Wednesday 4 December

The way Ian Cheng captures sounds and movements and inserts them into his animated movies before handing over the script writing to a computer for it to continue the story modifies any “natural”relationship we may have with reality. The computer tells a story, and the story continues without end. Inthe artist’s words, “The narrative on display is not ahuman story, but a living document of evolutionaryalgorithms fueling the mutation of recognizable formsinto unscripted combinations and disasters. A Gallimimus dinosaur, a Baiji dolphin, a coniferous tree, the Earth, the Moon, Mars, an aging celebrity athlete, acelebrity cartoon, a UAV drone, a disembodied hand, a platonic primitive, an ancient artifact, cinder blocks, precious fur, a sex toy, a microorganism, a nanobot, wood, hammer, rocks, dust, and other entities, readyand anxious to mutate forever.”

The way Ian Cheng captures sounds and movements and inserts them into his animated movies before handing over the script writing to a computer for it to continue the story modifies any “natural”relationship we may have with reality. The computer tells a story, and the story continues without end. Inthe artist’s words, “The narrative on display is not ahuman story, but a living document of evolutionaryalgorithms fueling the mutation of recognizable formsinto unscripted combinations and disasters. A Gallimimus dinosaur, a Baiji dolphin, a coniferous tree, the Earth, the Moon, Mars, an aging celebrity athlete, acelebrity cartoon, a UAV drone, a disembodied hand, a platonic primitive, an ancient artifact, cinder blocks, precious fur, a sex toy, a microorganism, a nanobot, wood, hammer, rocks, dust, and other entities, readyand anxious to mutate forever.”

The way Ian Cheng captures sounds and movements and inserts them into his animated movies before handing over the script writing to a computer for it to continue the story modifies any “natural”relationship we may have with reality. The computer tells a story, and the story continues without end. Inthe artist’s words, “The narrative on display is not ahuman story, but a living document of evolutionaryalgorithms fueling the mutation of recognizable formsinto unscripted combinations and disasters. A Gallimimus dinosaur, a Baiji dolphin, a coniferous tree, the Earth, the Moon, Mars, an aging celebrity athlete, acelebrity cartoon, a UAV drone, a disembodied hand, a platonic primitive, an ancient artifact, cinder blocks, precious fur, a sex toy, a microorganism, a nanobot, wood, hammer, rocks, dust, and other entities, readyand anxious to mutate forever.”

The way Ian Cheng captures sounds and movements and inserts them into his animated movies before handing over the script writing to a computer for it to continue the story modifies any “natural”relationship we may have with reality. The computer tells a story, and the story continues without end. Inthe artist’s words, “The narrative on display is not ahuman story, but a living document of evolutionaryalgorithms fueling the mutation of recognizable formsinto unscripted combinations and disasters. A Gallimimus dinosaur, a Baiji dolphin, a coniferous tree, the Earth, the Moon, Mars, an aging celebrity athlete, acelebrity cartoon, a UAV drone, a disembodied hand, a platonic primitive, an ancient artifact, cinder blocks, precious fur, a sex toy, a microorganism, a nanobot, wood, hammer, rocks, dust, and other entities, readyand anxious to mutate forever.”

The way Ian Cheng captures sounds and movements and inserts them into his animated movies before handing over the script writing to a computer for it to continue the story modifies any “natural”relationship we may have with reality. The computer tells a story, and the story continues without end. Inthe artist’s words, “The narrative on display is not ahuman story, but a living document of evolutionaryalgorithms fueling the mutation of recognizable formsinto unscripted combinations and disasters. A Gallimimus dinosaur, a Baiji dolphin, a coniferous tree, the Earth, the Moon, Mars, an aging celebrity athlete, acelebrity cartoon, a UAV drone, a disembodied hand, a platonic primitive, an ancient artifact, cinder blocks, precious fur, a sex toy, a microorganism, a nanobot, wood, hammer, rocks, dust, and other entities, readyand anxious to mutate forever.”

The way Ian Cheng captures sounds and movements and inserts them into his animated movies before handing over the script writing to a computer for it to continue the story modifies any “natural”relationship we may have with reality. The computer tells a story, and the story continues without end. Inthe artist’s words, “The narrative on display is not ahuman story, but a living document of evolutionaryalgorithms fueling the mutation of recognizable formsinto unscripted combinations and disasters. A Gallimimus dinosaur, a Baiji dolphin, a coniferous tree, the Earth, the Moon, Mars, an aging celebrity athlete, acelebrity cartoon, a UAV drone, a disembodied hand, a platonic primitive, an ancient artifact, cinder blocks, precious fur, a sex toy, a microorganism, a nanobot, wood, hammer, rocks, dust, and other entities, readyand anxious to mutate forever.”

David Douard finds that a story is often true but it feelsas if it has been invented. It can be written and givenshape in any kind of medium: pictures from Facebook,for example, scientific figures (especially if they havebeen forgotten about), science fiction, or sitcoms. Inhis installations, the printed word and carefully organisedmaterial (although it is not immediately obviousthat it is organised), multiple sequences and theirtemporalities are overlaid in the service of a narrativewhose thread we constantly lose. David Douardis telling us the first signs of a future, which couldas easily be the traces of a recent past, in which thework unfolds – in the indefinable time frame peculiar to fiction.

David Douard finds that a story is often true but it feelsas if it has been invented. It can be written and givenshape in any kind of medium: pictures from Facebook,for example, scientific figures (especially if they havebeen forgotten about), science fiction, or sitcoms. Inhis installations, the printed word and carefully organisedmaterial (although it is not immediately obviousthat it is organised), multiple sequences and theirtemporalities are overlaid in the service of a narrativewhose thread we constantly lose. David Douardis telling us the first signs of a future, which couldas easily be the traces of a recent past, in which thework unfolds – in the indefinable time frame peculiar to fiction.

David Douard finds that a story is often true but it feelsas if it has been invented. It can be written and givenshape in any kind of medium: pictures from Facebook,for example, scientific figures (especially if they havebeen forgotten about), science fiction, or sitcoms. Inhis installations, the printed word and carefully organisedmaterial (although it is not immediately obviousthat it is organised), multiple sequences and theirtemporalities are overlaid in the service of a narrativewhose thread we constantly lose. David Douardis telling us the first signs of a future, which couldas easily be the traces of a recent past, in which thework unfolds – in the indefinable time frame peculiar to fiction.

David Douard finds that a story is often true but it feelsas if it has been invented. It can be written and givenshape in any kind of medium: pictures from Facebook,for example, scientific figures (especially if they havebeen forgotten about), science fiction, or sitcoms. Inhis installations, the printed word and carefully organisedmaterial (although it is not immediately obviousthat it is organised), multiple sequences and theirtemporalities are overlaid in the service of a narrativewhose thread we constantly lose. David Douardis telling us the first signs of a future, which couldas easily be the traces of a recent past, in which thework unfolds – in the indefinable time frame peculiar to fiction.

David Douard finds that a story is often true but it feelsas if it has been invented. It can be written and givenshape in any kind of medium: pictures from Facebook,for example, scientific figures (especially if they havebeen forgotten about), science fiction, or sitcoms. Inhis installations, the printed word and carefully organisedmaterial (although it is not immediately obviousthat it is organised), multiple sequences and theirtemporalities are overlaid in the service of a narrativewhose thread we constantly lose. David Douardis telling us the first signs of a future, which couldas easily be the traces of a recent past, in which thework unfolds – in the indefinable time frame peculiar to fiction.

Fabrice Hyber is using his time at the Biennale to write the autobiography of his oeuvre. He proceeds by accumulation, hybridisation and proliferation, slipping and sliding between drawing, painting, sculpture,installations and video, but also between science andart. Every one of his works is an evolutionary stage in a long-haul project, which spreads like a virus or athought web, establishing surprising connections that give rise, in their turn, to further investigations. Two story boards stand at the entrance to a games roomwhere we encounter the POF (Prototypes of Objectsin Function) and Hyber’s little green men, the greedy invaders that live in everyone’s mind.

Fabrice Hyber is using his time at the Biennale to write the autobiography of his oeuvre. He proceeds by accumulation, hybridisation and proliferation, slipping and sliding between drawing, painting, sculpture,installations and video, but also between science andart. Every one of his works is an evolutionary stage in a long-haul project, which spreads like a virus or athought web, establishing surprising connections that give rise, in their turn, to further investigations. Two story boards stand at the entrance to a games roomwhere we encounter the POF (Prototypes of Objectsin Function) and Hyber’s little green men, the greedy invaders that live in everyone’s mind.

Fabrice Hyber is using his time at the Biennale to write the autobiography of his oeuvre. He proceeds by accumulation, hybridisation and proliferation, slipping and sliding between drawing, painting, sculpture,installations and video, but also between science andart. Every one of his works is an evolutionary stage in a long-haul project, which spreads like a virus or athought web, establishing surprising connections that give rise, in their turn, to further investigations. Two story boards stand at the entrance to a games roomwhere we encounter the POF (Prototypes of Objectsin Function) and Hyber’s little green men, the greedy invaders that live in everyone’s mind.

Fabrice Hyber is using his time at the Biennale to write the autobiography of his oeuvre. He proceeds by accumulation, hybridisation and proliferation, slipping and sliding between drawing, painting, sculpture,installations and video, but also between science andart. Every one of his works is an evolutionary stage in a long-haul project, which spreads like a virus or athought web, establishing surprising connections that give rise, in their turn, to further investigations. Two story boards stand at the entrance to a games roomwhere we encounter the POF (Prototypes of Objectsin Function) and Hyber’s little green men, the greedy invaders that live in everyone’s mind.

Fabrice Hyber is using his time at the Biennale to write the autobiography of his oeuvre. He proceeds by accumulation, hybridisation and proliferation, slipping and sliding between drawing, painting, sculpture,installations and video, but also between science andart. Every one of his works is an evolutionary stage in a long-haul project, which spreads like a virus or athought web, establishing surprising connections that give rise, in their turn, to further investigations. Two story boards stand at the entrance to a games roomwhere we encounter the POF (Prototypes of Objectsin Function) and Hyber’s little green men, the greedy invaders that live in everyone’s mind.

Fabrice Hyber is using his time at the Biennale to write the autobiography of his oeuvre. He proceeds by accumulation, hybridisation and proliferation, slipping and sliding between drawing, painting, sculpture,installations and video, but also between science andart. Every one of his works is an evolutionary stage in a long-haul project, which spreads like a virus or athought web, establishing surprising connections that give rise, in their turn, to further investigations. Two story boards stand at the entrance to a games roomwhere we encounter the POF (Prototypes of Objectsin Function) and Hyber’s little green men, the greedy invaders that live in everyone’s mind.

An assemblage on the wall includes an electricalswitch, resin casts of elements from a cable management system hung with an industrial hanging system, and photographs Patricia Lenn ox-Boydtook of herself cooking eggs in her studio. Thephotographs embody an attempt to record theactivity of domestic labour while doing it: the cameramisfires, the artist’s own hand is caught in the frame.There is something to say about everything: dothe switches function even while they are also partof the work? Both the anthropomorphised resincasts, coloured according to a makeup range, andthe photographs are treated with the same severelogic of the hanging system. Patricia Lennox-Boydengages with an entanglement between production,reproduction and self-(re)production to composea narrative whose protagonist is the infrastructuresystems that are normally out of view.

An assemblage on the wall includes an electricalswitch, resin casts of elements from a cable management system hung with an industrial hanging system, and photographs Patricia Lenn ox-Boydtook of herself cooking eggs in her studio. Thephotographs embody an attempt to record theactivity of domestic labour while doing it: the cameramisfires, the artist’s own hand is caught in the frame.There is something to say about everything: dothe switches function even while they are also partof the work? Both the anthropomorphised resincasts, coloured according to a makeup range, andthe photographs are treated with the same severelogic of the hanging system. Patricia Lennox-Boydengages with an entanglement between production,reproduction and self-(re)production to composea narrative whose protagonist is the infrastructuresystems that are normally out of view.

An assemblage on the wall includes an electricalswitch, resin casts of elements from a cable management system hung with an industrial hanging system, and photographs Patricia Lenn ox-Boydtook of herself cooking eggs in her studio. Thephotographs embody an attempt to record theactivity of domestic labour while doing it: the cameramisfires, the artist’s own hand is caught in the frame.There is something to say about everything: dothe switches function even while they are also partof the work? Both the anthropomorphised resincasts, coloured according to a makeup range, andthe photographs are treated with the same severelogic of the hanging system. Patricia Lennox-Boydengages with an entanglement between production,reproduction and self-(re)production to composea narrative whose protagonist is the infrastructuresystems that are normally out of view.

An assemblage on the wall includes an electricalswitch, resin casts of elements from a cable management system hung with an industrial hanging system, and photographs Patricia Lenn ox-Boydtook of herself cooking eggs in her studio. Thephotographs embody an attempt to record theactivity of domestic labour while doing it: the cameramisfires, the artist’s own hand is caught in the frame.There is something to say about everything: dothe switches function even while they are also partof the work? Both the anthropomorphised resincasts, coloured according to a makeup range, andthe photographs are treated with the same severelogic of the hanging system. Patricia Lennox-Boydengages with an entanglement between production,reproduction and self-(re)production to composea narrative whose protagonist is the infrastructuresystems that are normally out of view.

An assemblage on the wall includes an electricalswitch, resin casts of elements from a cable management system hung with an industrial hanging system, and photographs Patricia Lenn ox-Boydtook of herself cooking eggs in her studio. Thephotographs embody an attempt to record theactivity of domestic labour while doing it: the cameramisfires, the artist’s own hand is caught in the frame.There is something to say about everything: dothe switches function even while they are also partof the work? Both the anthropomorphised resincasts, coloured according to a makeup range, andthe photographs are treated with the same severelogic of the hanging system. Patricia Lennox-Boydengages with an entanglement between production,reproduction and self-(re)production to composea narrative whose protagonist is the infrastructuresystems that are normally out of view.

Thiago Martins de Melo obsessively paints the narratives of his wife’s frequent and politically committed dreams, compounding their content with self-portraits and thoughts personal. In there sulting visual narratives, universal symbols and cultural representations of the ethereal, the virile and the sexual coexist wildly yet realistically on large format canvases. Painted collage, layers upon layers, memories and interpolated fragments all contribute to the aesthetics of voluntary excess with which Thiago Martins de Melo catches the flashes of wit, the dream memories and the lattice work of formal vocabulary that has its source in different Brazilian cultures.

Thiago Martins de Melo obsessively paints the narratives of his wife’s frequent and politically committed dreams, compounding their content with self-portraits and thoughts personal. In there sulting visual narratives, universal symbols and cultural representations of the ethereal, the virile and the sexual coexist wildly yet realistically on large format canvases. Painted collage, layers upon layers, memories and interpolated fragments all contribute to the aesthetics of voluntary excess with which Thiago Martins de Melo catches the flashes of wit, the dream memories and the lattice work of formal vocabulary that has its source in different Brazilian cultures.

Paulo Nimer Pjota is happy with any support. He takes as easily to the surface of a sheet of metal as to the texture of a canvas and marks out on the one or the other his tragic or light-hearted stories of urban life. The evocative realism of his works employs imagery straight out of the streets of São Paulo – plants, weapons, skulls, tools, isolated words and phrases, all floating free in a space which though indeterminate is definitely our own. Pjota’s narrative is never literal; inits blending of street codes with representational art, it creates forms that are enigmatic, violent and close to home.

Paulo Nimer Pjota is happy with any support. He takes as easily to the surface of a sheet of metal as to the texture of a canvas and marks out on the one or the other his tragic or light-hearted stories of urban life. The evocative realism of his works employs imagery straight out of the streets of São Paulo – plants, weapons, skulls, tools, isolated words and phrases, all floating free in a space which though indeterminate is definitely our own. Pjota’s narrative is never literal; inits blending of street codes with representational art, it creates forms that are enigmatic, violent and close to home.

Paulo Nimer Pjota is happy with any support. He takes as easily to the surface of a sheet of metal as to the texture of a canvas and marks out on the one or the other his tragic or light-hearted stories of urban life. The evocative realism of his works employs imagery straight out of the streets of São Paulo – plants, weapons, skulls, tools, isolated words and phrases, all floating free in a space which though indeterminate is definitely our own. Pjota’s narrative is never literal; inits blending of street codes with representational art, it creates forms that are enigmatic, violent and close to home.

Paulo Nimer Pjota is happy with any support. He takes as easily to the surface of a sheet of metal as to the texture of a canvas and marks out on the one or the other his tragic or light-hearted stories of urban life. The evocative realism of his works employs imagery straight out of the streets of São Paulo – plants, weapons, skulls, tools, isolated words and phrases, all floating free in a space which though indeterminate is definitely our own. Pjota’s narrative is never literal; inits blending of street codes with representational art, it creates forms that are enigmatic, violent and close to home.

Laure Prouvost is showing two works in the Biennale; one is the sequel to the other. Before Before, created in 2011, is a series of interleaving plywood boardswith little scenes hidden away in the corners. These take the form of videos, painted canvases, objects orsounds and texts telling the story of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Prouvost is operating with an intentionally dubious translation of Kafka’s text, where the sensecharms the spectator into a narrative that is at firstentertaining but is then progressively undermined bythe juxtaposition of other implicit narratives. Graduallya Surrealists element seems to infiltrate the work and isbacked up by drawings from the storyboard of a film inthe process of being made. These are hung at variouspoints in the installation. Behind a hidden door, is After After, a completely dark room in which sculptures,paintings and objects flicker into sight with the flashesof a strobe light, giving rise, in the words of the artist, to “a different kind of 3D film”.

Laure Prouvost is showing two works in the Biennale; one is the sequel to the other. Before Before, created in 2011, is a series of interleaving plywood boardswith little scenes hidden away in the corners. These take the form of videos, painted canvases, objects orsounds and texts telling the story of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Prouvost is operating with an intentionally dubious translation of Kafka’s text, where the sensecharms the spectator into a narrative that is at firstentertaining but is then progressively undermined bythe juxtaposition of other implicit narratives. Graduallya Surrealists element seems to infiltrate the work and isbacked up by drawings from the storyboard of a film inthe process of being made. These are hung at variouspoints in the installation. Behind a hidden door, is After After, a completely dark room in which sculptures,paintings and objects flicker into sight with the flashesof a strobe light, giving rise, in the words of the artist, to “a different kind of 3D film”.

Laure Prouvost is showing two works in the Biennale; one is the sequel to the other. Before Before, created in 2011, is a series of interleaving plywood boardswith little scenes hidden away in the corners. These take the form of videos, painted canvases, objects orsounds and texts telling the story of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Prouvost is operating with an intentionally dubious translation of Kafka’s text, where the sensecharms the spectator into a narrative that is at firstentertaining but is then progressively undermined bythe juxtaposition of other implicit narratives. Graduallya Surrealists element seems to infiltrate the work and isbacked up by drawings from the storyboard of a film inthe process of being made. These are hung at variouspoints in the installation. Behind a hidden door, is After After, a completely dark room in which sculptures,paintings and objects flicker into sight with the flashesof a strobe light, giving rise, in the words of the artist, to “a different kind of 3D film”.

Laure Prouvost is showing two works in the Biennale; one is the sequel to the other. Before Before, created in 2011, is a series of interleaving plywood boardswith little scenes hidden away in the corners. These take the form of videos, painted canvases, objects orsounds and texts telling the story of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Prouvost is operating with an intentionally dubious translation of Kafka’s text, where the sensecharms the spectator into a narrative that is at firstentertaining but is then progressively undermined bythe juxtaposition of other implicit narratives. Graduallya Surrealists element seems to infiltrate the work and isbacked up by drawings from the storyboard of a film inthe process of being made. These are hung at variouspoints in the installation. Behind a hidden door, is After After, a completely dark room in which sculptures,paintings and objects flicker into sight with the flashesof a strobe light, giving rise, in the words of the artist, to “a different kind of 3D film”.

James Richards surfs on a substratum of easily accessed images which he steals unashamedly – music videos, artists’ films, film archives, internet streaming and television. Pursuing the long artistic tradition of appropriation and sampling, he creates precise, sculptural installations. Here, Richards dramatises the means for projecting his film with such effects as the marked visual presence of technical references and by decentring the perspective. This is done to create a mismatch between the projected image and the atmosphere in the room, which he describes as “clinical” and like an airport. The film is asort of collage of found images. Its narrative structure is that of an abstract film for which the artist has decided to “monumentalise” the motifs and re-shootthem with tighter shots.

James Richards surfs on a substratum of easily accessed images which he steals unashamedly – music videos, artists’ films, film archives, internet streaming and television. Pursuing the long artistic tradition of appropriation and sampling, he creates precise, sculptural installations. Here, Richards dramatises the means for projecting his film with such effects as the marked visual presence of technical references and by decentring the perspective. This is done to create a mismatch between the projected image and the atmosphere in the room, which he describes as “clinical” and like an airport. The film is asort of collage of found images. Its narrative structure is that of an abstract film for which the artist has decided to “monumentalise” the motifs and re-shootthem with tighter shots.

How can the mind lose its memory? This recent work by Hiraki Sawa was inspired by the experience ofone of his friends who had to reinvent his life afterlosing his memory. Hiraki Sawa’s installation, which consists of two screens and a vinyl record playerhas a soundtrack, played forwards and in reverse,that tells this lost story. The camera perspectives differaccording to the direction in which it is played,some visual elements are lost while others are addedand some sequences are modified. The aesthetics ofSawa’s poetry lies in the quality of the image and itsslowness, on discreet cut-ins, echoes and effects ofscale. By blurring the linearity of the narrative through overlays and sound to image displacement, the artist enquires into the cognitive structures of memory –our own memory.With the support of the EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee.

How can the mind lose its memory? This recent work by Hiraki Sawa was inspired by the experience ofone of his friends who had to reinvent his life afterlosing his memory. Hiraki Sawa’s installation, which consists of two screens and a vinyl record playerhas a soundtrack, played forwards and in reverse,that tells this lost story. The camera perspectives differaccording to the direction in which it is played,some visual elements are lost while others are addedand some sequences are modified. The aesthetics ofSawa’s poetry lies in the quality of the image and itsslowness, on discreet cut-ins, echoes and effects ofscale. By blurring the linearity of the narrative through overlays and sound to image displacement, the artist enquires into the cognitive structures of memory –our own memory.With the support of the EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee.

How can the mind lose its memory? This recent work by Hiraki Sawa was inspired by the experience ofone of his friends who had to reinvent his life afterlosing his memory. Hiraki Sawa’s installation, which consists of two screens and a vinyl record playerhas a soundtrack, played forwards and in reverse,that tells this lost story. The camera perspectives differaccording to the direction in which it is played,some visual elements are lost while others are addedand some sequences are modified. The aesthetics ofSawa’s poetry lies in the quality of the image and itsslowness, on discreet cut-ins, echoes and effects ofscale. By blurring the linearity of the narrative through overlays and sound to image displacement, the artist enquires into the cognitive structures of memory –our own memory.With the support of the EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee.

This work by Alexandre Singh belongs to the Assembly Instructions series that he has beenworking on since 2008 and which is part of a widercycle of performances, lectures and installations. The drawings that make up the installation are fixed to thewall according to a scheme and connected together by dotted lines to suggest a portrait of the filmmaker  Michel Gondry. The installation dramatises the logicof lived experiences in a series of obsessive detailsdrawn from a phenomenal constellation of themesand characters. The Pledge analyses the way thehuman brain processes information, and uncovers itscapacity for transforming disparate elements into acoherent story. The work is based on a train journey interview with Gondry by Singh, with Pablo Picasso also taking part. Michel Gondry plays the part of aticket inspector who makes the tickets disappear bymagic with his ticket punch.

This work by Alexandre Singh belongs to the Assembly Instructions series that he has beenworking on since 2008 and which is part of a widercycle of performances, lectures and installations. The drawings that make up the installation are fixed to thewall according to a scheme and connected together by dotted lines to suggest a portrait of the filmmaker  Michel Gondry. The installation dramatises the logicof lived experiences in a series of obsessive detailsdrawn from a phenomenal constellation of themesand characters. The Pledge analyses the way thehuman brain processes information, and uncovers itscapacity for transforming disparate elements into acoherent story. The work is based on a train journey interview with Gondry by Singh, with Pablo Picasso also taking part. Michel Gondry plays the part of aticket inspector who makes the tickets disappear bymagic with his ticket punch.

This work by Alexandre Singh belongs to the Assembly Instructions series that he has beenworking on since 2008 and which is part of a widercycle of performances, lectures and installations. The drawings that make up the installation are fixed to thewall according to a scheme and connected together by dotted lines to suggest a portrait of the filmmaker  Michel Gondry. The installation dramatises the logicof lived experiences in a series of obsessive detailsdrawn from a phenomenal constellation of themesand characters. The Pledge analyses the way thehuman brain processes information, and uncovers itscapacity for transforming disparate elements into acoherent story. The work is based on a train journey interview with Gondry by Singh, with Pablo Picasso also taking part. Michel Gondry plays the part of aticket inspector who makes the tickets disappear bymagic with his ticket punch.

This work by Alexandre Singh belongs to the Assembly Instructions series that he has beenworking on since 2008 and which is part of a widercycle of performances, lectures and installations. The drawings that make up the installation are fixed to thewall according to a scheme and connected together by dotted lines to suggest a portrait of the filmmaker  Michel Gondry. The installation dramatises the logicof lived experiences in a series of obsessive detailsdrawn from a phenomenal constellation of themesand characters. The Pledge analyses the way thehuman brain processes information, and uncovers itscapacity for transforming disparate elements into acoherent story. The work is based on a train journey interview with Gondry by Singh, with Pablo Picasso also taking part. Michel Gondry plays the part of aticket inspector who makes the tickets disappear bymagic with his ticket punch.

For the Biennale de Lyon, Tavares Strachan tells the little-known story of the first American woman astronaut, Sally Ride, whose achievements were forgotten until her death in July 2011. As a homosexual andan eccentric, Sally Ride was not the stereotypical heroine. In a new series of sculptures, drawings and installations, Strachan retraces part of the history of the conquest of space and in so doing shows hisfascination for Ride and the capacity of matter andthe human body to stand up to hostile environments.Tavares Strachan studies these invisible forces in thisseries, using his own experience of hostile territories, which includes polar expeditions and astronaut training, and through a great deal of scientific research both historical and of his own.

For the Biennale de Lyon, Tavares Strachan tells the little-known story of the first American woman astronaut, Sally Ride, whose achievements were forgotten until her death in July 2011. As a homosexual andan eccentric, Sally Ride was not the stereotypical heroine. In a new series of sculptures, drawings and installations, Strachan retraces part of the history of the conquest of space and in so doing shows hisfascination for Ride and the capacity of matter andthe human body to stand up to hostile environments.Tavares Strachan studies these invisible forces in thisseries, using his own experience of hostile territories, which includes polar expeditions and astronaut training, and through a great deal of scientific research both historical and of his own.

For the Biennale de Lyon, Tavares Strachan tells the little-known story of the first American woman astronaut, Sally Ride, whose achievements were forgotten until her death in July 2011. As a homosexual andan eccentric, Sally Ride was not the stereotypical heroine. In a new series of sculptures, drawings and installations, Strachan retraces part of the history of the conquest of space and in so doing shows hisfascination for Ride and the capacity of matter andthe human body to stand up to hostile environments.Tavares Strachan studies these invisible forces in thisseries, using his own experience of hostile territories, which includes polar expeditions and astronaut training, and through a great deal of scientific research both historical and of his own.

Peter Wächtler’s work undermines the animated cartoon genre as much as it uses it, and his films often tell the story of a character in his private life. Loops and repetitive elements abound in his work and act as acritique of the amount of checking and monitoring in the world. Here Wächtler tells the story of two men, one of whom is complaining about being made the scapegoat of a group. The intended exaggeration and deadpan humour help create an uncomfortable tension between the spectators’ distance from the scene and their identification with the characters. Wächtler’swork makes much of the traditions and techniques of classical narratives. They appear as a means of rationalising the world and making sense of it.

With the support of the Goethe-Institut Lyon.

The story is about perspective. Tiananmen Square is recreated in 3D. It can be seen from every possibleangle, including the best, i.e. that of the tourists thatwe all are at some point. Yang Zhen Zhong’s work isboth discreet and savage as a satire of the supposedunity of contemporary China and the price of maintainingit. One step to the side, and the tanks have tostop; one step to the side, and the unity of the nineparts of the work is irretrievably broken. It is only bymeans of a single line of perspective that the unity ofthe Imperial City is held together. The artist swearsallegiance here to the Italian Renaissance, which fromGiotto to Alberti invented this perspective as a way ofdeconstructing the ideology that unifies and ordersthe world. The title of the work is a reprise of the slogan “Long live the People’s Republic of China. LongLive the Great Unity of the World’s Peoples”.

The story is about perspective. Tiananmen Square is recreated in 3D. It can be seen from every possibleangle, including the best, i.e. that of the tourists thatwe all are at some point. Yang Zhen Zhong’s work isboth discreet and savage as a satire of the supposedunity of contemporary China and the price of maintainingit. One step to the side, and the tanks have tostop; one step to the side, and the unity of the nineparts of the work is irretrievably broken. It is only bymeans of a single line of perspective that the unity ofthe Imperial City is held together. The artist swearsallegiance here to the Italian Renaissance, which fromGiotto to Alberti invented this perspective as a way ofdeconstructing the ideology that unifies and ordersthe world. The title of the work is a reprise of the slogan “Long live the People’s Republic of China. LongLive the Great Unity of the World’s Peoples”.

The story is about perspective. Tiananmen Square is recreated in 3D. It can be seen from every possibleangle, including the best, i.e. that of the tourists thatwe all are at some point. Yang Zhen Zhong’s work isboth discreet and savage as a satire of the supposedunity of contemporary China and the price of maintainingit. One step to the side, and the tanks have tostop; one step to the side, and the unity of the nineparts of the work is irretrievably broken. It is only bymeans of a single line of perspective that the unity ofthe Imperial City is held together. The artist swearsallegiance here to the Italian Renaissance, which fromGiotto to Alberti invented this perspective as a way ofdeconstructing the ideology that unifies and ordersthe world. The title of the work is a reprise of the slogan “Long live the People’s Republic of China. LongLive the Great Unity of the World’s Peoples”.

The story is about perspective. Tiananmen Square is recreated in 3D. It can be seen from every possibleangle, including the best, i.e. that of the tourists thatwe all are at some point. Yang Zhen Zhong’s work isboth discreet and savage as a satire of the supposedunity of contemporary China and the price of maintainingit. One step to the side, and the tanks have tostop; one step to the side, and the unity of the nineparts of the work is irretrievably broken. It is only bymeans of a single line of perspective that the unity ofthe Imperial City is held together. The artist swearsallegiance here to the Italian Renaissance, which fromGiotto to Alberti invented this perspective as a way ofdeconstructing the ideology that unifies and ordersthe world. The title of the work is a reprise of the slogan “Long live the People’s Republic of China. LongLive the Great Unity of the World’s Peoples”.

Thiago Martins de Melo obsessively paints the narratives of his wife’s frequent and politically committed dreams, compounding their content with self-portraits and thoughts personal. In there sulting visual narratives, universal symbols andcultural representations of the ethereal, the virile and the sexual coexist wildly yet realistically on large format canvases. Painted collage, layers upon layers,memories and interpolated fragments all contribute to the aesthetics of voluntary excess with which Thiago Martins de Melo catches the flashes of wit, the dream memories and the lattice work of formal vocabulary that has its source in different Brazilian cultures.

Nobuaki Takekawa’s contribution to the 2013 Biennale is of epic proportions. He describes it as an “ideological adventure” focusing on China, Asia and the Middle East. He proposes alternatives to the West’s great mythical narratives. Here maps, charts and objects form allegories that accumulate and unfold in space like exquisite accounts of personal, natural and cultural histories. Takekawa investigates the consequences of the Fukushima nuclear accidentas well as its causes and the global repercussions. Struck by the flagrant lack of reaction on the part ofthe authorities after the accident, Takekawa symbolises the history of the world as a galley full of slaves, rowing at the disembodied command of a world economygone completely mad – and with no one to stopthe ship drifting.

With the kind support of EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee

Nobuaki Takekawa’s contribution to the 2013 Biennale is of epic proportions. He describes it as an “ideological adventure” focusing on China, Asia and the Middle East. He proposes alternatives to the West’s great mythical narratives. Here maps, charts and objects form allegories that accumulate and unfold in space like exquisite accounts of personal, natural and cultural histories. Takekawa investigates the consequences of the Fukushima nuclear accidentas well as its causes and the global repercussions. Struck by the flagrant lack of reaction on the part ofthe authorities after the accident, Takekawa symbolises the history of the world as a galley full of slaves, rowing at the disembodied command of a world economygone completely mad – and with no one to stopthe ship drifting.

With the kind support of EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee

Nobuaki Takekawa’s contribution to the 2013 Biennale is of epic proportions. He describes it as an “ideological adventure” focusing on China, Asia and the Middle East. He proposes alternatives to the West’s great mythical narratives. Here maps, charts and objects form allegories that accumulate and unfold in space like exquisite accounts of personal, natural and cultural histories. Takekawa investigates the consequences of the Fukushima nuclear accidentas well as its causes and the global repercussions. Struck by the flagrant lack of reaction on the part ofthe authorities after the accident, Takekawa symbolises the history of the world as a galley full of slaves, rowing at the disembodied command of a world economygone completely mad – and with no one to stopthe ship drifting.

With the kind support of EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee

Nobuaki Takekawa’s contribution to the 2013 Biennale is of epic proportions. He describes it as an “ideological adventure” focusing on China, Asia and the Middle East. He proposes alternatives to the West’s great mythical narratives. Here maps, charts and objects form allegories that accumulate and unfold in space like exquisite accounts of personal, natural and cultural histories. Takekawa investigates the consequences of the Fukushima nuclear accidentas well as its causes and the global repercussions. Struck by the flagrant lack of reaction on the part ofthe authorities after the accident, Takekawa symbolises the history of the world as a galley full of slaves, rowing at the disembodied command of a world economygone completely mad – and with no one to stopthe ship drifting.

With the kind support of EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee

Zhang Ding is showing two works at La Chaufferie. One of them uses sound in sculptural form, the other describes the out-and-out violence implicit in a traditional Chinese cookery recipe. The religious shape of the tower, its austere outline and its straightness give Control Club a dark tone. The sound spreads out over 360 degrees. Its sources mingle the vibrations of bells, the dull noise of riots and a Beethoven symphony with undertones and overtones of victory songs. 

Zhang Ding is showing two works at La Chaufferie. One of them uses sound in sculptural form, the other describes the out-and-out violence implicit in a traditional Chinese cookery recipe. The religious shape of the tower, its austere outline and its straightness give Control Club a dark tone. The sound spreads out over 360 degrees. Its sources mingle the vibrations of bells, the dull noise of riots and a Beethoven symphony with undertones and overtones of victory songs. 

Zhang Ding is showing two works at La Chaufferie. One of them uses sound in sculptural form, the other describes the out-and-out violence implicit in atraditional Chinese cookery recipe. The religious shape of the tower, its austere outline and its straightness give Control Club a dark tone. The sound spreads outover 360 degrees. Its sources mingle the vibrationsof bells, the dull noise of riots and a Beethovensymphony with undertones and overtones of victorysongs. The other work, Buddha Jumps Over theWall, takes its inspiration from a famous Chinesedish which requires several days of preparation andis made with many rare and expensive ingredients.The aroma given off by this culinary speciality,reserved only for a selected few, presents suchsensual temptation that even Buddhist monks areunable to resist. In a country where food plays suchan important part, where any important discussion,whether politics or business, takes place around adinner table, the “temptation” offered by this dish is anallusion to the corruption of the system. A butcher, inthe role of anonymous killer, executes plaster animals,there in the guise of ingredients. As blood gushes inincreasing abundance out of their bodies, the masterof ceremonies begins again…

Zhang Ding is showing two works at La Chaufferie. One of them uses sound in sculptural form, the other describes the out-and-out violence implicit in atraditional Chinese cookery recipe. The religious shape of the tower, its austere outline and its straightness give Control Club a dark tone. The sound spreads outover 360 degrees. Its sources mingle the vibrationsof bells, the dull noise of riots and a Beethovensymphony with undertones and overtones of victorysongs. The other work, Buddha Jumps Over theWall, takes its inspiration from a famous Chinesedish which requires several days of preparation andis made with many rare and expensive ingredients.The aroma given off by this culinary speciality,reserved only for a selected few, presents suchsensual temptation that even Buddhist monks areunable to resist. In a country where food plays suchan important part, where any important discussion,whether politics or business, takes place around adinner table, the “temptation” offered by this dish is anallusion to the corruption of the system. A butcher, inthe role of anonymous killer, executes plaster animals,there in the guise of ingredients. As blood gushes inincreasing abundance out of their bodies, the masterof ceremonies begins again…

Nate Lowman blends the detritus of pop culture with the detritus of ordinary life to give us a stimulating interpretation of contemporary imagery – an almost simultaneous narrative of images created from completely disparate objects. For this Biennale, Lowman presents a new series of pictures to be taken as a single work. They are inspired by the illustrations for the flight safety instructions found in airplanes. Removed from their original context and often chosen for their bizarrely suggestive aspect, the images are reproduced in such a way that they create a storyboard– a different narrative accompanied by a different set of pictures.

Nate Lowman blends the detritus of pop culture with the detritus of ordinary life to give us a stimulating interpretation of contemporary imagery – an almost simultaneous narrative of images created from completely disparate objects. For this Biennale, Lowman presents a new series of pictures to be taken as a single work. They are inspired by the illustrations for the flight safety instructions found in airplanes. Removed from their original context and often chosen for their bizarrely suggestive aspect, the images are reproduced in such a way that they create a storyboard– a different narrative accompanied by a different set of pictures.

Nate Lowman blends the detritus of pop culture with the detritus of ordinary life to give us a stimulating interpretation of contemporary imagery – an almost simultaneous narrative of images created from completely disparate objects. For this Biennale, Lowman presents a new series of pictures to be taken as a single work. They are inspired by the illustrations for the flight safety instructions found in airplanes. Removed from their original context and often chosen for their bizarrely suggestive aspect, the images are reproduced in such a way that they create a storyboard– a different narrative accompanied by a different set of pictures.

Nate Lowman blends the detritus of pop culture with the detritus of ordinary life to give us a stimulating interpretation of contemporary imagery – an almost simultaneous narrative of images created from completely disparate objects. For this Biennale, Lowman presents a new series of pictures to be taken as a single work. They are inspired by the illustrations for the flight safety instructions found in airplanes. Removed from their original context and often chosen for their bizarrely suggestive aspect, the images are reproduced in such a way that they create a storyboard– a different narrative accompanied by a different set of pictures.

Nate Lowman blends the detritus of pop culture with the detritus of ordinary life to give us a stimulating interpretation of contemporary imagery – an almost simultaneous narrative of images created from completely disparate objects. For this Biennale, Lowman presents a new series of pictures to be taken as a single work. They are inspired by the illustrations for the flight safety instructions found in airplanes. Removed from their original context and often chosen for their bizarrely suggestive aspect, the images are reproduced in such a way that they create a storyboard – a different narrative accompanied by a different set of pictures.

Nate Lowman blends the detritus of pop culture with the detritus of ordinary life to give us a stimulating interpretation of contemporary imagery – an almost simultaneous narrative of images created from completely disparate objects. For this Biennale, Lowman presents a new series of pictures to be taken as a single work. They are inspired by the illustrations for the flight safety instructions found in airplanes. Removed from their original context and often chosen for their bizarrely suggestive aspect, the images are reproduced in such a way that they create a storyboard – a different narrative accompanied by a different set of pictures.

Nate Lowman blends the detritus of pop culture with the detritus of ordinary life to give us a stimulating interpretation of contemporary imagery – an almost simultaneous narrative of images created from completely disparate objects. For this Biennale, Lowman presents a new series of pictures to be taken as a single work. They are inspired by the illustrations for the flight safety instructions found in airplanes. Removed from their original context and often chosen for their bizarrely suggestive aspect, the images are reproduced in such a way that they create a storyboard – a different narrative accompanied by a different set of pictures.

Dineo Seshee Bopape tells stories which she sometimesinterrupts before they are finished, complementing standard linear narrative with the artistic chaos ofa practice founded on the simultaneous use of painting, performance, and video. Operating on the cuspof abrupt artistic gesture and intangible poetry, shetackles issues of race, gender, politics, psychologyand sexuality. Here Bopape presents a work with thetitle But that is not the important part of the story, asif to remind us that this installation was first createdas a performance in South Africa, her home country,before being sent to Lyon – to be interpreted.

Dineo Seshee Bopape tells stories which she sometimesinterrupts before they are finished, complementing standard linear narrative with the artistic chaos ofa practice founded on the simultaneous use of painting, performance, and video. Operating on the cuspof abrupt artistic gesture and intangible poetry, shetackles issues of race, gender, politics, psychologyand sexuality. Here Bopape presents a work with thetitle But that is not the important part of the story, asif to remind us that this installation was first createdas a performance in South Africa, her home country,before being sent to Lyon – to be interpreted.

Dineo Seshee Bopape tells stories which she sometimesinterrupts before they are finished, complementing standard linear narrative with the artistic chaos ofa practice founded on the simultaneous use of painting, performance, and video. Operating on the cuspof abrupt artistic gesture and intangible poetry, shetackles issues of race, gender, politics, psychologyand sexuality. Here Bopape presents a work with thetitle But that is not the important part of the story, asif to remind us that this installation was first createdas a performance in South Africa, her home country,before being sent to Lyon – to be interpreted.

Dineo Seshee Bopape tells stories which she sometimesinterrupts before they are finished, complementing standard linear narrative with the artistic chaos ofa practice founded on the simultaneous use of painting, performance, and video. Operating on the cuspof abrupt artistic gesture and intangible poetry, shetackles issues of race, gender, politics, psychologyand sexuality. Here Bopape presents a work with thetitle But that is not the important part of the story, asif to remind us that this installation was first createdas a performance in South Africa, her home country,before being sent to Lyon – to be interpreted.

Dineo Seshee Bopape tells stories which she sometimesinterrupts before they are finished, complementing standard linear narrative with the artistic chaos ofa practice founded on the simultaneous use of painting, performance, and video. Operating on the cuspof abrupt artistic gesture and intangible poetry, shetackles issues of race, gender, politics, psychologyand sexuality. Here Bopape presents a work with thetitle But that is not the important part of the story, asif to remind us that this installation was first createdas a performance in South Africa, her home country,before being sent to Lyon – to be interpreted.

Juliette Bonneviot tells the relatively simple tale ofan ecologist housewife and the waste she generates each day. The main character is called “Minimal Young Girl” and she follows all the United States guidelines to maximise a reduction in the production of rubbish. These guidelines, taken to absurd lengths, giverise to waste that in its turn becomes the material for an installation. Moving from fiction to fact, Bonneviot eventually decided to give the narrative an autobiographical slant by producing, herself, the (quite real) waste that she needed to produce herwork (of fiction).

Juliette Bonneviot tells the relatively simple tale ofan ecologist housewife and the waste she generates each day. The main character is called “Minimal Young Girl” and she follows all the United States guidelines to maximise a reduction in the production of rubbish. These guidelines, taken to absurd lengths, giverise to waste that in its turn becomes the material for an installation. Moving from fiction to fact, Bonneviot eventually decided to give the narrative an autobiographical slant by producing, herself, the (quite real) waste that she needed to produce herwork (of fiction).

Juliette Bonneviot tells the relatively simple tale ofan ecologist housewife and the waste she generates each day. The main character is called “Minimal Young Girl” and she follows all the United States guidelines to maximise a reduction in the production of rubbish. These guidelines, taken to absurd lengths, giverise to waste that in its turn becomes the material for an installation. Moving from fiction to fact, Bonneviot eventually decided to give the narrative an autobiographical slant by producing, herself, the (quite real) waste that she needed to produce herwork (of fiction).

Juliette Bonneviot tells the relatively simple tale ofan ecologist housewife and the waste she generates each day. The main character is called “Minimal Young Girl” and she follows all the United States guidelines to maximise a reduction in the production of rubbish. These guidelines, taken to absurd lengths, giverise to waste that in its turn becomes the material for an installation. Moving from fiction to fact, Bonneviot eventually decided to give the narrative an autobiographical slant by producing, herself, the (quite real) waste that she needed to produce herwork (of fiction).

Juliette Bonneviot tells the relatively simple tale ofan ecologist housewife and the waste she generates each day. The main character is called “Minimal Young Girl” and she follows all the United States guidelines to maximise a reduction in the production of rubbish. These guidelines, taken to absurd lengths, giverise to waste that in its turn becomes the material for an installation. Moving from fiction to fact, Bonneviot eventually decided to give the narrative an autobiographical slant by producing, herself, the (quite real) waste that she needed to produce herwork (of fiction).

Tabor Robak is exhibiting a video piece whose image is spread over four monitors. It takes its inspiration from the divided screens that online games players use. Robak uses digital culture to create a post-retroaesthetics that runs counter to the frantically sought after realism increasingly found in today’s computergames. His works are not borrowings; they are images totally designed and constructed from pre-existingimages. Tabor Robak parodies 3D computer graphics with hyper-synthetic, kitsch elements that satirise the instant gratification and the over-stimulation of computer games. Using a host of instantly effective, emotionally exaggerated techniques and effects with saturated imagery, Tabor Robak hovers between highly sophisticated irony and an admiration forimages whose naturalness is only matched by their poverty.

Tabor Robak is exhibiting a video piece whose image is spread over four monitors. It takes its inspiration from the divided screens that online games players use. Robak uses digital culture to create a post-retroaesthetics that runs counter to the frantically sought after realism increasingly found in today’s computergames. His works are not borrowings; they are images totally designed and constructed from pre-existingimages. Tabor Robak parodies 3D computer graphics with hyper-synthetic, kitsch elements that satirise the instant gratification and the over-stimulation of computer games. Using a host of instantly effective, emotionally exaggerated techniques and effects with saturated imagery, Tabor Robak hovers between highly sophisticated irony and an admiration forimages whose naturalness is only matched by their poverty.

How does photography tell stories? Roe Ethridge, whose work encompasses fashion photography and the world of art, offers us the beginning of an answerwith a series of carefully composed photographs which he quite simply took during his family holiday. Although they were originally intended for privateuse, these images spool us through a warm-hearted narrative: time spent together, a child posing, fresh fruit – ordinary experiences that could have happened to anyone. The closing image of the serieswas taken at the end of October 2012, a few daysafter Hurricane Sandy had ripped through RockawayBeach, New York, where Ethridge lives with his family.Roe Ethridge also created the visual campaign for the 2013 Biennale de Lyon. His photographs are stylisedversions of classical compositions, striking and intimatedetails of everyday life, portraits and landscapes– adapted and combined to create new potential narratives.

How does photography tell stories? Roe Ethridge, whose work encompasses fashion photography and the world of art, offers us the beginning of an answerwith a series of carefully composed photographs which he quite simply took during his family holiday. Although they were originally intended for privateuse, these images spool us through a warm-hearted narrative: time spent together, a child posing, fresh fruit – ordinary experiences that could have happened to anyone. The closing image of the serieswas taken at the end of October 2012, a few daysafter Hurricane Sandy had ripped through RockawayBeach, New York, where Ethridge lives with his family.Roe Ethridge also created the visual campaign for the 2013 Biennale de Lyon. His photographs are stylisedversions of classical compositions, striking and intimatedetails of everyday life, portraits and landscapes– adapted and combined to create new potential narratives.

How does photography tell stories? Roe Ethridge, whose work encompasses fashion photography and the world of art, offers us the beginning of an answerwith a series of carefully composed photographs which he quite simply took during his family holiday. Although they were originally intended for privateuse, these images spool us through a warm-hearted narrative: time spent together, a child posing, fresh fruit – ordinary experiences that could have happened to anyone. The closing image of the serieswas taken at the end of October 2012, a few daysafter Hurricane Sandy had ripped through RockawayBeach, New York, where Ethridge lives with his family.Roe Ethridge also created the visual campaign for the 2013 Biennale de Lyon. His photographs are stylisedversions of classical compositions, striking and intimatedetails of everyday life, portraits and landscapes– adapted and combined to create new potential narratives.

How does photography tell stories? Roe Ethridge, whose work encompasses fashion photography and the world of art, offers us the beginning of an answerwith a series of carefully composed photographs which he quite simply took during his family holiday. Although they were originally intended for privateuse, these images spool us through a warm-hearted narrative: time spent together, a child posing, fresh fruit – ordinary experiences that could have happened to anyone. The closing image of the serieswas taken at the end of October 2012, a few daysafter Hurricane Sandy had ripped through RockawayBeach, New York, where Ethridge lives with his family.Roe Ethridge also created the visual campaign for the 2013 Biennale de Lyon. His photographs are stylisedversions of classical compositions, striking and intimatedetails of everyday life, portraits and landscapes– adapted and combined to create new potential narratives.

How does photography tell stories? Roe Ethridge, whose work encompasses fashion photography and the world of art, offers us the beginning of an answerwith a series of carefully composed photographs which he quite simply took during his family holiday. Although they were originally intended for privateuse, these images spool us through a warm-hearted narrative: time spent together, a child posing, fresh fruit – ordinary experiences that could have happened to anyone. The closing image of the serieswas taken at the end of October 2012, a few daysafter Hurricane Sandy had ripped through RockawayBeach, New York, where Ethridge lives with his family.Roe Ethridge also created the visual campaign for the 2013 Biennale de Lyon. His photographs are stylisedversions of classical compositions, striking and intimatedetails of everyday life, portraits and landscapes– adapted and combined to create new potential narratives.

In their fugitive, transparent way, Anicka Yi’s sculptures emphasise the fragility of her materials and thein congruity of their association, as well as the scents they exhale. Her titles, which she takes great painsover, are the beginnings of stories appealing to ouremotions. But let there be no mistake, what Anicka Yi is really talking about is the connections between materials and materialism, between nature in its raw state and its exploitation value, between post humanist theory and its socio-political implications for the body and the senses, between consumerismand metabolism.

With the support of Bernard Ceramics.

In their fugitive, transparent way, Anicka Yi’s sculptures emphasise the fragility of her materials and thein congruity of their association, as well as the scents they exhale. Her titles, which she takes great painsover, are the beginnings of stories appealing to ouremotions. But let there be no mistake, what Anicka Yi is really talking about is the connections between materials and materialism, between nature in its raw state and its exploitation value, between post humanist theory and its socio-political implications for the body and the senses, between consumerismand metabolism.

With the support of Bernard Ceramics.

Ed Fornieles explores the impact of the virtual on the physical world – or maybe vice versa. Hinging on what he calls ‘the osmosis between online and offline realities’, his work is characterised by systems whose unforeseeable, uncontrollable functioning generates films, sculptures, installations and performances. Fornieles uses the social networking websites togenerate narratives, which he then changes before uploading them again onto the web in an endlesscycle. For the Biennale Fornieles has chosen as his point of departure a sitcom, which he has been developing on Facebook and Twitter. It tells the story of “seven ambitious young men and women as theymake their way in the world” – a story that he has used to create a new series of images and installations.

Ed Fornieles explores the impact of the virtual on the physical world – or maybe vice versa. Hinging on what he calls ‘the osmosis between online and offline realities’, his work is characterised by systems whose unforeseeable, uncontrollable functioning generates films, sculptures, installations and performances. Fornieles uses the social networking websites togenerate narratives, which he then changes before uploading them again onto the web in an endlesscycle. For the Biennale Fornieles has chosen as his point of departure a sitcom, which he has been developing on Facebook and Twitter. It tells the story of “seven ambitious young men and women as theymake their way in the world” – a story that he has used to create a new series of images and installations.

Ed Fornieles explores the impact of the virtual on the physical world – or maybe vice versa. Hinging on what he calls ‘the osmosis between online and offline realities’, his work is characterised by systems whose unforeseeable, uncontrollable functioning generates films, sculptures, installations and performances. Fornieles uses the social networking websites togenerate narratives, which he then changes before uploading them again onto the web in an endlesscycle. For the Biennale Fornieles has chosen as his point of departure a sitcom, which he has been developing on Facebook and Twitter. It tells the story of “seven ambitious young men and women as theymake their way in the world” – a story that he has used to create a new series of images and installations.

Ed Fornieles explores the impact of the virtual on the physical world – or maybe vice versa. Hinging on what he calls ‘the osmosis between online and offline realities’, his work is characterised by systems whose unforeseeable, uncontrollable functioning generates films, sculptures, installations and performances. Fornieles uses the social networking websites togenerate narratives, which he then changes before uploading them again onto the web in an endlesscycle. For the Biennale Fornieles has chosen as his point of departure a sitcom, which he has been developing on Facebook and Twitter. It tells the story of “seven ambitious young men and women as theymake their way in the world” – a story that he has used to create a new series of images and installations.

Gabriela Friðriksdottir is interested in twilight, that time of day when darkness begins to infiltrate the light. The environment she has created here is imbued with melancholy and the various media – video, sculpture, drawing, performance, text, and painting – are carefully arranged to evoke fictive cosmologies rooted in Norse mythology and the Icelandic sagas of her homeland. Poems, delicate blown-glass bottles, a sound environment created with Valdimar Jóhannsson, and a protective yet delicate structure amount toa narrative that emphasises the emotions and irrational forces that govern our existence. With the support of the Icelandic Art Center.

Gabriela Friðriksdottir is interested in twilight, that time of day when darkness begins to infiltrate the light. The environment she has created here is imbued with melancholy and the various media – video, sculpture, drawing, performance, text, and painting – are carefully arranged to evoke fictive cosmologies rooted in Norse mythology and the Icelandic sagas of her homeland. Poems, delicate blown-glass bottles, a sound environment created with Valdimar Jóhannsson, and a protective yet delicate structure amount toa narrative that emphasises the emotions and irrational forces that govern our existence. With the support of the Icelandic Art Center.

Gabriela Friðriksdottir is interested in twilight, that time of day when darkness begins to infiltrate the light. The environment she has created here is imbued with melancholy and the various media – video, sculpture, drawing, performance, text, and painting – are carefully arranged to evoke fictive cosmologies rooted in Norse mythology and the Icelandic sagas of her homeland. Poems, delicate blown-glass bottles, a sound environment created with Valdimar Jóhannsson, and a protective yet delicate structure amount toa narrative that emphasises the emotions and irrational forces that govern our existence. With the support of the Icelandic Art Center.

Gabriela Friðriksdottir is interested in twilight, that time of day when darkness begins to infiltrate the light. The environment she has created here is imbued with melancholy and the various media – video, sculpture, drawing, performance, text, and painting – are carefully arranged to evoke fictive cosmologies rooted in Norse mythology and the Icelandic sagas of her homeland. Poems, delicate blown-glass bottles, a sound environment created with Valdimar Jóhannsson, and a protective yet delicate structure amount toa narrative that emphasises the emotions and irrational forces that govern our existence. With the support of the Icelandic Art Center.

Gabriela Friðriksdottir is interested in twilight, that time of day when darkness begins to infiltrate the light. The environment she has created here is imbued with melancholy and the various media – video, sculpture, drawing, performance, text, and painting – are carefully arranged to evoke fictive cosmologies rooted in Norse mythology and the Icelandic sagas of her homeland. Poems, delicate blown-glass bottles, a sound environment created with Valdimar Jóhannsson, and a protective yet delicate structure amount toa narrative that emphasises the emotions and irrational forces that govern our existence. With the support of the Icelandic Art Center.

Gabriela Friðriksdottir is interested in twilight, that time of day when darkness begins to infiltrate the light. The environment she has created here is imbued with melancholy and the various media – video, sculpture, drawing, performance, text, and painting – are carefully arranged to evoke fictive cosmologies rooted in Norse mythology and the Icelandic sagas of her homeland. Poems, delicate blown-glass bottles, a sound environment created with Valdimar Jóhannsson, and a protective yet delicate structure amount toa narrative that emphasises the emotions and irrational forces that govern our existence. With the support of the Icelandic Art Center.

On 20 July 2012, on the evening of the premiere ofthe film Batman: The Dark Knight Rises in a Coloradocinema, James E. Holmes opened fire with legally purchased heavy weapons, killing twelve people and wounding fifty-eight others. When he was arrested he declared that he was the Joker, Batman’s swornenemy. Karl Haendel’s carefully documented installation, realised using photographs, words and presscuttings, draws links between the Aurora killings andthe reality of popular culture. By changing the scale, the tone, and the significance of the elements heselects, Haendel explores the way in which the story of Holmes (one of madness, anger, violence, sexual insecurity, fire arms control, and fetishisation of technology)and the story of Batman (involving good versusevil, revenge, justice, security versus terror, powerrelationships, and class-wasfare) come together and find both a meaning and an echo in our society.

On 20 July 2012, on the evening of the premiere ofthe film Batman: The Dark Knight Rises in a Coloradocinema, James E. Holmes opened fire with legally purchased heavy weapons, killing twelve people and wounding fifty-eight others. When he was arrested he declared that he was the Joker, Batman’s swornenemy. Karl Haendel’s carefully documented installation, realised using photographs, words and presscuttings, draws links between the Aurora killings andthe reality of popular culture. By changing the scale, the tone, and the significance of the elements heselects, Haendel explores the way in which the story of Holmes (one of madness, anger, violence, sexual insecurity, fire arms control, and fetishisation of technology)and the story of Batman (involving good versusevil, revenge, justice, security versus terror, powerrelationships, and class-wasfare) come together and find both a meaning and an echo in our society.

Tommie Smith is the American athlete who, after winning the 200 metres at the 1968 Mexico Olympics in 19 sec 83, received his medal in black socks with his head bowed and his black-gloved fist raised. This gesture of protest, seen world wide in media images, was a sign of African Americans’ commitment totheir civil rights. It also meant he was stripped of his medal by the IOC and banned for life from participationin any Olympic event. He was only 24 yearsold. In this work, Glenn Kaino operates allusively, hinting indirectly at the event. His installation combines a soundtrack with a frieze of photographs that describe, almost image by image, Tommie Smith’s exploit. To use his own word, Kaino has “repainted” these images. In the middle of the work there is a gold-platedpodium, not so much a symbol of the Olympics as a reference to the endless struggles for emancipation – and a goal to be attained.

Tommie Smith is the American athlete who, after winning the 200 metres at the 1968 Mexico Olympics in 19 sec 83, received his medal in black socks with his head bowed and his black-gloved fist raised. This gesture of protest, seen world wide in media images, was a sign of African Americans’ commitment totheir civil rights. It also meant he was stripped of his medal by the IOC and banned for life from participationin any Olympic event. He was only 24 yearsold. In this work, Glenn Kaino operates allusively, hinting indirectly at the event. His installation combines a soundtrack with a frieze of photographs that describe, almost image by image, Tommie Smith’s exploit. To use his own word, Kaino has “repainted” these images. In the middle of the work there is a gold-platedpodium, not so much a symbol of the Olympics as a reference to the endless struggles for emancipation – and a goal to be attained.

Tommie Smith is the American athlete who, after winning the 200 metres at the 1968 Mexico Olympics in 19 sec 83, received his medal in black socks with his head bowed and his black-gloved fist raised. This gesture of protest, seen world wide in media images, was a sign of African Americans’ commitment totheir civil rights. It also meant he was stripped of his medal by the IOC and banned for life from participationin any Olympic event. He was only 24 yearsold. In this work, Glenn Kaino operates allusively, hinting indirectly at the event. His installation combines a soundtrack with a frieze of photographs that describe, almost image by image, Tommie Smith’s exploit. To use his own word, Kaino has “repainted” these images. In the middle of the work there is a gold-platedpodium, not so much a symbol of the Olympics as a reference to the endless struggles for emancipation – and a goal to be attained.

Tommie Smith is the American athlete who, after winning the 200 metres at the 1968 Mexico Olympics in 19 sec 83, received his medal in black socks with his head bowed and his black-gloved fist raised. This gesture of protest, seen world wide in media images, was a sign of African Americans’ commitment totheir civil rights. It also meant he was stripped of his medal by the IOC and banned for life from participationin any Olympic event. He was only 24 yearsold. In this work, Glenn Kaino operates allusively, hinting indirectly at the event. His installation combines a soundtrack with a frieze of photographs that describe, almost image by image, Tommie Smith’s exploit. To use his own word, Kaino has “repainted” these images. In the middle of the work there is a gold-platedpodium, not so much a symbol of the Olympics as a reference to the endless struggles for emancipation – and a goal to be attained.

As Bjarne Melgaard puts it, “I’d rather tell a good storythan a boringly truthful one.” Defying established narrative norms, his overlapping scenes, ideas and digressions confront us with reality in all its chaotic splendour. Driven by the purest creative impulse, Melgaard plunges the viewer into a surfeit of words and ideas, drawings and sculptures, paintings and installations. For the Biennale, Melgaard is “writing”a novel which is also an installation, or vice versa. Like a tide that cannot be pushed back, his narrative invades the space to the point of becoming, in all the violence of its beauty, a total environment.

With the support of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway and the Royal Embassy of Norway.

As Bjarne Melgaard puts it, “I’d rather tell a good storythan a boringly truthful one.” Defying established narrative norms, his overlapping scenes, ideas and digressions confront us with reality in all its chaotic splendour. Driven by the purest creative impulse, Melgaard plunges the viewer into a surfeit of words and ideas, drawings and sculptures, paintings and installations. For the Biennale, Melgaard is “writing”a novel which is also an installation, or vice versa. Like a tide that cannot be pushed back, his narrative invades the space to the point of becoming, in all the violence of its beauty, a total environment.

With the support of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway and the Royal Embassy of Norway.

As Bjarne Melgaard puts it, “I’d rather tell a good storythan a boringly truthful one.” Defying established narrative norms, his overlapping scenes, ideas and digressions confront us with reality in all its chaotic splendour. Driven by the purest creative impulse, Melgaard plunges the viewer into a surfeit of words and ideas, drawings and sculptures, paintings and installations. For the Biennale, Melgaard is “writing”a novel which is also an installation, or vice versa. Like a tide that cannot be pushed back, his narrative invades the space to the point of becoming, in all the violence of its beauty, a total environment.

With the support of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway and the Royal Embassy of Norway.

As Bjarne Melgaard puts it, “I’d rather tell a good storythan a boringly truthful one.” Defying established narrative norms, his overlapping scenes, ideas and digressions confront us with reality in all its chaotic splendour. Driven by the purest creative impulse, Melgaard plunges the viewer into a surfeit of words and ideas, drawings and sculptures, paintings and installations. For the Biennale, Melgaard is “writing”a novel which is also an installation, or vice versa. Like a tide that cannot be pushed back, his narrative invades the space to the point of becoming, in all the violence of its beauty, a total environment.

With the support of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway and the Royal Embassy of Norway.

For the 2013 Biennale, Takao Minami gives us the story of an impossible landscape for which soundand video recordings, drawings and animations areused to compose narratives dilated within the infinity of time. This work is a sort of filmed diary whose narrative structure is a product of the editing. Video and experimental film are tools in Minami’s pictorialstrategy. From raw material filmed in different partsof the world, he creates a continuous sequence,pictorially reworked by means of effects such ascut-ins, variations of contrast, and loops, and all thiscreates the effect of sending us into space, almostsuspending the passage of time.

With the support of the EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee.

For the 2013 Biennale, Takao Minami gives us the story of an impossible landscape for which soundand video recordings, drawings and animations areused to compose narratives dilated within the infinity of time. This work is a sort of filmed diary whose narrative structure is a product of the editing. Video and experimental film are tools in Minami’s pictorialstrategy. From raw material filmed in different partsof the world, he creates a continuous sequence,pictorially reworked by means of effects such ascut-ins, variations of contrast, and loops, and all thiscreates the effect of sending us into space, almostsuspending the passage of time.

With the support of the EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee.

For the 2013 Biennale, Takao Minami gives us the story of an impossible landscape for which soundand video recordings, drawings and animations areused to compose narratives dilated within the infinity of time. This work is a sort of filmed diary whose narrative structure is a product of the editing. Video and experimental film are tools in Minami’s pictorialstrategy. From raw material filmed in different partsof the world, he creates a continuous sequence,pictorially reworked by means of effects such ascut-ins, variations of contrast, and loops, and all thiscreates the effect of sending us into space, almostsuspending the passage of time.

With the support of the EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee.

Ming Wong brings us simultaneously the stories of three women, each living in a different era: “classical”,“modern” and “virtual”. With in this framework, he writes and acts out three narratives in which the woman has to fight to achieve her destiny and to find the strength to survive. Of the many female archetypes in famous Japanese films, Ming Wong has taken pains to retainonly those who have stood the test of time. “The women in these films often appear as idealised, lonely misfits in a patriarchal society, wandering in search ofan achievement or somewhere to belong in order to ensure their future”, says Ming Wong. In his work, the collective memory involved in movies, especially iconic movies, is used as a means of interconnecting the concepts of gender, representation, culture and identity. With the kind support of NAC-National Arts Council Singapore and Singapore Tote Board.

Ming Wong brings us simultaneously the stories of three women, each living in a different era: “classical”,“modern” and “virtual”. With in this framework, he writes and acts out three narratives in which the woman has to fight to achieve her destiny and to find the strength to survive. Of the many female archetypes in famous Japanese films, Ming Wong has taken pains to retainonly those who have stood the test of time. “The women in these films often appear as idealised, lonely misfits in a patriarchal society, wandering in search ofan achievement or somewhere to belong in order to ensure their future”, says Ming Wong. In his work, the collective memory involved in movies, especially iconic movies, is used as a means of interconnecting the concepts of gender, representation, culture and identity. With the kind support of NAC-National Arts Council Singapore and Singapore Tote Board.

For the Biennale de Lyon, Brazilian artist Paulo Nazareth decided to retrace the slave route. He ran theentire distance, several thousand kilometres, from Johannesburg to Lyon. from day to day he created an artwork as an account of his journey: “Paintingmy skin with blue-black Genipa juice like a blackman before going to Africa”. Nazareth combines the talents of an artist, a street entertainer, a poet andan anthropologist. He accomplishes simple, ordinaryacts, as he discovers them through meeting people,and they have a profound transformative effect on hisrelationship to time, to narratives and beliefs. When he undertook his “journey”, he had no idea what to“expect”, any more than he knew what was going tohappen. Here he recounts the story of this intentional improvisation.With the support of the Maison de l’Amérique Latine en Rhône-Alpes.

For the Biennale de Lyon, Brazilian artist Paulo Nazareth decided to retrace the slave route. He ran theentire distance, several thousand kilometres, from Johannesburg to Lyon. from day to day he created an artwork as an account of his journey: “Paintingmy skin with blue-black Genipa juice like a blackman before going to Africa”. Nazareth combines the talents of an artist, a street entertainer, a poet andan anthropologist. He accomplishes simple, ordinaryacts, as he discovers them through meeting people,and they have a profound transformative effect on hisrelationship to time, to narratives and beliefs. When he undertook his “journey”, he had no idea what to“expect”, any more than he knew what was going tohappen. Here he recounts the story of this intentional improvisation.With the support of the Maison de l’Amérique Latine en Rhône-Alpes.

Lili Reynaud-Dewar maps out oblique perspectivesthat relate her position as an artist to the emblematicfigures involved in the fight for racial equality and the assertion of identity. She constructs formal, fictional and symbolic relations between them. In pointing up these invisible connections between the perception of certain public figures and her own biography, she dramatises the media forces and the taken-for granted image they reflect. For the Biennale, Lili Reynaud-Dewar is presenting a new installation, which gives symbolic substance to the notion of a room: “A Room of One’s Own” in Virginia Woolf’s phrase, aroom in which to find refuge, a room to live in, albeit briefly. The narrative tension that the artist creates comes from the enigmatic presences that seem to float about rather than inhabit this room. In a set of performances enacted by her and presented on ascreen, Reynaud-Dewar references issues of cultural transformation and the impossibility of maintaining afixed identity.

Lili Reynaud-Dewar maps out oblique perspectivesthat relate her position as an artist to the emblematicfigures involved in the fight for racial equality and the assertion of identity. She constructs formal, fictional and symbolic relations between them. In pointing up these invisible connections between the perception of certain public figures and her own biography, she dramatises the media forces and the taken-for granted image they reflect. For the Biennale, Lili Reynaud-Dewar is presenting a new installation, which gives symbolic substance to the notion of a room: “A Room of One’s Own” in Virginia Woolf’s phrase, aroom in which to find refuge, a room to live in, albeit briefly. The narrative tension that the artist creates comes from the enigmatic presences that seem to float about rather than inhabit this room. In a set of performances enacted by her and presented on ascreen, Reynaud-Dewar references issues of cultural transformation and the impossibility of maintaining afixed identity.

Mary Sibande tells the story of Sophie, whose imaginary existence she organises in a series of sculptures and installations. Sophie lives in a dream world that offers an escape from the pragmatism of a dulllife with no prospects. “What she can dream, she can live”, Sibande explains. She garbs her character in work uniforms which, as if taking up a challenge, gradually morph into magnificent ball gowns.Thanks to these, Sophie gains access to a world ofluxury in total contradiction with working-class life inpost-apartheid South Africa. For the Biennale, MarySibande recounts a new chapter in Sophie’s life, inspired by a particular event in South African history.In the late 1980s, anti-apartheid demonstrators were regularly sprayed with purple indelible ink to make it easy to identify them. Yet another story about colours– and Sibande uses it to create a huge sculpture with Sophie as the absolute heroine. Event organised as part of the 2012 & 2013 South Africa-France Seasons.

Mary Sibande tells the story of Sophie, whose imaginary existence she organises in a series of sculptures and installations. Sophie lives in a dream world that offers an escape from the pragmatism of a dulllife with no prospects. “What she can dream, she can live”, Sibande explains. She garbs her character in work uniforms which, as if taking up a challenge, gradually morph into magnificent ball gowns.Thanks to these, Sophie gains access to a world ofluxury in total contradiction with working-class life inpost-apartheid South Africa. For the Biennale, MarySibande recounts a new chapter in Sophie’s life, inspired by a particular event in South African history.In the late 1980s, anti-apartheid demonstrators were regularly sprayed with purple indelible ink to make it easy to identify them. Yet another story about colours– and Sibande uses it to create a huge sculpture with Sophie as the absolute heroine. Event organised as part of the 2012 & 2013 South Africa-France Seasons.

Mary Sibande tells the story of Sophie, whose imaginary existence she organises in a series of sculptures and installations. Sophie lives in a dream world that offers an escape from the pragmatism of a dulllife with no prospects. “What she can dream, she can live”, Sibande explains. She garbs her character in work uniforms which, as if taking up a challenge, gradually morph into magnificent ball gowns.Thanks to these, Sophie gains access to a world ofluxury in total contradiction with working-class life inpost-apartheid South Africa. For the Biennale, MarySibande recounts a new chapter in Sophie’s life, inspired by a particular event in South African history.In the late 1980s, anti-apartheid demonstrators were regularly sprayed with purple indelible ink to make it easy to identify them. Yet another story about colours– and Sibande uses it to create a huge sculpture with Sophie as the absolute heroine. Event organised as part of the 2012 & 2013 South Africa-France Seasons.

Yang Fudong, who is primarily a filmmaker, hasdesigned an installation for this Biennale featuring ayoung Chinese actress, Ma Sise, with whom he hasalready made films. He has “invented” a new life for Ma Sise. Archive material, films and photographsgo to make up the potential effects of a story thatis both true and untrue (the actress is filmed goingabout her ordinary life, then directed on a film set).Yang Fudong’s films reveal the profound changes incontemporary China’s cultural values that have beenbrought about by rapid modernisation. These visualnarratives, of classical and timeless beauty, are a studyof the creation of identities through myth, memoryand personal experience – or of how to lend realityto a fictional character. The work was conceivedexpressly for Lyon and is the starting point for a filmthat could be three years in the making.

Yang Fudong, who is primarily a filmmaker, hasdesigned an installation for this Biennale featuring ayoung Chinese actress, Ma Sise, with whom he hasalready made films. He has “invented” a new life for Ma Sise. Archive material, films and photographsgo to make up the potential effects of a story thatis both true and untrue (the actress is filmed goingabout her ordinary life, then directed on a film set).Yang Fudong’s films reveal the profound changes incontemporary China’s cultural values that have beenbrought about by rapid modernisation. These visualnarratives, of classical and timeless beauty, are a studyof the creation of identities through myth, memoryand personal experience – or of how to lend realityto a fictional character. The work was conceivedexpressly for Lyon and is the starting point for a filmthat could be three years in the making.

For this Biennale Antoine Catala has created a riddle. His work comprises various elements using many differentsupports. Once they have been assembled in the right order, they make up the famous phrase that comes at the start of every story in the world. Whether in his video-sculptures or his witticisms, Catalaplays with the imprecisions of language, the physicality of images and their tactile quality, using chance and technology, holograms, a 3D printer and morphing.His works are a response to the digital media of today and they question our physical relationship to images as well as the way we interpret them according to the media that carry them.

Production FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims.

For this Biennale Antoine Catala has created a riddle. His work comprises various elements using many differentsupports. Once they have been assembled in the right order, they make up the famous phrase that comes at the start of every story in the world. Whether in his video-sculptures or his witticisms, Catalaplays with the imprecisions of language, the physicality of images and their tactile quality, using chance and technology, holograms, a 3D printer and morphing.His works are a response to the digital media of today and they question our physical relationship to images as well as the way we interpret them according to the media that carry them.

Production FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims.

For this Biennale Antoine Catala has created a riddle. His work comprises various elements using many differentsupports. Once they have been assembled in the right order, they make up the famous phrase that comes at the start of every story in the world. Whether in his video-sculptures or his witticisms, Catalaplays with the imprecisions of language, the physicality of images and their tactile quality, using chance and technology, holograms, a 3D printer and morphing.His works are a response to the digital media of today and they question our physical relationship to images as well as the way we interpret them according to the media that carry them.

Production FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims.

For this Biennale Antoine Catala has created a riddle. His work comprises various elements using many differentsupports. Once they have been assembled in the right order, they make up the famous phrase that comes at the start of every story in the world. Whether in his video-sculptures or his witticisms, Catalaplays with the imprecisions of language, the physicality of images and their tactile quality, using chance and technology, holograms, a 3D printer and morphing.His works are a response to the digital media of today and they question our physical relationship to images as well as the way we interpret them according to the media that carry them.

Production FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims.

For the 2013 Biennale, Dan Colen is creating a sculpture whose four characters – Wile E. Coyote, Roger Rabbit, the Kool Aid Guy and the artist, naked – are literally exhausted after a frantic chase round the town. Both performance and film, the race took place  on 7 September in the streets of Grigny. The exhibition at the town hall shows the preparatory drawings for this two-part work, and the film of the performance.

For the 2013 Biennale, Dan Colen is creating a sculpture whose four characters – Wile E. Coyote, Roger Rabbit, the Kool Aid Guy and the artist, naked – are literally exhausted after a frantic chase round the town. Both performance and film, the race took place  on 7 September in the streets of Grigny. The exhibition at the town hall shows the preparatory drawings for this two-part work, and the film of the performance.

For the 2013 Biennale, Dan Colen is creating a sculpture whose four characters – Wile E. Coyote, Roger Rabbit, the Kool Aid Guy and the artist, naked – are literally exhausted after a frantic chase round the town. Both performance and film, the race took place  on 7 September in the streets of Grigny. The exhibition at the town hall shows the preparatory drawings for this two-part work, and the film of the performance.

For the 2013 Biennale, Dan Colen is creating a sculpture whose four characters – Wile E. Coyote, Roger Rabbit, the Kool Aid Guy and the artist, naked – are literally exhausted after a frantic chase round the town. Both performance and film, the race took place  on 7 September in the streets of Grigny. The exhibition at the town hall shows the preparatory drawings for this two-part work, and the film of the performance.

For the 2013 Biennale, Dan Colen is creating a sculpture whose four characters – Wile E. Coyote, Roger Rabbit, the Kool Aid Guy and the artist, naked – are literally exhausted after a frantic chase round the town. Both performance and film, the race took place  on 7 September in the streets of Grigny. The exhibition at the town hall shows the preparatory drawings for this two-part work, and the film of the performance.

For the 2013 Biennale, Dan Colen is creating a sculpture whose four characters – Wile E. Coyote, Roger Rabbit, the Kool Aid Guy and the artist, naked – are literally exhausted after a frantic chase round the town. Both performance and film, the race took place  on 7 September in the streets of Grigny. The exhibition at the town hall shows the preparatory drawings for this two-part work, and the film of the performance.

In an inversion of the classic printing set-up (wherethe graphic information is printed on a flat surface), Aleksandra Domanovi ’s images are printedon the edges of piles of A4 paper standing on theirside. Time is an integral factor of her works, not just because it takes a long time to print them but also because they are physical manifestations of time. The duration of a video-clip or performance dictates the height of the pile Domanovi must make: “1 imageper second” becomes “1 page per pile”. Every pageis numbered – and every page is a fragment of time. An image, a story and a film thus become delicate time sculptures through which the artist relates the wounds of history: particularly those that are cured by collective denial or unifying festivities.

In an inversion of the classic printing set-up (wherethe graphic information is printed on a flat surface), Aleksandra Domanovi ’s images are printedon the edges of piles of A4 paper standing on theirside. Time is an integral factor of her works, not just because it takes a long time to print them but also because they are physical manifestations of time. The duration of a video-clip or performance dictates the height of the pile Domanovi must make: “1 imageper second” becomes “1 page per pile”. Every pageis numbered – and every page is a fragment of time. An image, a story and a film thus become delicate time sculptures through which the artist relates the wounds of history: particularly those that are cured by collective denial or unifying festivities.

In an inversion of the classic printing set-up (wherethe graphic information is printed on a flat surface), Aleksandra Domanovi ’s images are printedon the edges of piles of A4 paper standing on theirside. Time is an integral factor of her works, not just because it takes a long time to print them but also because they are physical manifestations of time. The duration of a video-clip or performance dictates the height of the pile Domanovi must make: “1 imageper second” becomes “1 page per pile”. Every pageis numbered – and every page is a fragment of time. An image, a story and a film thus become delicate time sculptures through which the artist relates the wounds of history: particularly those that are cured by collective denial or unifying festivities.

For these works created specially for the 2013 Biennial, Ann Lislegaard draws freely on the Blade Runner replicant owl. She sees science fiction as an experimental take-off point for the invention of new narrative structures. Her installations, 3D animations and architectural creations are characterised by narratives whose blend of the fragmentary and the complex challenges our cognitive and sensory capacities.The owl, a symbol of wisdom and insight in the Ancientworld, became a bird of ill omen in the Middle Ages.The owl in Philip K. Dick’s novel and Ridley Scott’s filmis a twin symbol of attraction and repulsion and Ann Lislegaard tells its dislocated story. Her video-literary fantasy gives us an oracle whose weird, enigmatic words seem totally incapable of being decoded.

For these works created specially for the 2013 Biennial, Ann Lislegaard draws freely on the Blade Runner replicant owl. She sees science fiction as an experimental take-off point for the invention of new narrative structures. Her installations, 3D animations and architectural creations are characterised by narratives whose blend of the fragmentary and the complex challenges our cognitive and sensory capacities.The owl, a symbol of wisdom and insight in the Ancientworld, became a bird of ill omen in the Middle Ages.The owl in Philip K. Dick’s novel and Ridley Scott’s filmis a twin symbol of attraction and repulsion and Ann Lislegaard tells its dislocated story. Her video-literary fantasy gives us an oracle whose weird, enigmatic words seem totally incapable of being decoded.

For these works created specially for the 2013 Biennial, Ann Lislegaard draws freely on the Blade Runner replicant owl. She sees science fiction as an experimental take-off point for the invention of new narrative structures. Her installations, 3D animations and architectural creations are characterised by narratives whose blend of the fragmentary and the complex challenges our cognitive and sensory capacities.The owl, a symbol of wisdom and insight in the Ancientworld, became a bird of ill omen in the Middle Ages.The owl in Philip K. Dick’s novel and Ridley Scott’s filmis a twin symbol of attraction and repulsion and Ann Lislegaard tells its dislocated story. Her video-literary fantasy gives us an oracle whose weird, enigmatic words seem totally incapable of being decoded.

For these works created specially for the 2013 Biennial, Ann Lislegaard draws freely on the Blade Runner replicant owl. She sees science fiction as an experimental take-off point for the invention of new narrative structures. Her installations, 3D animations and architectural creations are characterised by narratives whose blend of the fragmentary and the complex challenges our cognitive and sensory capacities.The owl, a symbol of wisdom and insight in the Ancientworld, became a bird of ill omen in the Middle Ages.The owl in Philip K. Dick’s novel and Ridley Scott’s filmis a twin symbol of attraction and repulsion and Ann Lislegaard tells its dislocated story. Her video-literary fantasy gives us an oracle whose weird, enigmatic words seem totally incapable of being decoded.

For these works created specially for the 2013 Biennial, Ann Lislegaard draws freely on the Blade Runner replicant owl. She sees science fiction as an experimental take-off point for the invention of new narrative structures. Her installations, 3D animations and architectural creations are characterised by narratives whose blend of the fragmentary and the complex challenges our cognitive and sensory capacities.The owl, a symbol of wisdom and insight in the Ancientworld, became a bird of ill omen in the Middle Ages.The owl in Philip K. Dick’s novel and Ridley Scott’s filmis a twin symbol of attraction and repulsion and Ann Lislegaard tells its dislocated story. Her video-literary fantasy gives us an oracle whose weird, enigmatic words seem totally incapable of being decoded.

For these works created specially for the 2013 Biennial, Ann Lislegaard draws freely on the Blade Runner replicant owl. She sees science fiction as an experimental take-off point for the invention of new narrative structures. Her installations, 3D animations and architectural creations are characterised by narratives whose blend of the fragmentary and the complex challenges our cognitive and sensory capacities.The owl, a symbol of wisdom and insight in the Ancientworld, became a bird of ill omen in the Middle Ages.The owl in Philip K. Dick’s novel and Ridley Scott’s filmis a twin symbol of attraction and repulsion and Ann Lislegaard tells its dislocated story. Her video-literary fantasy gives us an oracle whose weird, enigmatic words seem totally incapable of being decoded.

Erró’s work has been a constant questioning of the modern world and the excess of images it generates. His paintings and collages are a material synthesis of contemporary events and history. In the course of ajourney to Cambodia in 1993, Erró consulted archives, had meetings and collected documents concerning atrocities perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge. There sulting work ranges in style from history paintingto hectic comic strip. Its title, For Pol Pot (TuolSlengS-21), was the name of a former French lycée that was used by the dictatorial regime as a detention andtorture centre. The work recomposes and recycleselements of visual language. They interpenetrate andsaturate the space, to create a political criticism thatis both troubling and salutary. As a counterpoint to this painting, Erró is showing God Bless Bagdad, awork from 12 years later. The title alludes to GeorgeW. Bush’s depressingly famous invocation “God blessAmerica” at the outbreak of the war against Iraq.

With the support of the Icelandic Art Center and the Reykjavik Museum of Art, Erró Collection.

Erró’s work has been a constant questioning of the modern world and the excess of images it generates. His paintings and collages are a material synthesis of contemporary events and history. In the course of ajourney to Cambodia in 1993, Erró consulted archives, had meetings and collected documents concerning atrocities perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge. There sulting work ranges in style from history paintingto hectic comic strip. Its title, For Pol Pot (TuolSlengS-21), was the name of a former French lycée that was used by the dictatorial regime as a detention andtorture centre. The work recomposes and recycleselements of visual language. They interpenetrate andsaturate the space, to create a political criticism thatis both troubling and salutary. As a counterpoint to this painting, Erró is showing God Bless Bagdad, awork from 12 years later. The title alludes to GeorgeW. Bush’s depressingly famous invocation “God blessAmerica” at the outbreak of the war against Iraq.

With the support of the Icelandic Art Center and the Reykjavik Museum of Art, Erró Collection.

Meleko Mokgosi borrows from the movies and psychoanalysisto tell political stories in which time and space are overlaid. His deliberately figurative painting challenges ideas of nation and colonialism andreopens issues labelled “historical” and generally considered to be closed. In this work, Mokgosi isconcerned with effects of globalisation in SouthernAfrica. The circular piece is divided into eight chaptersthat question and condemn the negative effectsof the Nation-State and the degree to which peopleare identified with a country or a skin colour. Meleko Mokgosi has painted a history painting in the classic sense of the term but has included in it the wideangle shots and the pauses of cinema storytelling – ameans of writing the history of the world in images by using exploded shots and points of view.

Meleko Mokgosi borrows from the movies and psychoanalysisto tell political stories in which time and space are overlaid. His deliberately figurative painting challenges ideas of nation and colonialism andreopens issues labelled “historical” and generally considered to be closed. In this work, Mokgosi isconcerned with effects of globalisation in SouthernAfrica. The circular piece is divided into eight chaptersthat question and condemn the negative effectsof the Nation-State and the degree to which peopleare identified with a country or a skin colour. Meleko Mokgosi has painted a history painting in the classic sense of the term but has included in it the wideangle shots and the pauses of cinema storytelling – ameans of writing the history of the world in images by using exploded shots and points of view.

Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch’s sculpture-theatreis the scenery for a series of films – videos that you might think had been shot with mobile telephones for posting on social network sites. These artists, with their complete mastery of today’s technology and in a riot of noise and visual effects, tell the story of their generation – one that is more interested in the reactions of the audience than in the film being shown, a generation for whom the idea of private life no longermakes sense and who think of life as an enormousstage-set. Situated somewhere between snuff moviesand scenes from reality TV, shows and social networks,Trecartin and Fitch’s work has such a comic side to it, with its ultra-rapid editing, syncopation, and amputated dialogue, that it ends up putting a certain distance between it self and the spectator. The fact that you come across these images in an installation rather than on YouTube is a strong hint not to take them atface value – in spite of their very obvious “reality”.

Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch’s sculpture-theatreis the scenery for a series of films – videos that you might think had been shot with mobile telephones for posting on social network sites. These artists, with their complete mastery of today’s technology and in a riot of noise and visual effects, tell the story of their generation – one that is more interested in the reactions of the audience than in the film being shown, a generation for whom the idea of private life no longermakes sense and who think of life as an enormousstage-set. Situated somewhere between snuff moviesand scenes from reality TV, shows and social networks,Trecartin and Fitch’s work has such a comic side to it, with its ultra-rapid editing, syncopation, and amputated dialogue, that it ends up putting a certain distance between it self and the spectator. The fact that you come across these images in an installation rather than on YouTube is a strong hint not to take them atface value – in spite of their very obvious “reality”.

Hannah Weinberger’s film at La Sucrière is a counterpoint to the sound work she is presenting at the macLYON. The film she is showing is exclusively made up of apparently disparate film and sound clips thathave, however, been carefully edited to build up anexpectation – that of a feature film in preparation. Forthis “trailer”, she uses the conventional techniques ofthe genre: for example, music specially composed toemphasise the highlights of the coming film. Weinberger’sstatement is about the uses of “storytelling” when its aim is to shape people’s behaviour or tochange the identity of individuals and of communities.Here trailer, which at first sight seems to be telling what amounts to a common story, could quite easilybe concealing a myth or even a tragedy.With the kind support of Focal, partner of the 12th Biennalede Lyon, and the Goethe-Institut Lyon.

For the 2013 Biennale, Jonathas de Andrade tells the story of the negobom (“the black candy”) a very popular sweet in the Northeast of Brazil. Using an almost anthropological documentary approach, Jonathas de Andrade develops a narrative structure that is formally very clear, and which draws on both conceptual art and Brazilian visual poetry of the 1950-70s.The candy production chain is segmented into photographs, each supported by a text and describing the various operations necessary to manufacture the sweet. These images are accompanied by accounts documents and comments from the forty workers from the factory where the artist carried out his study. The artwork here is an investigative operation; with the story of this candy, the artist uncovers the power relationships camouflaged by the myth of a democratic, multicultural, harmonious Brazil. And he asks questions about the complexity of social interactions when they are connected only to the amount of profit they generate.

For the 2013 Biennale, Jonathas de Andrade tells the story of the negobom (“the black candy”) a very popular sweet in the Northeast of Brazil. Using an almost anthropological documentary approach, Jonathas de Andrade develops a narrative structure that is formally very clear, and which draws on both conceptual art and Brazilian visual poetry of the 1950-70s.The candy production chain is segmented into photographs, each supported by a text and describing the various operations necessary to manufacture the sweet. These images are accompanied by accounts documents and comments from the forty workers from the factory where the artist carried out his study. The artwork here is an investigative operation; with the story of this candy, the artist uncovers the power relationships camouflaged by the myth of a democratic, multicultural, harmonious Brazil. And he asks questions about the complexity of social interactions when they are connected only to the amount of profit they generate.

For the 2013 Biennale, Jonathas de Andrade tells the story of the negobom (“the black candy”) a very popular sweet in the Northeast of Brazil. Using an almost anthropological documentary approach, Jonathas de Andrade develops a narrative structure that is formally very clear, and which draws on both conceptual art and Brazilian visual poetry of the 1950-70s.The candy production chain is segmented into photographs, each supported by a text and describing the various operations necessary to manufacture the sweet. These images are accompanied by accounts documents and comments from the forty workers from the factory where the artist carried out his study. The artwork here is an investigative operation; with the story of this candy, the artist uncovers the power relationships camouflaged by the myth of a democratic, multicultural, harmonious Brazil. And he asks questions about the complexity of social interactions when they are connected only to the amount of profit they generate.

For the 2013 Biennale, Jonathas de Andrade tells the story of the negobom (“the black candy”) a very popular sweet in the Northeast of Brazil. Using an almost anthropological documentary approach, Jonathas de Andrade develops a narrative structure that is formally very clear, and which draws on both conceptual art and Brazilian visual poetry of the 1950-70s.The candy production chain is segmented into photographs, each supported by a text and describing the various operations necessary to manufacture the sweet. These images are accompanied by accounts documents and comments from the forty workers from the factory where the artist carried out his study. The artwork here is an investigative operation; with the story of this candy, the artist uncovers the power relationships camouflaged by the myth of a democratic, multicultural, harmonious Brazil. And he asks questions about the complexity of social interactions when they are connected only to the amount of profit they generate.

For the 2013 Biennale, Jonathas de Andrade tells the story of the negobom (“the black candy”) a very popular sweet in the Northeast of Brazil. Using an almost anthropological documentary approach, Jonathas de Andrade develops a narrative structure that is formally very clear, and which draws on both conceptual art and Brazilian visual poetry of the 1950-70s.The candy production chain is segmented into photographs, each supported by a text and describing the various operations necessary to manufacture the sweet. These images are accompanied by accounts documents and comments from the forty workers from the factory where the artist carried out his study. The artwork here is an investigative operation; with the story of this candy, the artist uncovers the power relationships camouflaged by the myth of a democratic, multicultural, harmonious Brazil. And he asks questions about the complexity of social interactions when they are connected only to the amount of profit they generate.

Even Pricks is the culmination of a series connected with depression, in both the psychological and the physical sense of the word. In this work Ed Atkins attempts to counter the levelling effect, both on things and people, of depression, and use it to create a new dramatic epidode. He draws on cinema and literary conventions in order to throw light on theme chanisms of cultural mass production and its infinitely reproducible images. Atkins mixes writing and high definition video (the quality of which favours image to the detriment of language) in a precise analysis of the material qualities of the narratives of the contemporary world – narratives that he continually embroiders by constantly retelling them.

Even Pricks is the culmination of a series connected with depression, in both the psychological and the physical sense of the word. In this work Ed Atkins attempts to counter the levelling effect, both on things and people, of depression, and use it to create a new dramatic epidode. He draws on cinema and literary conventions in order to throw light on theme chanisms of cultural mass production and its infinitely reproducible images. Atkins mixes writing and high definition video (the quality of which favours image to the detriment of language) in a precise analysis of the material qualities of the narratives of the contemporary world – narratives that he continually embroiders by constantly retelling them.

Even Pricks is the culmination of a series connected with depression, in both the psychological and the physical sense of the word. In this work Ed Atkins attempts to counter the levelling effect, both on things and people, of depression, and use it to create a new dramatic epidode. He draws on cinema and literary conventions in order to throw light on theme chanisms of cultural mass production and its infinitely reproducible images. Atkins mixes writing and high definition video (the quality of which favours image to the detriment of language) in a precise analysis of the material qualities of the narratives of the contemporary world – narratives that he continually embroiders by constantly retelling them.

Even Pricks is the culmination of a series connected with depression, in both the psychological and the physical sense of the word. In this work Ed Atkins attempts to counter the levelling effect, both on things and people, of depression, and use it to create a new dramatic epidode. He draws on cinema and literary conventions in order to throw light on theme chanisms of cultural mass production and its infinitely reproducible images. Atkins mixes writing and high definition video (the quality of which favours image to the detriment of language) in a precise analysis of the material qualities of the narratives of the contemporary world – narratives that he continually embroiders by constantly retelling them.

Even Pricks is the culmination of a series connected with depression, in both the psychological and the physical sense of the word. In this work Ed Atkins attempts to counter the levelling effect, both on things and people, of depression, and use it to create a new dramatic epidode. He draws on cinema and literary conventions in order to throw light on theme chanisms of cultural mass production and its infinitely reproducible images. Atkins mixes writing and high definition video (the quality of which favours image to the detriment of language) in a precise analysis of the material qualities of the narratives of the contemporary world – narratives that he continually embroiders by constantly retelling them.

Neïl Beloufa offers a fragmented experience of vision, memory and the stereotypes that surround and shape us. His works take the form of modular environments often made from rough and ready materials, in them he confronts the spectator with videos whose scenarios challenge our utopias and narrate the world with all its dreams and its lies. Fiction and reality here are impossible to tell apart. For the Biennale, Beloufa occupies a space with multiple projection devices, which creates a disjointed effect between two parallel narratives projected onto semi-transparent surfaces. Is this just a stage-set? Beloufa’s installation may be telling the story of the every day worries of a bog us ordinary life.

Neïl Beloufa offers a fragmented experience of vision, memory and the stereotypes that surround and shape us. His works take the form of modular environments often made from rough and ready materials, in them he confronts the spectator with videos whose scenarios challenge our utopias and narrate the world with all its dreams and its lies. Fiction and reality here are impossible to tell apart. For the Biennale, Beloufa occupies a space with multiple projection devices, which creates a disjointed effect between two parallel narratives projected onto semi-transparent surfaces. Is this just a stage-set? Beloufa’s installation may be telling the story of the every day worries of a bog us ordinary life.

Neïl Beloufa offers a fragmented experience of vision, memory and the stereotypes that surround and shape us. His works take the form of modular environments often made from rough and ready materials, in them he confronts the spectator with videos whose scenarios challenge our utopias and narrate the world with all its dreams and its lies. Fiction and reality here are impossible to tell apart. For the Biennale, Beloufa occupies a space with multiple projection devices, which creates a disjointed effect between two parallel narratives projected onto semi-transparent surfaces. Is this just a stage-set? Beloufa’s installation may be telling the story of the every day worries of a bog us ordinary life.

Neïl Beloufa offers a fragmented experience of vision, memory and the stereotypes that surround and shape us. His works take the form of modular environments often made from rough and ready materials, in them he confronts the spectator with videos whose scenarios challenge our utopias and narrate the world with all its dreams and its lies. Fiction and reality here are impossible to tell apart. For the Biennale, Beloufa occupies a space with multiple projection devices, which creates a disjointed effect between two parallel narratives projected onto semi-transparent surfaces. Is this just a stage-set? Beloufa’s installation may be telling the story of the every day worries of a bog us ordinary life.

Neïl Beloufa offers a fragmented experience of vision, memory and the stereotypes that surround and shape us. His works take the form of modular environments often made from rough and ready materials, in them he confronts the spectator with videos whose scenarios challenge our utopias and narrate the world with all its dreams and its lies. Fiction and reality here are impossible to tell apart. For the Biennale, Beloufa occupies a space with multiple projection devices, which creates a disjointed effect between two parallel narratives projected onto semi-transparent surfaces. Is this just a stage-set? Beloufa’s installation may be telling the story of the every day worries of a bog us ordinary life.

For the 2013 Biennale, The Bruce High Quality Foundation revisits an episode in the history of art. The collective, famous for its members’ voluntary anonymity and their humorous yet scholarly style, has reworked Antonio Canova’s Psyche Revivedby Cupid’s Kiss in order to play around with the title and mine it for all its connotations. Canova’s sculpture is roughly reproduced, so roughly in fact that it becomes suspect, while the plinth on which it rests is inflated and deflated at more or less regular intervals, as if it were lying on the chest of a giant. Along with the breath of creativity and the work’s comic “Psyche-analysis”, a quiet voice rises out of no where. It is the voice of a mother talking to her children, interspersing her story with thoughts and memories.

For the 2013 Biennale, The Bruce High Quality Foundation revisits an episode in the history of art. The collective, famous for its members’ voluntary anonymity and their humorous yet scholarly style, has reworked Antonio Canova’s Psyche Revivedby Cupid’s Kiss in order to play around with the title and mine it for all its connotations. Canova’s sculpture is roughly reproduced, so roughly in fact that it becomes suspect, while the plinth on which it rests is inflated and deflated at more or less regular intervals, as if it were lying on the chest of a giant. Along with the breath of creativity and the work’s comic “Psyche-analysis”, a quiet voice rises out of no where. It is the voice of a mother talking to her children, interspersing her story with thoughts and memories.

For the 2013 Biennale, The Bruce High Quality Foundation revisits an episode in the history of art. The collective, famous for its members’ voluntary anonymity and their humorous yet scholarly style, has reworked Antonio Canova’s Psyche Revivedby Cupid’s Kiss in order to play around with the title and mine it for all its connotations. Canova’s sculpture is roughly reproduced, so roughly in fact that it becomes suspect, while the plinth on which it rests is inflated and deflated at more or less regular intervals, as if it were lying on the chest of a giant. Along with the breath of creativity and the work’s comic “Psyche-analysis”, a quiet voice rises out of no where. It is the voice of a mother talking to her children, interspersing her story with thoughts and memories.

A ship sets out for the Antarctic laden with a mass of molten petroleum jelly. When the ship reaches the Southern Ocean and the petroleum jelly turns into a sculpture, a game takes place between two passengers on the top deck of the factory ship. Drawing Restraint 9 by Matthew Barney breaks the narrative frame into several pieces : first a feature length film, then a sculpture and a set of drawings. These elements are put together in the manner of a storyboard. The Drawing Restraint cycle is an extended oeuvre that ranges from discipline to transcendence. In it Matthew Barney, using various voluntary constraints, has been continually pushing back the limits of the human body and its representation, and experimenting with the creativity induced by obstacles and repression. His performances in sculptural environments stimulate a paradoxical desire – indulged whatever the cost – based on the antagonistic relation between body and mind.

A ship sets out for the Antarctic laden with a mass of molten petroleum jelly. When the ship reaches the Southern Ocean and the petroleum jelly turns into a sculpture, a game takes place between two passengers on the top deck of the factory ship. Drawing Restraint 9 by Matthew Barney breaks the narrative frame into several pieces : first a feature length film, then a sculpture and a set of drawings. These elements are put together in the manner of a storyboard. The Drawing Restraint cycle is an extended oeuvre that ranges from discipline to transcendence. In it Matthew Barney, using various voluntary constraints, has been continually pushing back the limits of the human body and its representation, and experimenting with the creativity induced by obstacles and repression. His performances in sculptural environments stimulate a paradoxical desire – indulged whatever the cost – based on the antagonistic relation between body and mind.

A ship sets out for the Antarctic laden with a mass of molten petroleum jelly. When the ship reaches the Southern Ocean and the petroleum jelly turns into a sculpture, a game takes place between two passengers on the top deck of the factory ship. Drawing Restraint 9 by Matthew Barney breaks the narrative frame into several pieces : first a feature length film, then a sculpture and a set of drawings. These elements are put together in the manner of a storyboard. The Drawing Restraint cycle is an extended oeuvre that ranges from discipline to transcendence. In it Matthew Barney, using various voluntary constraints, has been continually pushing back the limits of the human body and its representation, and experimenting with the creativity induced by obstacles and repression. His performances in sculptural environments stimulate a paradoxical desire – indulged whatever the cost – based on the antagonistic relation between body and mind.

A ship sets out for the Antarctic laden with a mass of molten petroleum jelly. When the ship reaches the Southern Ocean and the petroleum jelly turns into a sculpture, a game takes place between two passengers on the top deck of the factory ship. Drawing Restraint 9 by Matthew Barney breaks the narrative frame into several pieces : first a feature length film, then a sculpture and a set of drawings. These elements are put together in the manner of a storyboard. The Drawing Restraint cycle is an extended oeuvre that ranges from discipline to transcendence. In it Matthew Barney, using various voluntary constraints, has been continually pushing back the limits of the human body and its representation, and experimenting with the creativity induced by obstacles and repression. His performances in sculptural environments stimulate a paradoxical desire – indulged whatever the cost – based on the antagonistic relation between body and mind.

A ship sets out for the Antarctic laden with a mass of molten petroleum jelly. When the ship reaches the Southern Ocean and the petroleum jelly turns into a sculpture, a game takes place between two passengers on the top deck of the factory ship. Drawing Restraint 9 by Matthew Barney breaks the narrative frame into several pieces : first a feature length film, then a sculpture and a set of drawings. These elements are put together in the manner of a storyboard. The Drawing Restraint cycle is an extended oeuvre that ranges from discipline to transcendence. In it Matthew Barney, using various voluntary constraints, has been continually pushing back the limits of the human body and its representation, and experimenting with the creativity induced by obstacles and repression. His performances in sculptural environments stimulate a paradoxical desire – indulged whatever the cost – based on the antagonistic relation between body and mind.

A ship sets out for the Antarctic laden with a mass of molten petroleum jelly. When the ship reaches the Southern Ocean and the petroleum jelly turns into a sculpture, a game takes place between two passengers on the top deck of the factory ship. Drawing Restraint 9 by Matthew Barney breaks the narrative frame into several pieces : first a feature length film, then a sculpture and a set of drawings. These elements are put together in the manner of a storyboard. The Drawing Restraint cycle is an extended oeuvre that ranges from discipline to transcendence. In it Matthew Barney, using various voluntary constraints, has been continually pushing back the limits of the human body and its representation, and experimenting with the creativity induced by obstacles and repression. His performances in sculptural environments stimulate a paradoxical desire – indulged whatever the cost – based on the antagonistic relation between body and mind.

A ship sets out for the Antarctic laden with a mass of molten petroleum jelly. When the ship reaches the Southern Ocean and the petroleum jelly turns into a sculpture, a game takes place between two passengers on the top deck of the factory ship. Drawing Restraint 9 by Matthew Barney breaks the narrative frame into several pieces : first a feature length film, then a sculpture and a set of drawings. These elements are put together in the manner of a storyboard. The Drawing Restraint cycle is an extended oeuvre that ranges from discipline to transcendence. In it Matthew Barney, using various voluntary constraints, has been continually pushing back the limits of the human body and its representation, and experimenting with the creativity induced by obstacles and repression. His performances in sculptural environments stimulate a paradoxical desire – indulged whatever the cost – based on the antagonistic relation between body and mind.

Gerry Bibby challenges the relevance of an artistic “language”. It is a limitless process fuelled by anendless, ironic chain of cultural signifiers. His work is built on sculptural acts of great precision and complexity, personal or borrowed texts, and meticulous choreographies that he integrates into daring, deliberately random performances. Gerry Bibby considers that a sculpture can be borrowed from any of the components or forms of real things. It can thusas easily be a form of protest as an act of power, ametaphor or a poem.

With the kind support of Australia Council for the Arts.

Cushions are scattered on the ground. They are of various shapes and colours and each one has only been used by one person. Jason Dodge asked several people – the mayor of a small town, some doctors and some children – to sleep with these cushions fora few nights. By limiting his artistic statement to the ephemeral, delicate trace of something, Jason Dodgehas created a narrative about absence, an absence evoked by a few objects that bear a trace andrecount, in the manner of an empty mould, a memory experience that is specifically invisible. By positioning himself on the edge of the narrative, Dodge invitesus to give free rein to our emotions and to imagine an indefinable story of tenuous, though totally real, connections.

Cushions are scattered on the ground. They are of various shapes and colours and each one has only been used by one person. Jason Dodge asked several people – the mayor of a small town, some doctors and some children – to sleep with these cushions fora few nights. By limiting his artistic statement to the ephemeral, delicate trace of something, Jason Dodgehas created a narrative about absence, an absence evoked by a few objects that bear a trace andrecount, in the manner of an empty mould, a memory experience that is specifically invisible. By positioning himself on the edge of the narrative, Dodge invitesus to give free rein to our emotions and to imagine an indefinable story of tenuous, though totally real, connections.

Cushions are scattered on the ground. They are of various shapes and colours and each one has only been used by one person. Jason Dodge asked several people – the mayor of a small town, some doctors and some children – to sleep with these cushions fora few nights. By limiting his artistic statement to the ephemeral, delicate trace of something, Jason Dodgehas created a narrative about absence, an absence evoked by a few objects that bear a trace andrecount, in the manner of an empty mould, a memory experience that is specifically invisible. By positioning himself on the edge of the narrative, Dodge invitesus to give free rein to our emotions and to imagine an indefinable story of tenuous, though totally real, connections.

Cushions are scattered on the ground. They are of various shapes and colours and each one has only been used by one person. Jason Dodge asked several people – the mayor of a small town, some doctors and some children – to sleep with these cushions fora few nights. By limiting his artistic statement to the ephemeral, delicate trace of something, Jason Dodgehas created a narrative about absence, an absence evoked by a few objects that bear a trace andrecount, in the manner of an empty mould, a memory experience that is specifically invisible. By positioning himself on the edge of the narrative, Dodge invitesus to give free rein to our emotions and to imagine an indefinable story of tenuous, though totally real, connections.

For the 2013 Biennale, Robert Gober tells, in all simplicity, the story of his life – and the genesis of his oeuvre - through some of the dolls’ houses he painstakingly created in the early years of his career. Initially he was reluctant to think of them as worksof art but he soon saw that “each house became more complex and more interesting to conceive and constructe”, until he realized that it wasn’t actually thedolls’ houses that he was interested in: what fascinated him was “the house as a symbol”, with all its potential for narrative tension. In fact, the questions of sexuality, nature, politics and religion that have pervaded Gober’s oeuvre for over thirty years have their roots in his childhood memories. Washbasins, doors, cradles, chairs and human body parts pervadehis oeuvre; the details evoke an ordinary domestic setting but within this there is also a highly personal narrative. His sculptures are accompanied by a series of drawings and some hand-painted wallpaper.

For the 2013 Biennale, Robert Gober tells, in all simplicity, the story of his life – and the genesis of his oeuvre - through some of the dolls’ houses he painstakingly created in the early years of his career. Initially he was reluctant to think of them as worksof art but he soon saw that “each house became more complex and more interesting to conceive and constructe”, until he realized that it wasn’t actually thedolls’ houses that he was interested in: what fascinated him was “the house as a symbol”, with all its potential for narrative tension. In fact, the questions of sexuality, nature, politics and religion that have pervaded Gober’s oeuvre for over thirty years have their roots in his childhood memories. Washbasins, doors, cradles, chairs and human body parts pervadehis oeuvre; the details evoke an ordinary domestic setting but within this there is also a highly personal narrative. His sculptures are accompanied by a series of drawings and some hand-painted wallpaper.

For the 2013 Biennale, Robert Gober tells, in all simplicity, the story of his life – and the genesis of his oeuvre - through some of the dolls’ houses he painstakingly created in the early years of his career. Initially he was reluctant to think of them as worksof art but he soon saw that “each house became more complex and more interesting to conceive and constructe”, until he realized that it wasn’t actually thedolls’ houses that he was interested in: what fascinated him was “the house as a symbol”, with all its potential for narrative tension. In fact, the questions of sexuality, nature, politics and religion that have pervaded Gober’s oeuvre for over thirty years have their roots in his childhood memories. Washbasins, doors, cradles, chairs and human body parts pervadehis oeuvre; the details evoke an ordinary domestic setting but within this there is also a highly personal narrative. His sculptures are accompanied by a series of drawings and some hand-painted wallpaper.

Laida Lertxundi’s work is about cinema shots. By only keeping two kinds of shot (3 quarter shots and insert shots), Lertxundi plays with the visual grammar of popular cinema in order to create what she calls the“B side” of a film – i.e. what is left when the purelynarrative elements are removed and those that communicate emotion are kept. The Room CalledHeaven is exactly one reel long, which defines its duration. It is an ethereal road-movie shot in Texasand New Mexico. It is virtually a soundtrack made up of fleeting images, saturated with light and given poetic form by the music. A 16mm film spools through until there is none left, and that is the end of the story.

Václav Magid’s work for this year’s Biennale references both late 18th century German philosophy, which saw beauty as a path to freedom, and the 1973 Soviet television mini-series Seventeen Moments of Spring. This told the story of a Soviet secret agent who infiltrated the Nazi elite during the last months of the Second World War. Václav Magid recounts, in the style of a spy novel, the episodes of a story where aprivileged space for art needs to be found and preserved. As an artist and an essayist, Magid conceives of his works as projects for exhibitions focusing on thesocial and political issues that govern any cultural undertaking. Texts, models, maps, posters and videos give fresh expression to personal experiences in the way that autobiographies do and, like autobiographies, they become universal stories.

Václav Magid’s work for this year’s Biennale references both late 18th century German philosophy, which saw beauty as a path to freedom, and the 1973 Soviet television mini-series Seventeen Moments of Spring. This told the story of a Soviet secret agent who infiltrated the Nazi elite during the last months of the Second World War. Václav Magid recounts, in the style of a spy novel, the episodes of a story where aprivileged space for art needs to be found and preserved. As an artist and an essayist, Magid conceives of his works as projects for exhibitions focusing on thesocial and political issues that govern any cultural undertaking. Texts, models, maps, posters and videos give fresh expression to personal experiences in the way that autobiographies do and, like autobiographies, they become universal stories.

Václav Magid’s work for this year’s Biennale references both late 18th century German philosophy, which saw beauty as a path to freedom, and the 1973 Soviet television mini-series Seventeen Moments of Spring. This told the story of a Soviet secret agent who infiltrated the Nazi elite during the last months of the Second World War. Václav Magid recounts, in the style of a spy novel, the episodes of a story where aprivileged space for art needs to be found and preserved. As an artist and an essayist, Magid conceives of his works as projects for exhibitions focusing on thesocial and political issues that govern any cultural undertaking. Texts, models, maps, posters and videos give fresh expression to personal experiences in the way that autobiographies do and, like autobiographies, they become universal stories.

Václav Magid’s work for this year’s Biennale references both late 18th century German philosophy, which saw beauty as a path to freedom, and the 1973 Soviet television mini-series Seventeen Moments of Spring. This told the story of a Soviet secret agent who infiltrated the Nazi elite during the last months of the Second World War. Václav Magid recounts, in the style of a spy novel, the episodes of a story where aprivileged space for art needs to be found and preserved. As an artist and an essayist, Magid conceives of his works as projects for exhibitions focusing on thesocial and political issues that govern any cultural undertaking. Texts, models, maps, posters and videos give fresh expression to personal experiences in the way that autobiographies do and, like autobiographies, they become universal stories.

Aude Pariset’s work is a process that continues through the entire time of the Biennale. She works with the ghostly figure of the zombie, which she applies to consumption and the business of planned obsolescence. Her work begins with pieces of printed material being aged in the fresh air. The fragmented images of the pattern on the material are taken from advertisements for technology products. The work continues with the material being hung in the space, piece by piece, until a hyper-real scene iscreated, inhabited by empty, apparently waiting creatures – ghosts of images embodied by these volatile, weathered envelopes. What Pariset creates here is a poetic counterpoint in the form of a process drawnout in time, in which the logic of consumption is gradually worn away.

Aude Pariset’s work is a process that continues through the entire time of the Biennale. She works with the ghostly figure of the zombie, which she applies to consumption and the business of planned obsolescence. Her work begins with pieces of printed material being aged in the fresh air. The fragmented images of the pattern on the material are taken from advertisements for technology products. The work continues with the material being hung in the space, piece by piece, until a hyper-real scene iscreated, inhabited by empty, apparently waiting creatures – ghosts of images embodied by these volatile, weathered envelopes. What Pariset creates here is a poetic counterpoint in the form of a process drawnout in time, in which the logic of consumption is gradually worn away.

Aude Pariset’s work is a process that continues through the entire time of the Biennale. She works with the ghostly figure of the zombie, which she applies to consumption and the business of planned obsolescence. Her work begins with pieces of printed material being aged in the fresh air. The fragmented images of the pattern on the material are taken from advertisements for technology products. The work continues with the material being hung in the space, piece by piece, until a hyper-real scene iscreated, inhabited by empty, apparently waiting creatures – ghosts of images embodied by these volatile, weathered envelopes. What Pariset creates here is a poetic counterpoint in the form of a process drawnout in time, in which the logic of consumption is gradually worn away.

Along with Nathalie Sarraute, Alain Robbe-Grillet was one of the leading lights of the “Nouveau Roman”, which sought to overturn literary conventions by undermining the notions of “realism” and “narrator”. As a writer of words and images, he was also a screen writer (notably of L’année dernière à Marienbad, for Alain Resnais, in 1961) and a film director. The Biennale is presenting L’Eden et après (Eden and After) and N a pris les dés, two films from the same shoot. “There would be a singles hoot, leading to a first film for release in cinemas andcalled L’Eden et après (Eden and After), then a second film, for television, with the same shots but used in a different order and telling a different story and this would be called – in a sort of anagram of L’Eden et après (Eden and After) – N a pris les dés (N Feared Dante,as it might be)”. This is how Robbe-Grillet explained it; basically two versions of the same fantasmagoric, hallucinatory tale, a mixture of violently sensual mirror effects and erotic fantasies set between white houses and the sea under the hot Tunisian sun.

Along with Nathalie Sarraute, Alain Robbe-Grillet was one of the leading lights of the “Nouveau Roman”, which sought to overturn literary conventions by undermining the notions of “realism” and “narrator”. As a writer of words and images, he was also a screen writer (notably of L’année dernière à Marienbad, for Alain Resnais, in 1961) and a film director. The Biennale is presenting L’Eden et après (Eden and After) and N a pris les dés, two films from the same shoot. “There would be a singles hoot, leading to a first film for release in cinemas andcalled L’Eden et après (Eden and After), then a second film, for television, with the same shots but used in a different order and telling a different story and this would be called – in a sort of anagram of L’Eden et après (Eden and After) – N a pris les dés (N Feared Dante,as it might be)”. This is how Robbe-Grillet explained it; basically two versions of the same fantasmagoric, hallucinatory tale, a mixture of violently sensual mirror effects and erotic fantasies set between white houses and the sea under the hot Tunisian sun.

Along with Nathalie Sarraute, Alain Robbe-Grillet was one of the leading lights of the “Nouveau Roman”, which sought to overturn literary conventions by undermining the notions of “realism” and “narrator”. As a writer of words and images, he was also a screen writer (notably of L’année dernière à Marienbad, for Alain Resnais, in 1961) and a film director. The Biennale is presenting L’Eden et après (Eden and After) and N a pris les dés, two films from the same shoot. “There would be a singles hoot, leading to a first film for release in cinemas andcalled L’Eden et après (Eden and After), then a second film, for television, with the same shots but used in a different order and telling a different story and this would be called – in a sort of anagram of L’Eden et après (Eden and After) – N a pris les dés (N Feared Dante,as it might be)”. This is how Robbe-Grillet explained it; basically two versions of the same fantasmagoric, hallucinatory tale, a mixture of violently sensual mirror effects and erotic fantasies set between white houses and the sea under the hot Tunisian sun.

Along with Nathalie Sarraute, Alain Robbe-Grillet was one of the leading lights of the “Nouveau Roman”, which sought to overturn literary conventions by undermining the notions of “realism” and “narrator”. As a writer of words and images, he was also a screen writer (notably of L’année dernière à Marienbad, for Alain Resnais, in 1961) and a film director. The Biennale is presenting L’Eden et après (Eden and After) and N a pris les dés, two films from the same shoot. “There would be a singles hoot, leading to a first film for release in cinemas andcalled L’Eden et après (Eden and After), then a second film, for television, with the same shots but used in a different order and telling a different story and this would be called – in a sort of anagram of L’Eden et après (Eden and After) – N a pris les dés (N Feared Dante,as it might be)”. This is how Robbe-Grillet explained it; basically two versions of the same fantasmagoric, hallucinatory tale, a mixture of violently sensual mirror effects and erotic fantasies set between white houses and the sea under the hot Tunisian sun.

Trisha Baga seeks to be open to the world in every way possible using 3D video as her only tool. Her aesthetics has an intentionally “hand made” quality. Baga invokes the finest formal and conceptual qualities of sculpture, painting, cinema, music, fiction and comedy, and transforms them into a maelstrom of meticulously organised information. She places elements in front of the projector during the screening of a film in the exhibition space. This gives the impression that the space and the objects in it are part of an augmented reality. For Lyon she has anew installation which starts with the idea of climate change and which the spectator is invited to view with the optical distortion of a pair of 3D glasses.

Alice Lescanne and Sonia Derzypolski are interested in language, its exhaustion and its resources. Though invited to the Biennale for a performance, they decided to install the “décor” for their artwork and this far exceeds and precedes the duration of the performance. As they put it, “In its primary state an installation is a hermeticthing composed of formalist works that mark out aspace in which it is difficult to tell stories (unless one has a lot of imagination)”. Since the Biennale is interested in new visual narrative forms, Lescanne and Derzypolskimainta in that “this installation is off the subject, in fact a failure” and they suggest “improving it” during a performance acted out by Serge Gaborieau and Violaine Phavorin on the weekend of 19, 20 October 2013.

Alice Lescanne and Sonia Derzypolski are interested in language, its exhaustion and its resources. Though invited to the Biennale for a performance, they decided to install the “décor” for their artwork and this far exceeds and precedes the duration of the performance. As they put it, “In its primary state an installation is a hermeticthing composed of formalist works that mark out aspace in which it is difficult to tell stories (unless one has a lot of imagination)”. Since the Biennale is interested in new visual narrative forms, Lescanne and Derzypolskimainta in that “this installation is off the subject, in fact a failure” and they suggest “improving it” during a performance acted out by Serge Gaborieau and Violaine Phavorin on the weekend of 19, 20 October 2013.

Alice Lescanne and Sonia Derzypolski are interested in language, its exhaustion and its resources. Though invited to the Biennale for a performance, they decided to install the “décor” for their artwork and this far exceeds and precedes the duration of the performance. As they put it, “In its primary state an installation is a hermeticthing composed of formalist works that mark out aspace in which it is difficult to tell stories (unless one has a lot of imagination)”. Since the Biennale is interested in new visual narrative forms, Lescanne and Derzypolskimainta in that “this installation is off the subject, in fact a failure” and they suggest “improving it” during a performance acted out by Serge Gaborieau and Violaine Phavorin on the weekend of 19, 20 October 2013.

Working at the opposite pole from classical cinema narrative, Petra Cortright appropriates teenagers’visual and narrative codes such as webcams, emoticons, and animated GIFs. Her works, which are distributed on the internet, pick up on the imagery of video-sharing platforms. But Cortright does this with a remarkable instinct for cut-ins and an innate technical style. We get lost in a poetic triumph of wonderment over kitsch. She gives us eight stories here. The beginnings are her creation, after that they take their own course. Like us, the artist has no ideaof the outcome; the images are self-generating andthe narrative is infinite.

Working at the opposite pole from classical cinema narrative, Petra Cortright appropriates teenagers’visual and narrative codes such as webcams, emoticons, and animated GIFs. Her works, which are distributed on the internet, pick up on the imagery of video-sharing platforms. But Cortright does this with a remarkable instinct for cut-ins and an innate technical style. We get lost in a poetic triumph of wonderment over kitsch. She gives us eight stories here. The beginnings are her creation, after that they take their own course. Like us, the artist has no ideaof the outcome; the images are self-generating andthe narrative is infinite.

Working at the opposite pole from classical cinema narrative, Petra Cortright appropriates teenagers’visual and narrative codes such as webcams, emoticons, and animated GIFs. Her works, which are distributed on the internet, pick up on the imagery of video-sharing platforms. But Cortright does this with a remarkable instinct for cut-ins and an innate technical style. We get lost in a poetic triumph of wonderment over kitsch. She gives us eight stories here. The beginnings are her creation, after that they take their own course. Like us, the artist has no ideaof the outcome; the images are self-generating andthe narrative is infinite.

Working at the opposite pole from classical cinema narrative, Petra Cortright appropriates teenagers’visual and narrative codes such as webcams, emoticons, and animated GIFs. Her works, which are distributed on the internet, pick up on the imagery of video-sharing platforms. But Cortright does this with a remarkable instinct for cut-ins and an innate technical style. We get lost in a poetic triumph of wonderment over kitsch. She gives us eight stories here. The beginnings are her creation, after that they take their own course. Like us, the artist has no ideaof the outcome; the images are self-generating andthe narrative is infinite.

Working at the opposite pole from classical cinema narrative, Petra Cortright appropriates teenagers’visual and narrative codes such as webcams, emoticons, and animated GIFs. Her works, which are distributed on the internet, pick up on the imagery of video-sharing platforms. But Cortright does this with a remarkable instinct for cut-ins and an innate technical style. We get lost in a poetic triumph of wonderment over kitsch. She gives us eight stories here. The beginnings are her creation, after that they take their own course. Like us, the artist has no ideaof the outcome; the images are self-generating andthe narrative is infinite.

For the Biennale, Matthew Ronay is showing a work which tells the great story of death and all that follows it. With their obsessive symbolic forms, his sculptures make their way slowly towards the threshold of apainting – a gateway to the unknown. In its mix of the contemplative and the shamanistic, Ronay’s oeuvre is a sensory and mental experience with a straight forward but enigmatic storyline. Makeshift materials like papier-mâché, wood and fabric are pushed to the limits of their potential, but the artist has ensured that the work, which highlights the interplay of mind and body, defies immediate interpretation. The leading role is given to a ship in order to give substance to the idea of a journey with an unknown destination. The huge assemblage seems to connect with some kind of archaic ritual, forgotten to contemporary society.

For the Biennale, Matthew Ronay is showing a work which tells the great story of death and all that follows it. With their obsessive symbolic forms, his sculptures make their way slowly towards the threshold of apainting – a gateway to the unknown. In its mix of the contemplative and the shamanistic, Ronay’s oeuvre is a sensory and mental experience with a straight forward but enigmatic storyline. Makeshift materials like papier-mâché, wood and fabric are pushed to the limits of their potential, but the artist has ensured that the work, which highlights the interplay of mind and body, defies immediate interpretation. The leading role is given to a ship in order to give substance to the idea of a journey with an unknown destination. The huge assemblage seems to connect with some kind of archaic ritual, forgotten to contemporary society.

For the Biennale, Matthew Ronay is showing a work which tells the great story of death and all that follows it. With their obsessive symbolic forms, his sculptures make their way slowly towards the threshold of apainting – a gateway to the unknown. In its mix of the contemplative and the shamanistic, Ronay’s oeuvre is a sensory and mental experience with a straight forward but enigmatic storyline. Makeshift materials like papier-mâché, wood and fabric are pushed to the limits of their potential, but the artist has ensured that the work, which highlights the interplay of mind and body, defies immediate interpretation. The leading role is given to a ship in order to give substance to the idea of a journey with an unknown destination. The huge assemblage seems to connect with some kind of archaic ritual, forgotten to contemporary society.

For the Biennale, Matthew Ronay is showing a work which tells the great story of death and all that follows it. With their obsessive symbolic forms, his sculptures make their way slowly towards the threshold of apainting – a gateway to the unknown. In its mix of the contemplative and the shamanistic, Ronay’s oeuvre is a sensory and mental experience with a straight forward but enigmatic storyline. Makeshift materials like papier-mâché, wood and fabric are pushed to the limits of their potential, but the artist has ensured that the work, which highlights the interplay of mind and body, defies immediate interpretation. The leading role is given to a ship in order to give substance to the idea of a journey with an unknown destination. The huge assemblage seems to connect with some kind of archaic ritual, forgotten to contemporary society.

Jeff Koons’s work embraces all the media, including photography, painting, sculpture and installation. He is the artist who, at the turn of this century, recreated the marvellously standardised aesthetics of popular culture. At first sight his works seem to be imbued with remarkable visual clarity, but they also develop the complex principles that Koons calls “a biological narrative”. For the Biennale Jeff Koons is exhibiting a work comprising two paintings and a sculpture, which are a particularly fine illustration of this biological chain. The picture of Venus, goddess of love is central. Several layers of images and interpretations referencing Classical and contemporary themes are overlaid in his pictures. The combination of anartistic vocabulary, borrowed, discovered or founddelineates a genealogy of works and artists, periods and styles. The references to children’s drawings and to Dali, who was himself inspired by the folded sheet of Raphaël Peale’s Venus Rising from the Sea, create an infinite chain of inter-responding meanings. The same effect is at work in the Delos with Eros group, where Aphrodite, played by actress Gretchen Molsits astride a dolphin in a three-way reference to mythology, sexuality and culture (e.g. Betty Page). The reference to the Palaeolithic era sculpture of the Venus of Willendorf rounds off the never-ending cycle of a fertility symbol that runs through all human history.

Jeff Koons’s work embraces all the media, including photography, painting, sculpture and installation. He is the artist who, at the turn of this century, recreated the marvellously standardised aesthetics of popular culture. At first sight his works seem to be imbued with remarkable visual clarity, but they also develop the complex principles that Koons calls “a biological narrative”. For the Biennale Jeff Koons is exhibiting a work comprising two paintings and a sculpture, which are a particularly fine illustration of this biological chain. The picture of Venus, goddess of love is central. Several layers of images and interpretations referencing Classical and contemporary themes are overlaid in his pictures. The combination of anartistic vocabulary, borrowed, discovered or founddelineates a genealogy of works and artists, periods and styles. The references to children’s drawings and to Dali, who was himself inspired by the folded sheet of Raphaël Peale’s Venus Rising from the Sea, create an infinite chain of inter-responding meanings. The same effect is at work in the Delos with Eros group, where Aphrodite, played by actress Gretchen Molsits astride a dolphin in a three-way reference to mythology, sexuality and culture (e.g. Betty Page). The reference to the Palaeolithic era sculpture of the Venus of Willendorf rounds off the never-ending cycle of a fertility symbol that runs through all human history.

Jeff Koons’s work embraces all the media, including photography, painting, sculpture and installation. He is the artist who, at the turn of this century, recreated the marvellously standardised aesthetics of popular culture. At first sight his works seem to be imbued with remarkable visual clarity, but they also develop the complex principles that Koons calls “a biological narrative”. For the Biennale Jeff Koons is exhibiting a work comprising two paintings and a sculpture, which are a particularly fine illustration of this biological chain. The picture of Venus, goddess of love is central. Several layers of images and interpretations referencing Classical and contemporary themes are overlaid in his pictures. The combination of anartistic vocabulary, borrowed, discovered or founddelineates a genealogy of works and artists, periods and styles. The references to children’s drawings and to Dali, who was himself inspired by the folded sheet of Raphaël Peale’s Venus Rising from the Sea, create an infinite chain of inter-responding meanings. The same effect is at work in the Delos with Eros group, where Aphrodite, played by actress Gretchen Molsits astride a dolphin in a three-way reference to mythology, sexuality and culture (e.g. Betty Page). The reference to the Palaeolithic era sculpture of the Venus of Willendorf rounds off the never-ending cycle of a fertility symbol that runs through all human history.

In their fugitive, transparent way, Anicka Yi’s sculptures emphasise the fragility of her materials and the incongruity of their association, as well as the scents they exhale. Her titles, which she takes great pains over, are the beginnings of stories appealing to our emotions. But let there be no mistake, what Anicka Yi is really talking about is the connections between materials and materialism, between nature in its raw state and its exploitation value, between posthumanist theory and its socio-political implications for the body and the senses, between consumerism and metabolism.

With the support of Bernard Ceramics.

In their fugitive, transparent way, Anicka Yi’s sculptures emphasise the fragility of her materials and the incongruity of their association, as well as the scents they exhale. Her titles, which she takes great pains over, are the beginnings of stories appealing to our emotions. But let there be no mistake, what Anicka Yi is really talking about is the connections between materials and materialism, between nature in its raw state and its exploitation value, between posthumanist theory and its socio-political implications for the body and the senses, between consumerism and metabolism.

With the support of Bernard Ceramics.

In their fugitive, transparent way, Anicka Yi’s sculptures emphasise the fragility of her materials and the incongruity of their association, as well as the scents they exhale. Her titles, which she takes great pains over, are the beginnings of stories appealing to our emotions. But let there be no mistake, what Anicka Yi is really talking about is the connections between materials and materialism, between nature in its raw state and its exploitation value, between posthumanist theory and its socio-political implications for the body and the senses, between consumerism and metabolism.

With the support of Bernard Ceramics.

Are we in a magical environment or a convention alwaiting room ? Margaret Lee and Michele Abeles’s work plays on the elimination of hierarchy between images, objects and people. Margaret Lee is interested in all kinds of collaboration, collusion and imitation. Her installations create a dialogue between meticulously reproduced and displayed objects. Michele Abeles muddles all the clues with photographs that seem to super impose the same motifs until they vanish. Even when they are tenuous these patterns connect the elements she has staged, to the point where they eventually make a sculptural story, open to all interpretations.

With the kind support of Ultra Sofa, partner of the12th Biennale de Lyon.

Are we in a magical environment or a convention alwaiting room ? Margaret Lee and Michele Abeles’s work plays on the elimination of hierarchy between images, objects and people. Margaret Lee is interested in all kinds of collaboration, collusion and imitation. Her installations create a dialogue between meticulously reproduced and displayed objects. Michele Abeles muddles all the clues with photographs that seem to super impose the same motifs until they vanish. Even when they are tenuous these patterns connect the elements she has staged, to the point where they eventually make a sculptural story, open to all interpretations.

With the kind support of Ultra Sofa, partner of the12th Biennale de Lyon.

Are we in a magical environment or a convention alwaiting room ? Margaret Lee and Michele Abeles’s work plays on the elimination of hierarchy between images, objects and people. Margaret Lee is interested in all kinds of collaboration, collusion and imitation. Her installations create a dialogue between meticulously reproduced and displayed objects. Michele Abeles muddles all the clues with photographs that seem to super impose the same motifs until they vanish. Even when they are tenuous these patterns connect the elements she has staged, to the point where they eventually make a sculptural story, open to all interpretations.

With the kind support of Ultra Sofa, partner of the12th Biennale de Lyon.

In the middle of the Biennale café-restaurant, MadeIn has installed a violently lit garden containing all kinds of plants. Ferns, bamboo, cacti, pearl grass and other plants map out a path whose course we discern – the overlaid trajectories of demonstrations and notable riots – on the walls of the café. In Movement Field MadeIn relates a Zen garden, which people in the West idealise as the absence of conflict, to demands that grow more and more visible thanks to exposure on the social networks. A café, a place of conviviality and rest, is the right place to display this work. It intensifies the contrasts, in the same way as, in the course of a conversation, despite outward appearances of agreement, horrendous conflicts still show through. This work by MadeIn (an ironic and anonymous pseudonym evoking the tag “Made in China”) is concerned with the beliefs and modes of organisation that characterise our societies. In this sense, the idea of a museum is like that of the Zen garden : aform that doesn’t tell the whole truth. This is why, for Lyon, MadeIn wanted to relate them to each other. Realizing that an act is the prime manifestation of a thought and that all beliefs are embodied in rituals, MadeIn sought to translate the spirit of the world by collecting up the finest acts, those acts that embody the finest beliefs, whether religious or sporting. Physique Of Consciousness Museum involves ten exercises, going from the easiest to the most difficult, that amount to observations on our behaviour and the absurdity of our convictions. The ridiculously kitsch nature of these is to be seen in the showcases of this encyclopaedic museum from a new world, which acts as a fake serious epigraph to the café-restaurant.

The work by Xu Zhen / Produced by MadeIn Company,was made thanks to the support of Maison ZILLI, official sponsor of the Biennale de Lyon, and to the technical support of TARVEL.
With the kind support of Maison ZILLI, official partner of the 12th Biennale de Lyon , White Rabbit Contemporary Chinese Art Collection, Mr Shen Qibin and Mrs Lin Moru.

In the middle of the Biennale café-restaurant, MadeIn has installed a violently lit garden containing all kinds of plants. Ferns, bamboo, cacti, pearl grass and other plants map out a path whose course we discern – the overlaid trajectories of demonstrations and notable riots – on the walls of the café. In Movement Field MadeIn relates a Zen garden, which people in the West idealise as the absence of conflict, to demands that grow more and more visible thanks to exposure on the social networks. A café, a place of conviviality and rest, is the right place to display this work. It intensifies the contrasts, in the same way as, in the course of a conversation, despite outward appearances of agreement, horrendous conflicts still show through. This work by MadeIn (an ironic and anonymous pseudonym evoking the tag “Made in China”) is concerned with the beliefs and modes of organisation that characterise our societies. In this sense, the idea of a museum is like that of the Zen garden : aform that doesn’t tell the whole truth. This is why, for Lyon, MadeIn wanted to relate them to each other. Realizing that an act is the prime manifestation of a thought and that all beliefs are embodied in rituals, MadeIn sought to translate the spirit of the world by collecting up the finest acts, those acts that embody the finest beliefs, whether religious or sporting. Physique Of Consciousness Museum involves ten exercises, going from the easiest to the most difficult, that amount to observations on our behaviour and the absurdity of our convictions. The ridiculously kitsch nature of these is to be seen in the showcases of this encyclopaedic museum from a new world, which acts as a fake serious epigraph to the café-restaurant.

The work by Xu Zhen / Produced by MadeIn Company,was made thanks to the support of Maison ZILLI, official sponsor of the Biennale de Lyon, and to the technical support of TARVEL.
With the kind support of Maison ZILLI, official partner of the 12th Biennale de Lyon , White Rabbit Contemporary Chinese Art Collection, Mr Shen Qibin and Mrs Lin Moru.

In the middle of the Biennale café-restaurant, MadeIn has installed a violently lit garden containing all kinds of plants. Ferns, bamboo, cacti, pearl grass and other plants map out a path whose course we discern – the overlaid trajectories of demonstrations and notable riots – on the walls of the café. In Movement Field MadeIn relates a Zen garden, which people in the West idealise as the absence of conflict, to demands that grow more and more visible thanks to exposure on the social networks. A café, a place of conviviality and rest, is the right place to display this work. It intensifies the contrasts, in the same way as, in the course of a conversation, despite outward appearances of agreement, horrendous conflicts still show through. This work by MadeIn (an ironic and anonymous pseudonym evoking the tag “Made in China”) is concerned with the beliefs and modes of organisation that characterise our societies. In this sense, the idea of a museum is like that of the Zen garden : aform that doesn’t tell the whole truth. This is why, for Lyon, MadeIn wanted to relate them to each other. Realizing that an act is the prime manifestation of a thought and that all beliefs are embodied in rituals, MadeIn sought to translate the spirit of the world by collecting up the finest acts, those acts that embody the finest beliefs, whether religious or sporting. Physique Of Consciousness Museum involves ten exercises, going from the easiest to the most difficult, that amount to observations on our behaviour and the absurdity of our convictions. The ridiculously kitsch nature of these is to be seen in the showcases of this encyclopaedic museum from a new world, which acts as a fake serious epigraph to the café-restaurant.

The work by Xu Zhen / Produced by MadeIn Company,was made thanks to the support of Maison ZILLI, official sponsor of the Biennale de Lyon, and to the technical support of TARVEL.
With the kind support of Maison ZILLI, official partner of the 12th Biennale de Lyon , White Rabbit Contemporary Chinese Art Collection, Mr Shen Qibin and Mrs Lin Moru.

In the middle of the Biennale café-restaurant, MadeIn has installed a violently lit garden containing all kinds of plants. Ferns, bamboo, cacti, pearl grass and other plants map out a path whose course we discern – the overlaid trajectories of demonstrations and notable riots – on the walls of the café. In Movement Field MadeIn relates a Zen garden, which people in the West idealise as the absence of conflict, to demands that grow more and more visible thanks to exposure on the social networks. A café, a place of conviviality and rest, is the right place to display this work. It intensifies the contrasts, in the same way as, in the course of a conversation, despite outward appearances of agreement, horrendous conflicts still show through. This work by MadeIn (an ironic and anonymous pseudonym evoking the tag “Made in China”) is concerned with the beliefs and modes of organisation that characterise our societies. In this sense, the idea of a museum is like that of the Zen garden : aform that doesn’t tell the whole truth. This is why, for Lyon, MadeIn wanted to relate them to each other. Realizing that an act is the prime manifestation of a thought and that all beliefs are embodied in rituals, MadeIn sought to translate the spirit of the world by collecting up the finest acts, those acts that embody the finest beliefs, whether religious or sporting. Physique Of Consciousness Museum involves ten exercises, going from the easiest to the most difficult, that amount to observations on our behaviour and the absurdity of our convictions. The ridiculously kitsch nature of these is to be seen in the showcases of this encyclopaedic museum from a new world, which acts as a fake serious epigraph to the café-restaurant.

The work by Xu Zhen / Produced by MadeIn Company,was made thanks to the support of Maison ZILLI, official sponsor of the Biennale de Lyon, and to the technical support of TARVEL.
With the kind support of Maison ZILLI, official partner of the 12th Biennale de Lyon , White Rabbit Contemporary Chinese Art Collection, Mr Shen Qibin and Mrs Lin Moru.

In the middle of the Biennale café-restaurant, MadeIn has installed a violently lit garden containing all kinds of plants. Ferns, bamboo, cacti, pearl grass and other plants map out a path whose course we discern – the overlaid trajectories of demonstrations and notable riots – on the walls of the café. In Movement Field MadeIn relates a Zen garden, which people in the West idealise as the absence of conflict, to demands that grow more and more visible thanks to exposure on the social networks. A café, a place of conviviality and rest, is the right place to display this work. It intensifies the contrasts, in the same way as, in the course of a conversation, despite outward appearances of agreement, horrendous conflicts still show through. This work by MadeIn (an ironic and anonymous pseudonym evoking the tag “Made in China”) is concerned with the beliefs and modes of organisation that characterise our societies. In this sense, the idea of a museum is like that of the Zen garden : aform that doesn’t tell the whole truth. This is why, for Lyon, MadeIn wanted to relate them to each other. Realizing that an act is the prime manifestation of a thought and that all beliefs are embodied in rituals, MadeIn sought to translate the spirit of the world by collecting up the finest acts, those acts that embody the finest beliefs, whether religious or sporting. Physique Of Consciousness Museum involves ten exercises, going from the easiest to the most difficult, that amount to observations on our behaviour and the absurdity of our convictions. The ridiculously kitsch nature of these is to be seen in the showcases of this encyclopaedic museum from a new world, which acts as a fake serious epigraph to the café-restaurant.

The work by Xu Zhen / Produced by MadeIn Company,was made thanks to the support of Maison ZILLI, official sponsor of the Biennale de Lyon, and to the technical support of TARVEL.
With the kind support of Maison ZILLI, official partner of the 12th Biennale de Lyon , White Rabbit Contemporary Chinese Art Collection, Mr Shen Qibin and Mrs Lin Moru.

Gustavo Speridião is a painter. He paints in every format and on any support, in particular on large sheets of not particularly good paper. If paper is the traditional support for images and texts, images and texts must be the supports for the History of Art. Here, Speridião has invented his own history of art from anenormous archive that he put together himself. The archive comes in the form of a book – a book that can be taken apart and displayed in any order. This unconventional art history comprises a cleverly organised mix of current-affairs images, famous scenes, careful cut-outs, and references to different styles, artworks, periods, and geographies. All these scenesare part of socio-political reality and Speridião uses them to connect art to life.

Gustavo Speridião is a painter. He paints in every format and on any support, in particular on large sheets of not particularly good paper. If paper is the traditional support for images and texts, images and texts must be the supports for the History of Art. Here, Speridião has invented his own history of art from anenormous archive that he put together himself. The archive comes in the form of a book – a book that can be taken apart and displayed in any order. This unconventional art history comprises a cleverly organised mix of current-affairs images, famous scenes, careful cut-outs, and references to different styles, artworks, periods, and geographies. All these scenesare part of socio-political reality and Speridião uses them to connect art to life.

Gustavo Speridião is a painter. He paints in every format and on any support, in particular on large sheets of not particularly good paper. If paper is the traditional support for images and texts, images and texts must be the supports for the History of Art. Here, Speridião has invented his own history of art from anenormous archive that he put together himself. The archive comes in the form of a book – a book that can be taken apart and displayed in any order. This unconventional art history comprises a cleverly organised mix of current-affairs images, famous scenes, careful cut-outs, and references to different styles, artworks, periods, and geographies. All these scenesare part of socio-political reality and Speridião uses them to connect art to life.

Gustavo Speridião is a painter. He paints in every format and on any support, in particular on large sheets of not particularly good paper. If paper is the traditional support for images and texts, images and texts must be the supports for the History of Art. Here, Speridião has invented his own history of art from anenormous archive that he put together himself. The archive comes in the form of a book – a book that can be taken apart and displayed in any order. This unconventional art history comprises a cleverly organised mix of current-affairs images, famous scenes, careful cut-outs, and references to different styles, artworks, periods, and geographies. All these scenesare part of socio-political reality and Speridião uses them to connect art to life.

Gustavo Speridião is a painter. He paints in every format and on any support, in particular on large sheets of not particularly good paper. If paper is the traditional support for images and texts, images and texts must be the supports for the History of Art. Here, Speridião has invented his own history of art from anenormous archive that he put together himself. The archive comes in the form of a book – a book that can be taken apart and displayed in any order. This unconventional art history comprises a cleverly organised mix of current-affairs images, famous scenes, careful cut-outs, and references to different styles, artworks, periods, and geographies. All these scenesare part of socio-political reality and Speridião uses them to connect art to life.

In the solemn atmosphere of the Église Saint-Just, Tom Sachs tells the story of slavery. The impressive model of the Victory, an 18th century ship of the line, epitomises the logic of it. But placed inside the vessel, like slaves on the transatlantic crossing, are Barbie dolls. Tom Sachs’s work takes on the illusory utopias of modernism, the myths of American culture (which for the most part also apply to Europe), and the fables of the consumer society. He views space exploration, Hello Kitty, and slavery through the same sarcastic filter and reveals both their production techniques and the ideology underlying them. By associating slavery with Barbie, he makes a link between the Afro-American slave trade and the absolutism of a human body perfected to the point of disembodiment. The Victory is also the story of the United States, a country whose cultural and economic dominance could never have been achieved without exploiting an imported workforce. If the Americans landed a man on the Moon in 1969, it was because, long before, they had had slaves. Tom Sachs creates the formal language at the moment when he creates the work. The tools he used for building Barbie Slave Ship are enshrined in the ship itself, like precious but ridiculous relics. Sachs’s many-layered stories are cobbled together in a convoluted text that takes us to the edges of the geopolitical world, like a three-master sailing into all the most tragic episodes of History.

In the solemn atmosphere of the Église Saint-Just, Tom Sachs tells the story of slavery. The impressive model of the Victory, an 18th century ship of the line, epitomises the logic of it. But placed inside the vessel, like slaves on the transatlantic crossing, are Barbie dolls. Tom Sachs’s work takes on the illusory utopias of modernism, the myths of American culture (which for the most part also apply to Europe), and the fables of the consumer society. He views space exploration, Hello Kitty, and slavery through the same sarcastic filter and reveals both their production techniques and the ideology underlying them. By associating slavery with Barbie, he makes a link between the Afro-American slave trade and the absolutism of a human body perfected to the point of disembodiment. The Victory is also the story of the United States, a country whose cultural and economic dominance could never have been achieved without exploiting an imported workforce. If the Americans landed a man on the Moon in 1969, it was because, long before, they had had slaves. Tom Sachs creates the formal language at the moment when he creates the work. The tools he used for building Barbie Slave Ship are enshrined in the ship itself, like precious but ridiculous relics. Sachs’s many-layered stories are cobbled together in a convoluted text that takes us to the edges of the geopolitical world, like a three-master sailing into all the most tragic episodes of History.