Three Shadows Photography Award Exhibition” (2015), “The 2nd Three Shadows Experimental Image Open Exhibition” (2015), “On Methods – Solo Exhibition by Candida Höfer” (2015), “Chinese Photography: Twentieth Century and Beyond” (2015), “Land Representation (Program of Jimei X Arles International Photo Festival)”(2015), “Scripts of the Bodies: From the Collection of Three Shadows Photography Art Centre” (2016), “The 8th Three Shadows Photography Award Exhibition” (2016), “Kassel Fotobook Festival & Editions Bessard | Beijing” (2016), “Shanghai 2002 – Bettina Rheims & Serge Bramly” (2016), “Father and Son – Solo Exhibition by Grégoire Korganow.”

Notes & Memes
Performance art, Jannis Kounellis, Seth Price, pavilions, architect designed booths, immigration, refugees, surveillance, green trousers (again),…

Chinese art
No, not much this year, except for some major works in Art Unlimited: Ding Yi, Cheng Ran, Colin Siyuan Chinnery, Birdhead. And not many galleries: ShanghART, Vitamin Creative Space, Long March Space, and Galerie Urs Meile and Galleria Continua, and Marlborough had a Song Yige, and Thaddaeus Ropac had a Yan Pei Ming. Hmm. But compare the prices: great art from China is cheap compared to (often not so great art) from Western galleries, or even Chinese art in Western galleries.

Classics & Masters
Art Basel is not just about selling famous one-name artists—the Picassos, Pollocks and Warhols—but also about remembering other masters, whether still living—Haim Stainbach, Jannis Kounellis, and Liang Shaoji and Seth Price; or not—László Maholy-Nagy.

Performance art was not only present in Art Unlimited–here Jannis Kounellis “Da inventare sul posto” (To Invent on the Spot), 1972, with Cy Twombley-esque painting, it was first performed at Documenta 5 in 1972 and maybe, just maybe, he is not taking it altogether Cyrioiusly (Luxembourg & Dayan, New York & London

Perfection. Roy Lichtenstein “Landscape with Red Sky” 1985 (Kukje Gallery, Seoul & Tina Kim Gallery, New York)

László Maholy-Nagy—Almost unpronounceable Modern hero slowly being remembered (some never forgot)

A hugely underrated artist—Liang Shaoji “Nature Series Candle”, 2011 (ShanghART, Shanghai, Beijing & Singapore)

Jackson Pollock at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York.

Anna Opperman in the Feature section was a new iteration of the late artist’s recent show at Barbara Thumm, Berlin

Feature section

Vanguard video artist, Lynn Hershman Leeson’s “Roberta Breitmore Series” was in the Feature section (Waldburger Wouters, Brussels)

Statements
This is the section for young, emerging galleries with solo-presentations.

Mary Reid Kelley’s “This Is Offal”. video work won the Baloise Art Prize in the Statements section (Arratia Beer, Berlin)

Jasper Spicero “T.U.R.T.L.E.” 2016 (Johan Berggren Gallery, Helsinki) in Statements—the story of making a set with a turtle and then making a movie about what was made.

Daniel Jacoby in Statements (Maisterravalbuena, Madrid)

Always painting
Because…there is always painting…but Art Basel is where you will find the best (that is purchasable).

Lesley Vance “Untitled” 2016 (Xavier Hufkens, Brussels)

Neo Rauch “Dieb” 2004 (David Zwirner, London & New York)

Small but perfect, Peter Doig’s “Girl with Skiis” 1997 (Michael Werner Gallery, New York, London, Berlin)

Wang Xingwei “The Divine Anti-Japanese Goose No.2″ (2015-2016, oil on canvas, 240 × 315 cm) (Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing & Lucerne)

Toby Ziegler at Simon Lee Gallery (Hong Kong, London, New York)

oh yes, this IS a painting.

Door to perception—Andreas Slominski “2655 GGG” 2016 (Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt)

And installation and sculpture

Mary Kelly (Mitchell-Innes Nash)

Günther Ueker “Baume aus einem Stamm” (Trees from One Trunk), 2009-2015 (Dominique Lévy, New York, London, Geneva)

(foreground) Monika Sosnowska “Untitled” 2016 (background) Seth Price “Untitled” 2006 (Galerie Gisela Capitain, Berlin)

Ob the second visit you notice other things

Richard Prince at Almine Rech Gallery

neugerriemschneider booth, with the theme of nature, including Olafur Eliasson, Ai Weiwei, …well you know already. But the green trousers are not part of the display.

Olafur Eliasson “Cosmic Gaze” 2016, 329 glass spheres, at Tanya Bonakdar

Cao Fei at Vitamin Creative Space – not the robotic vacuum cleaner.

Jolle Tuerlinckx (Galerie nächst St.Stephen Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna)

David Hammons and John Chamberlain (right) at Mnuchin Gallery

Koenraad Dedobbeleer at Mai 36 Galerie

Seth Price

Olafur Eliasson at neugerriemschneider

Ugo Rondinone at Eva Presenhuber

Doris Salcedo at White Cube – riffing on Rachel Whiteread?

Matthew Barney at Gladstone Gallery

Koenraad Dedobbeleer at Mai 36 Galerie

And now we go to Art Unlimited—Joseph Kosuth “Titled (Art as Idea as Idea)” [Nothing] (1968) (Sean Kelly New York and Sprüth Magers, Berlin, London & New York)

A Collection of Firsts

Osage Gallery invites you to navigate human-to-human connections in a virtual world by Maurice Benayoun.

The exhibition JUST DIG/IT! presents for the first time as large-scale installations, Inside the Tunnel under the Atlantic (1995, video, 22”30’) and Inside the Paris-New Delhi Tunnel (1997, video, 13”00’). Presented will also be Tunnel Shots, produced at the Pompidou Center during the exhibition of Tunnel under the Atlantic (1995), never before shown to the public.

The work, Tunnel Under the Atlantic is recognised as the:

• First intercontinental virtual reality installation;
• First virtual reality installation with real time dynamic architecture, and;
• First virtual video director;
• First virtual photo reporter;
• First virtual librarian using artificial intelligence;
• First virtual composer
• First real time video meeting inside a virtual reality environment;
• First user centric content in a virtual reality environment.

Tunnel Under the Atlantic (1995)

In 1995, when the Web was just emerging, Maurice Benayoun created a virtual underground world using images from the collection of French National Museums and the Museum of Civilizations, Quebec. The work took place simultaneously at the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal – linking the two cities in the world’s first virtual Tunnel Under the Atlantic. Images from the museum collections formed “cultural obstacles” that visitors had to dig through in Paris and Montreal respectively, led by nothing other than sound and music composed by Martin Matalon in order to meet each other.

Unlike the virtual reality technologies prior to this, which worked predominantly with predetermined, fixed virtual environments, the structure of the virtual tunnels are a formless mass of data and uninformed matter until the user makes certain decisions. The users are thus the pioneering navigators of a constellation of information points that shift based on their input. Benayoun had conceived of a society of intelligent virtual agents, each of whom facilitates the user to discover this virtual environment, while also producing artworks within this world. The team consists of:

• The Librarian: a content manager – draws up the images from the museum collections, anticipating visitors’ desires.
• The Architect: facilitates the digging into these images to form the tunnels
• The Video Director: shoots and edits footage of the entire journey in real time
• The Photo Reporter: captures still shots of the tunnel digging and all the “galleries” created by the participants
• The Composer: composes music and manages the audio mixing in real time

Each agent evolves, improving their skills and changing their topics or their resources, learning alongside the participants.

In his 1995 review of the Tunnel Under the Atlantic published in Le Monde, Jean-Paul Fargier describes the experience of digging as, “indeed entering images. Not only in what they represent, but in their very fabric. Walking, discovering secret channels, curling up in their folds, being lost in their frames, watching them throb, and bouncing from one to the other like playing hopscotch in an infinite curve.”

Colors Tunnel and Borders Tunnel (2016)

The Colors and Borders Tunnels are newly developed in 2016.

Colors Tunnel. Opening up the data set that the virtual environment draws from from museum image collections to the Internet, this new tunnel probes issues surrounding colors. Stemming from the notion of “stereotypes” in the original sense of the word, meaning printing plates used to create the same image, the artist questions how images of colors so often used to represent superficial layers of perception, represent and contribute to our understandings of specific shifts in culture. The images are of Hong Kong, tagged with different colors, and are received at random from the web.

The Borders Tunnel, similarly created in 2016, draws from the internet images related to geopolitical boundaries, questioning their direct impact on peoples’ difficulties to move, meet and live together.

In 2016, participants will dig and explore these tunnels using their whole bodies. Motion detection technologies allow the virtual agents to learn from participants’ body language. The virtual space of the tunnels and physical space of the gallery are thus merged.

Ultimately, participants are faced with the question of what it truly means to “connect”. Because of the internet, we now have access to an enormous amount of information and the ability to connect across the globe – yet, has this truly helped us foster cross cultural understandings? Are these materials just more cultural obstacles to be dug through? Is there such thing as a “common”, universal body of data? Do these images reflect real tensions, social and political issues? What are the different factors which “color” the information that we see, and filters that which is accessible and prominent in our cycles of attention? And how do these images affect how we view and connect with one another?

The Colors Tunnel and Borders Tunnel reminds us of what “distance” means between people when it is more than a geographic challenge. The tunnels can be a transient method for the creation of a cross-boundary, cross-cultural, cross-social and cross-political space for dialogue. Yet, tunnels are not short cuts. The process of carving, and digging through complex and abundant information and the effort that it takes is key. This is the beginning of a deeper investigation to rediscover the true meaning of distance and the real potential of dialogue.

Music for these new tunnels are composed by Jean-Baptiste Barrière.

About the Artist
Maurice Benayoun AKA MoBen 莫奔, is a French artist based in Hong Kong. A pioneer of Open Media Art, MoBen’s highly diverse work explores all the artistic fields of expression, using various media from photography and video to urban large-scale installations.

His work has been exhibited in major contemporary art museums (Centre Pompidou, MAC Lyon, MAC Montreal, Kiasma (Helsinki), Eyebeam, Moving Image (NYC), ICC (Tokyo), Machida Museum, Museum of Art Seoul, Chi K11 Art Space, (Shanghai) and the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, etc.) Commissioned by biennials and part of many public and private collections, MoBen’s work has won numerous international awards including the coveted Golden Nica, Ars Electronica Prize.

Benayoun is a contributor to the vibrancy and activation of Hong Kong’s new media arts scene. He is the initiator and curator of the Open Sky Campus Project, which made possible the use of the ICC as an urban screen and platform for emerging media artists. He has also been involved in a number of media art projects in Hong Kong such as Fleeting Light: the Fourth Large Scale Interactive Media Arts Festival as co-curator, ISEA 2016 Hong Kong, as a member of the organizing committee and IFVA, as a jury panel member. Benayoun is also currently Professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.

About Osage Gallery
Osage Gallery was established in Hong Kong in 2004 and grew quickly to become one of Asia’s largest commercial gallery groups. Osage has become well known in the art world for its uncompromising support for the most challenging and critically thought-provoking contemporary art.

Osage Gallery dances the edge of the latest innovations in art, culture and technology and is a platform for forward thinking and new ideas. Osage Gallery is curatorially driven and aims to be a catalyst for creative expression and the active engagement of audiences. Its programmes of exhibitions, publications and research examine the questions that shape and inspire us as individuals, and our cultures and communities.

Osage Gallery has gained wide international recognition for the global, multidisciplinary and diverse approaches of its programmes. Osage was the first Hong Kong gallery to feature at the Statements section of Art Basel, Basel in 2011, the Spotlight section at Frieze Masters in London in 2012, Arte Fiera in Bologna, Italy, 2014, Art Cologne in Germany, 2014, and is one of the first Hong Kong galleries to participate in Moving Image New York, 2014. Osage has also participated in Art Hong Kong from 2008 – 2012 and at Art Basel, Hong Kong from 2013-2016.

Osage Gallery invites you to navigate human-to-human connections in a virtual world by Maurice Benayoun.

The exhibition JUST DIG/IT! presents for the first time as large-scale installations, Inside the Tunnel under the Atlantic (1995, video, 22”30’) and Inside the Paris-New Delhi Tunnel (1997, video, 13”00’). Presented will also be Tunnel Shots, produced at the Pompidou Center during the exhibition of Tunnel under the Atlantic (1995), never before shown to the public.

The work, Tunnel Under the Atlantic is recognised as the:

• First intercontinental virtual reality installation;
• First virtual reality installation with real time dynamic architecture, and;
• First virtual video director;
• First virtual photo reporter;
• First virtual librarian using artificial intelligence;
• First virtual composer
• First real time video meeting inside a virtual reality environment;
• First user centric content in a virtual reality environment.

Tunnel Under the Atlantic (1995)

In 1995, when the Web was just emerging, Maurice Benayoun created a virtual underground world using images from the collection of French National Museums and the Museum of Civilizations, Quebec. The work took place simultaneously at the Pompidou Center in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Montreal – linking the two cities in the world’s first virtual Tunnel Under the Atlantic. Images from the museum collections formed “cultural obstacles” that visitors had to dig through in Paris and Montreal respectively, led by nothing other than sound and music composed by Martin Matalon in order to meet each other.

Unlike the virtual reality technologies prior to this, which worked predominantly with predetermined, fixed virtual environments, the structure of the virtual tunnels are a formless mass of data and uninformed matter until the user makes certain decisions. The users are thus the pioneering navigators of a constellation of information points that shift based on their input. Benayoun had conceived of a society of intelligent virtual agents, each of whom facilitates the user to discover this virtual environment, while also producing artworks within this world. The team consists of:

• The Librarian: a content manager – draws up the images from the museum collections, anticipating visitors’ desires.
• The Architect: facilitates the digging into these images to form the tunnels
• The Video Director: shoots and edits footage of the entire journey in real time
• The Photo Reporter: captures still shots of the tunnel digging and all the “galleries” created by the participants
• The Composer: composes music and manages the audio mixing in real time

Each agent evolves, improving their skills and changing their topics or their resources, learning alongside the participants.

In his 1995 review of the Tunnel Under the Atlantic published in Le Monde, Jean-Paul Fargier describes the experience of digging as, “indeed entering images. Not only in what they represent, but in their very fabric. Walking, discovering secret channels, curling up in their folds, being lost in their frames, watching them throb, and bouncing from one to the other like playing hopscotch in an infinite curve.”

Colors Tunnel and Borders Tunnel (2016)

The Colors and Borders Tunnels are newly developed in 2016.

Colors Tunnel. Opening up the data set that the virtual environment draws from from museum image collections to the Internet, this new tunnel probes issues surrounding colors. Stemming from the notion of “stereotypes” in the original sense of the word, meaning printing plates used to create the same image, the artist questions how images of colors so often used to represent superficial layers of perception, represent and contribute to our understandings of specific shifts in culture. The images are of Hong Kong, tagged with different colors, and are received at random from the web.

The Borders Tunnel, similarly created in 2016, draws from the internet images related to geopolitical boundaries, questioning their direct impact on peoples’ difficulties to move, meet and live together.

In 2016, participants will dig and explore these tunnels using their whole bodies. Motion detection technologies allow the virtual agents to learn from participants’ body language. The virtual space of the tunnels and physical space of the gallery are thus merged.

Ultimately, participants are faced with the question of what it truly means to “connect”. Because of the internet, we now have access to an enormous amount of information and the ability to connect across the globe – yet, has this truly helped us foster cross cultural understandings? Are these materials just more cultural obstacles to be dug through? Is there such thing as a “common”, universal body of data? Do these images reflect real tensions, social and political issues? What are the different factors which “color” the information that we see, and filters that which is accessible and prominent in our cycles of attention? And how do these images affect how we view and connect with one another?

The Colors Tunnel and Borders Tunnel reminds us of what “distance” means between people when it is more than a geographic challenge. The tunnels can be a transient method for the creation of a cross-boundary, cross-cultural, cross-social and cross-political space for dialogue. Yet, tunnels are not short cuts. The process of carving, and digging through complex and abundant information and the effort that it takes is key. This is the beginning of a deeper investigation to rediscover the true meaning of distance and the real potential of dialogue.

Music for these new tunnels are composed by Jean-Baptiste Barrière.

About the Artist
Maurice Benayoun AKA MoBen 莫奔, is a French artist based in Hong Kong. A pioneer of Open Media Art, MoBen’s highly diverse work explores all the artistic fields of expression, using various media from photography and video to urban large-scale installations.

His work has been exhibited in major contemporary art museums (Centre Pompidou, MAC Lyon, MAC Montreal, Kiasma (Helsinki), Eyebeam, Moving Image (NYC), ICC (Tokyo), Machida Museum, Museum of Art Seoul, Chi K11 Art Space, (Shanghai) and the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, etc.) Commissioned by biennials and part of many public and private collections, MoBen’s work has won numerous international awards including the coveted Golden Nica, Ars Electronica Prize.

Benayoun is a contributor to the vibrancy and activation of Hong Kong’s new media arts scene. He is the initiator and curator of the Open Sky Campus Project, which made possible the use of the ICC as an urban screen and platform for emerging media artists. He has also been involved in a number of media art projects in Hong Kong such as Fleeting Light: the Fourth Large Scale Interactive Media Arts Festival as co-curator, ISEA 2016 Hong Kong, as a member of the organizing committee and IFVA, as a jury panel member. Benayoun is also currently Professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.

About Osage Gallery
Osage Gallery was established in Hong Kong in 2004 and grew quickly to become one of Asia’s largest commercial gallery groups. Osage has become well known in the art world for its uncompromising support for the most challenging and critically thought-provoking contemporary art.

Osage Gallery dances the edge of the latest innovations in art, culture and technology and is a platform for forward thinking and new ideas. Osage Gallery is curatorially driven and aims to be a catalyst for creative expression and the active engagement of audiences. Its programmes of exhibitions, publications and research examine the questions that shape and inspire us as individuals, and our cultures and communities.

Osage Gallery has gained wide international recognition for the global, multidisciplinary and diverse approaches of its programmes. Osage was the first Hong Kong gallery to feature at the Statements section of Art Basel, Basel in 2011, the Spotlight section at Frieze Masters in London in 2012, Arte Fiera in Bologna, Italy, 2014, Art Cologne in Germany, 2014, and is one of the first Hong Kong galleries to participate in Moving Image New York, 2014. Osage has also participated in Art Hong Kong from 2008 – 2012 and at Art Basel, Hong Kong from 2013-2016.

A contemporary art fair in the heart of Hong Kong, Art Central returns to the iconic Victoria Harbour 23-26 March 2016 [First Night 21 March, VIP Preview 22 March]. Timed to coincide with Art Basel’s Hong Kong edition, Art Central 2016 presents over 100 galleries from 21 countries, with over 75% hailing from Asia.

With increased representation from the region, the parallel fair of world-class standing is working hard to create a distinctly Asian edge and cement Hong Kong as the cultural center of the Asian contemporary art scene. The fair welcomes returning gallery highlights such as SCHUEBBE INC. (Dusseldorf), RED GATE GALLERY (Beijing), GAZELLI ART HOUSE (London, New York), RICHARD KOH FINE ART (Kuala Lumpur), HIVE CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART (Beijing), ETHAN COHEN FINE ARTS (New York), GALLERY HYUNDAI (Seoul), GALERIE ANITA BECKERS (Frankfurt), and FINALE ART FILE (Manila). While new additions include GANA ART (Seoul), SIN SIN FINE ART (Hong Kong), WHITESTONE GALLERY (Tokyo, Hong Kong), LEEHWAIK GALLERY (Seoul), DOMINIK MERSCH GALLERY (Sydney), MICHAEL GOEDHUIS (London, New York) and GALERIE FORSBLOM (Helsinki).

A strong gallery line-up is complemented by a six-day public program including SCREEN X EXPERIMENTA a curated platform for experimental and narrative, motion picture filmmakers. Curated by Gina Wong, founder and director of Experimenta Hong Kong, the program will comprise of three distinct themes World Drama, Poetry and Stage and will feature recent productions by filmmakers from across the world, including Bahrain, France, Iceland, Spain, Japan, Algeria, Australia and Hong Kong.

“SCREEN X EXPERIMENTA has a freshness and authenticity that is sure to impress and surprise fair visitors. These films are Asian premieres and specially curated for the second edition of Art Central, which promises to be a selective and daring fair.” Gina Wong, Director Experimenta

Other program highlights include interactive installations and new media work, engaging panel discussions by Asia Society Hong Kong Center and performances and roundtable conversations by 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Click here to view the full program.

VIP ACCESS

Art Basel and Art Central VIP cardholders receive unlimited access to the fair including the invitation-only VIP Preview on Tuesday 22 March, 10am-6pm

TICKETS

FIRST NIGHT: Monday 21 March, 5pm-9pm HK$500

GENERAL ENTRY: Book tickets in advance and get two for the price of one, as well as enjoy fast-track entry to the fair for HK$230. Click here to book.

Opening days: September 8–13

Ekaterinburg
Russia

uralbiennale.ru

Founder: National Center for Contemporary Art
Commissioner: Alisa Prudnikova

The 3rd Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art will open on September 9 and close on November 10, 2015 in Ekaterinburg and 10 other cities of the Ural region.

The Biennial’s curators, Li Zhenhua (Beijing/Zurich) and Biljana Ciric (Shanghai), have announced the list of Russian and international artists for the Main project. 50 artists from 20 countries all around the world will take part in the exhibition, including Yoko Ono (New York), Alfredo Jaar (New York), Tino Sehgal (Berlin) and Lee Kit (Taipei/Hong Kong).

Alisa Yoffe, Polina Kanis, Svetlana Shuvaeva, Anatoly Vyatkin, Victor Davydov, and Yurko Koval are included in the list of Russian artists, as well as Timofey Radya, the most famous Ekaterinburg-based artist.

Alisa Ioffe, “Punk Fraction 2″, Photopaper, ink. 2014.

List of artists participating in the Main project:

Biljana Ciric’s project titled “Spaces for Maneuver—Between Abstraction and Accumulation”

Tang Da Wu (Singapore), 3-ply (Australia, Melbourne), Lee Kit (Hong Kong / Taiwan, Taipei), Wong Hoy Cheong (Malaysia, Penang), Les Gens d’Uterpan (France, Paris), Shi Yong (China, Shanghai), Sinisa Ilic (Serbia, Belgrade), Pratchaya Pinthong (Thailand, Bangkok), Jonathas de Andrade (Brazil, Recife), Ho Tzu Nyen  (Singapore), Marysia Lewandowska (UK, London), Nguyen Trinh Thi (Vietnam, Hanoi), Marta Popivoda (Serbia, Belgrade), Jompet (Indonesia, Yogyakarta), Li Liao (China, Shenzhen), Tino Sehgal (Germany, Berlin), Yoko Ono (USA, New York), Yu Youhan (China, Shanghai), Alfredo Jaar (USA, New York)

Li Zhenhua’s project titled “No Real Body”

Marianne Muller (USA, New York), !Mediengruppe Bitnik (Switzerland , Zurich), Com & Com (Switzerland, Zurich), Yiquan Wang (China, Shanghai), Wenfeng Liao & Bignia Wehrli (Germany, Berlin), Сatherine Biocca (Germany, Berlin), Thomas Eller (Germany, Berlin), Chen Shaoxiong (China, Beijing), Xu Qu (China, Beijing), Yan Xing (China, Beijing), Zheng Yunhan (China, Beijing), Yan Lei (China, Beijing), Xu Tan (China, Guangzhou), Chen Qiulin (China, Beijing), Yuan Gong (China, Shanghai), Lu Pingyuan (China, Shanghai), Hu Fang (China, Beijing), Double Fly Art Centre (China, Hangzhou), Ju Anqi (China, Beijing), 9 mouth (China, Beijing), Ehsan Ul Haq (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Chris Paul Daniel (UK, Manchester), Kwan Sheungchi (China, Hong Kong), Knut Asdam (Norway, Oslo), Marianne Heier (Norway, Oslo), Salla Tyyka (Finland, Helsinki), Chim Pom (Japan, Tokyo), Marc Lee (Switzerland, Zurich), Tang Nannan (Xiamen, China), Cao Kai (Changzhou, China).

Alisa Yoffe, Polina Kanis, Svetlana Shuvaeva, Anatoly Vyatkin & Victor Davydov, Yurko Koval are in the list of Russian artists, as well as Timofey Radya, the most famous Ekaterinburg-based artist.

Jompet Kuswidananto, “Model of Mass and Explosion”, Object, 2014.

The key term of the 3rd Ural Industrial Biennial is Mobilization, understood here as an ability to change and rise to a fundamentally different level. Curator Li Zhenhua imagines his project, titled No Real Body, as an extreme way to find out if art has a starting point or an original source of creative energy. Biljana Ciric’s exhibition, titled Spaces for Maneuver—Between Abstraction and Accumulation, projects the general theme of Biennial Mobilization through centering the exhibition around the individual body as a site and tool, negotiating individual existence between social abstraction and accumulation, proposing to imagine rather than to produce.

The curatorial concepts will follow the logic of the space of the historic Iset Hotel, which will house a larger part of the Biennial’s programs—the main project, the final exhibition of the Artist-in-Residence program and research projects. The Iset is an integral part of the NKVD residential compound, which became popularly known as Gorodok chekistov (Town of NKVD officers); it is one of the most impressive architectural landmarks of Ekaterinburg and an outstanding example of international constructivist architecture of the 1920s–30s.

Siniša Ilić, “Gathered version 3”, Wall painting, photograph, chairs, tape, 2014.

Main programs of the 3rd Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art

As part of the Artist-in-Residence program, artists from seven countries visited nine working enterprises of the Ural region from July 13–26, 2015. This trip constituted a research stage of the program, allowing the artists to immerse themselves into different stages of manufacturing process and prepare a series of site-specific projects.

Svetlana Shuvaeva, “Untitled”, Paper, acrylic markers, 2014.

List of artists participating in the Artist-in-Residence program

Alexander Morozov (Russia), Vladimir Marin (Russia), Evegeniya Machneva (Russia), Fyodor Telkov (Russia), Yuliya Kostereva and Yuri Kruchak (Ukraine), Stéphane Thidet (France), Jesus Palomino (Spain), Jacopo Mandich(Italy), David Siepert & Stefan Baltensperger (Switzerland), Bernhard Rehn (Austria), Ars Virtua (Russia / USA).

The Biennial’s special project will continue a study of the industrial theme in art initiated by curator Kirill Svetlyakov in his exhibition Modern Art Museum: The Department of Labour and Employment, prepared for the State Tretyakov Gallery. The exhibition will be presented at the Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts and will use part of the museum’s collection.

The Ural Federal University has become a strategic partner of the Biennial’s intellectual platform for the third time and will host an international symposium “Strategies of Mobilization” with Pierre Belanger (Princeton School of Design), Sarah Wilson (Courtault Institute), Anthony Gardner (Oxford, Ruskin School of Art) and other international intellectuals as guest speakers.

The Biennial’s performance platform will take place in another constructivist masterpiece—a former Ural Worker Printing House—and will consist of a promenade-theater, a dance performance and a special poetic concert specifically designed for the site and the occasion. It will draw upon the region’s performing arts cluster, including the drama school of Nikolay Kolyada and the world-famous contemporary dance companies.

If you would like to visit the 3rd Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, you can contact us at uralncca@gmail.com.

Nguyen Trinh Thi, “In Smoke and Clouds”, Videostill, 2015.