The Biennial Condition: On Contemporaneity and the Episodic Conference at Liverpool School of Art & Design

The Biennial Condition: On Contemporaneity and
the Episodic conference

October 7–8, 2016

Liverpool John Moores University
The Johnson Foundation Auditorium 
John Lennon Art and Design Building 
Duckinfield Street 
Liverpool L3 5RD

www.biennial.com

Organised by Liverpool Biennial and Aarhus University, in partnership with Liverpool John Moores University's Exhibition Research Lab and International Curators Forum (ICF)

This conference gathers researchers, curators, artists and writers to explore the Biennial form as the site for the production of contemporaneity in art and exhibition making. How does the transnational biennial format organise the world as an amalgamation of different cultures, operating episodically across times and places, in the dynamic relation between the local and the universal? 

Participants include: Geoff Cox (Associate Professor, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University); Elmgreen & Dragset (Curators, 15th Istanbul Biennial 2017); Juliana Engberg (Artistic Director, European Capital of Culture Aarhus 2017); Marina Fokidis (Head of Artistic Office, Documenta 14, Athens); Verina Gfader (The Contemporary Condition research project, Aarhus University); Anne Kølbæk Iversen (The Contemporary Condition research project, Aarhus University); Jacob Lund (Associate Professor, School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University); Francesco Manacorda (Artistic Director, Tate Liverpool); Raimundas Malaŝauskas (Co-Curator, Liverpool Biennial 2016); Terry Smith (Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory, University of Pittsburgh); Sally Tallant (Director, Liverpool Biennial); convened by Joasia Krysa (Director, Exhibition Research Lab, Liverpool John Moores University, in partnership with Liverpool Biennial).
The conference takes place during the penultimate weekend of Liverpool Biennial 2016, which includes performances by international artists Coco Fusco, Adam Linder and Marcos Lutyens presented across the city. 

For the full weekend programme and to reserve your free conference place, click here.

Liverpool Biennial presents the largest festival of contemporary visual art in the UK. It takes place from July 9 until October 16, 2016 across the city's public spaces, unused buildings, galleries and online. The Biennial is underpinned by a programme of research, education, residencies and commissions. Founded in 1998, Liverpool Biennial has commissioned over 305 new artworks and presented work by over 444 artists from around the world. 
 

The Contemporary Condition at Aarhus University is a research project made possible by a grant from the Danish Council for Independent Research, and runs for three years from September 2015 to August 2018.

Exhibition Research Lab was founded in 2012 as part of the Liverpool School of Art and Design, Liverpool John Moores University. It is the first academic centre in the UK dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of exhibitions and curatorial knowledge.

The International Curators Forum (ICF) is a network that meets to discuss emerging issues of curatorial practice in the context of key events in the international arts calendar. ICF offers bursaries and professional development opportunities to curators and works in partnership with key national and international bodies.