Proposals are invited for issue 44 of the Engage Journal, Engage 44: Biennials and Beyond. This issue will focus on biennials relationships to gallery education and engagement programmes. Deadline for proposals: Friday 13 December 2019, 10:00 am
Open Until:
Posted: 19/11/2019
The outline
below, stimulated by a discussion with the Engage Journal Editorial Advisory
Board (EAB), is followed by a series of questions. Please address these or use
them as prompts in proposals for articles.
Biennials
have been part of the ecology of the art world for many years, with the
biennial (or biennale as per the original Italian) becoming a shorthand for a
recurring event that occurs in a specific place. The majority follow the lead
established by most famous, the Venice Biennale, which since 1895 has set a
precedent, not just of frequency, but of national participation and awards. And
more importantly perhaps, it established a concept for regeneration, designed
to reboot Venice as a tourist destination and to utilise an area of the city
that needed repurposing.
Post-WWII,
Germany launched possibly the most anticipated event in the international art
calendar, Documenta (1955–), returning now every five years to Kassel, in the
centre of what was then West Germany. In Engage 20: Strategic interpretation,
Carmen Moersch describes how the role of education began to change during
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev’s 2012 edition.Â
The most recent Documenta (2017) developed extensive and intensive
education programmes across Kassel and Athens (where it was partly held), led
by their Head of Education Sepake Angiama (now about to take on the role of
Director of INIVA after being at the Chicago Architecture Biennial). Some of
this experience is captured in her publication Aneducation: Documenta 14, a
sophisticated attempt to include a cross section of the contributors, described
as:
“This is not
a book of good intentions. It attempts to introduce a chorus of voices that
speak from different positions on aneducation, the education program for
Learning from documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel.â€
