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The Geopolitics of the 15th Lyon Biennale - Seite 2

The curators and artists involved in this year's Lyon Biennale have been working with a number of obligations and constraints. First and foremost among these are related to the place itself: a huge factory located outside the city center and preserved in its original state, with its original demarcation, its abandoned machinery and its visible wear and tear. The artists – most of whom have had very little exposure in France and often no auction history to their names – have been asked to work with local artisans from the Rhone Valley basin. One third of them are French and a strict gender balance has been applied.

The Biennale is by no means confined to the vast Fagor space; there are manifestations throughout the region. The new format is organized around four complementary platforms: the Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon, which is acting as an outgrowth of the main exhibition with 6 artists including the famous duo Gregory & Daniel GICQUEL & DEWAR; the Young International Creation which – as in the past – will occupy Villeurbanne's Institute of Contemporary Art; Veduta which promotes meetings between artists and the region's inhabitants; and a broad program of associated exhibitions, including exhibitions in Resonance with the Biennale at various galleries and cultural venues in the region. In all, the event will use 150 venues and will encompass not only the field of Contemporary Art but also literature, dance, theater, music and cinema.

An internationally recognised and appreciated artistic event, the Lyon Contemporary Art Biennale is one of the five most important biennales after Venice. The previous edition attracted more than 300,000 visitors, its best-ever attendance. The 2019 edition is far more ambitious with larger spaces, major installations, deeper regional networking and unprecedented bridges between the art world and the world of business and commerce.

In 1999, in conversation with thierry Ehrmann, Thierry Raspail perfectly summed up his vision of the Lyon Biennale…. "Biennales are geo-political acts. They mark the territory between where there is everything and where there is nothing..." , a bold statement that highlights with rare clarity the primary and underlying logic of Biennales wherever they are staged.

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