CRITICAL RUN  SYDNEY                       Marlene Sarroff

Artists with a social conscience have always looked to a group or a movement that provides a space for expressing ideas and debate on issues of the day. Critical Run Sydney was first activated in April 2010 by two Sydneysiders, Saha Jones and Nicole Dennis. The Critical Run provides Sydney artists with a platform that generates debate on social and political issues, actually an art format - that becomes a frame of interaction, form and expression, both visually and socially.

Nicole Dennis (left) and  Saha Jones (right), the facilitators of the Sydney Critical Run.

Critical Running is a debate format conceived by Danish-French artist Thierry Geoffroy. He has been creating stimulating situations that help participants develop their awareness of emergencies in today’s contemporary society. Each project intends to enable participants to face together, before it is too late, the important issues of today through debate. The Critical Run is a format for debating while running. In a collapsing world (he suggests) we cannot continue to sit and sleep through conferences or make small talk at openings. New forms of critical debate have to be activated. Running through the city, participants can train their awareness muscles on a journey that will leave them breathless and invigorated. This art format is an artwork in itself and has increased its focus on becoming widespread by expanding into a global artistic movement. It has spread to major cities worldwide including Moscow, Naples, Cairo, Brussels, Rotterdam, Barcelona, Venice, New York, London, Istanbul and now Sydney.

The Sydney Critical Run has staged several runs through different parts of the city, debating subjects that arise at the time and are topical and urgent.  During the 2010 Sydney Biennale, it created several  subjects for debate, mostly concerning the motivations and aims of the Biennale.  It included debates such as – ‘Corporate sponsorship for the arts - Do artists know the aims of their sponsors?’.
Members of the public were asked, ‘What is the theme of the Biennale?’ Another run took place in response to a sudden change of the Australian Prime Minister - Critical Run ran down King Street Newtown (an inner Sydney suburb) and debated issues of ‘political diversion, gender roles and democracy’ and ‘is social media ruining our lives?’, as well as ‘is coolness apathy?’

Artists are not known for their sporting prowess, so getting them to run could prove troublesome. The Sydney Critical Run invests an incredible effort into promoting the run, in having young energetic leaders, in talking up aspects of originality, art history, or the artist’s duty for advocating change  - all of course valid and important issues.  Immediately you find yourself saying yes, please count me in!

The Critical Run Sydney’s formal banner was SHOULD ARTISTS BE INSTITUTIONALIZED? In response to Goran Tomic’s exhibition ‘See Saw’, held at The Vanishing Point Gallery, we were invited to explore the topic based on Tomic’s own experience as a self taught artist. The run started from the gallery.

At first, the run can seem like an endurance test, depending on your level of fitness (or lack of). However, as the run progresses it becomes extremely invigorating. Although as you can imagine, it can be disconcerting when you are starting to sweat a little (or pant heavily) and a microphone is thrust into your face by a very fit knowledgeable inquisitor, and the questions roll out to you and there is no choice but to rapidly reply. Speech becomes an integral part of the run. As the critical run is a format for criticism, it’s not running to escape somewhere but running for solutions. It requires critical solutions.  The questions are fired and answers fired back, the thinking evolves, the group moves along. Words, thoughts, ideas have to be to the point, you can’t talk too much in between the slight gasping for breath. The video camera comes around to you - stamina and will power must avail as you can’t afford to appear too embarrassed about your public persona - although I think it is unavoidable. 

Upon completing the run you feel inspired and invigorated - a very positive experience all round. As Saha Jones says, ‘Critical run draws attention to the fact that we separate our minds and our bodies – it is trying to bring them back together. People think it is unnatural, they think, ‘Why do you need to run and debate? But it’s a metaphor, its really intelligent. If you are activating your body then in turn you are activating your mind, it leads you to new places, it gives you energy’.

The energy will be pumping at this years Venice Biennale as The Biennial Project and the Critical Run Group will meet - and it is anticipated that The Biennial Project will be putting their running shoes on. The theme of the Venice Biennale Critical Run will be ‘Can Freedom of Speech be Curated?’ – a subject that we are sure to have opinions on – that is if we can manage to make ourselves understood through our panting! See you there! See Venice Critical Run for more.

That may look to you like some spray cans in a window, but no, it is a

“sculpture”.

- Marcia E. Ventrocq, in an article about The Venice Biennale 2001

Love fills the moment and the moment begins eternity…..

Love fills a lifetime and a lifetime begins this hour……..

It is with Great Enthusiasm that

Eric Hess,

Laura Rollins and

Anna Salmeron,

founding members of the eminent artist collaborative The Biennial Project cordially request the pleasure of your attendance at

The Biennial Project’s V.I.P.

Opening Reception for  

The 54th Venice Biennale

and award presentation celebrating the winner of 

THE 2011 Boston Online Biennial.

Be amongst the first to discover who will be auspicious victor of this exalted contest, and preview this artist’s work in a modern digital art exhibition. Enjoy cocktails, hors d'oeuvres  and good grub in the open air of our sizable courtyard and veranda, and tour the considerable, multi-part inner recesses of La Villa de Biennial Project. The festivities will  feature musical entertainment by our karaoke machine and Eric’s Ipod.

The celebration will

commence on

Sunday the Fifth of June

Of the Year of Our Lord

A.D. Two Thousand and Eleven

At the hour of

Six o’clock in the evening.

Location - La Villa Biennial Project

(Formally known as The Villa Giardino Segreto)

Is situated at

Calle degli Ormesini

Sestiere di Cannaregio 1484 A

Venezia, Italia

FACEBOOK VIP PARTY INVITE - RSVP HERE

Our Joy will be more complete

if you share with us the

astonishing merriment of our gala!

Vaporetto stop: S. Marcuola - line 1
Alilaguna stop: Guglie - line A (Orange)

La Villa Biennial Project

We have fans and then we have FANS!!! All of our fans are the greatest. Truly you are. But sometimes a fan or two go beyond the distance. This month we would like to highlight Stephan Adelson !!! Stephan took a trip in November to the ninth largest country in the world, Kazakhstan. Stephan traveled to Kazakhstan, which is also the world’s largest landlocked country with its territory is being 2,727,300 km² - which is far greater than Western Europe, simply to spread the very important message of The Biennial Project.

First on Stephan’s agenda was to meet up with a Biennial Project VIP. Since the 2009 Venice Biennale, The Biennial Project had been nurturing a wonderful new friendship with Oksana Shatalova - one of the artists who represented Kazakhstan that year. Oksana is a Biennale superstar (she was in Central Asia Pavilion of 52nd Venice Biennale / 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art / 1st Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Greece). Months ago 'O' was just about to trust our relationship enough to reveal how she really got into The Venice Biennale. Then, bamm, we heard nothing from her. We were afraid we might have intimidated her when she discovered that we were peanut butter eating, germ doubting, America’s Next Top Model watching, Texan puppeteers who never partook in cheerleading or beauty pageants. Well, Stephan was good enough to share some Besarmak (a Kazakh dish consisting of boiled horse or mutton meat) and reassure ‘O’ that The Biennial Project are reasonable people even if we do at times come off as loud Americans.

After mending fences for us with Okasana, Stephan then took the time out to give Kazakhstan’s 2011 Venice representatives Said ATABEKOV, Galim MADANOV and Zauresh TEREKBAY advise on how to deal with the theme of Lingua Franca. Stephan explained to our Kazakhstan friends that the origin of the term lingua franca is connected to a mixed language, which appeared in the Middle Ages, thanks to trading contacts between Europe and Asia. Stephen further enlightened the Kazakh artistes that today the term highlights languages of inter-ethnic communication (for example, English), or – in the broader aspects of semiotics – any sign system serving intercultural communication. It was a long cold night in Almaty, (the capital city and also the second coldest city in the world) but now Galim, Zauresh and Yerbossyn can appear in Venice with confidence that the problem of overcoming Orientalism/Occidentalism dichotomy will be presented elegantly with “metissage”, “anti-huntington” objects and video.

Hell, Said and Galim were so thankful that they took Stephan to a Bandy (hockey) game, at the high-altitude Medeo Sport Complex followed by the custom of sharing Ayran (cold beverage of yogurt mixed with cold water and sometimes salt) in a lovely café on Zailisky Alatau Mountain overlooking the beaches of Lake Issyk-Kul. They even convinced Stephan to go out after dark, which is not usually possible for foreigners, to dance the night away at techno stronghold Petroleum Club, which is located at Shevchenko 100 on the fifth floor.

Not only did Stephan impress the art elite (and maybe a fine young man or two) he even did some promoting for us, his friends, The Biennial Project. Mr. Adelson was seen all over town spreading our important message by providing the Almaty people our fun happy yellow stickers!!

Now you may be wondering who this Biennial Saint Mr. Stephan Adelson is? Well not only is he a great international diplomat for the art world but he has his own schema as well. A native of Winter Park, Florida Stephan moved to Beantown years ago to become a Monk at The Society of Saint John the Evangelist in Cambridge MA. After he became enlightened or maybe grew tired of the itchy robe and vow of poverty Stephan went on to school to become a web designer. This skill  lead him to become the general manager of Manhunt, a hook up site for men seeking sex with men. He was part of the team that introduced the idea of displaying one’s HIV status in online personal profiles. This in tern lead him to start Adelson Consulting Services, and in partnership with the Internet and STD Center of Excellence, Stephan and his team developed the social networking website www.STDPreventionOnline.org (STDPO) - designed to connect sexual health professionals and disseminate resources. In other words Stephan is able to now teach public health officials how to reach at risk sexually active gay men through the sex website they frequent.

All and all we feel a special bond to all our adoring fans but we really hold esteem gratitude for the ones who, well, do shit for us.

On Friday March 11th Mz. Bice Curiger (Bicey to though of us who know her) released the list for the showing artists for The Venice Biennale 54. At first we were surprised that we did not get a phone call contacting us in person regarding which venue Our Important Work was to honor. We were waiting with much anticipation to learn whether we would showing in the Arsenal,  perhaps instead get play around in one of those darling Palazzo’s scattered all around the coastal town of Venice.

We do realize how expensive long distance phone calls are these days, and we might have forgotten to provide them with our Skype address. Being the Very Good Sports that we are, we sort of reveled in the excitement of scanning for names on a list like it was high school and we were looking to confirm that our rivals got put into the chorus as we of course continued to shine in all the lead roles.

Well, the chorus would have been great. After reading this so-called list a few hundred times, followed by frantic phone calls to Venice, we found that place in our artist souls which allowed us to come to accept that Bicey simply could not find us the proper fit this time around. I mean why give a group as great as The Biennial Project a so-so Venue. It would be like drinking beer out of a can at a black tie event.

By the way Bicey, it is considered polite to return phone calls in a timely manner. However, we do understand that you might be somewhat busy at this time, so we will refrain from talking about your manners behind your back.

Our emotional roller coaster, which started with giddy excitement, then took a dip to the vernal despair, and leveled out at peaceful acceptance to the point where we found ourselves able to take stock at who was actually showing. Our emotions were then skyrocketed to elation. A lot fantastic colleagues and good friends (and to be honest one or two enemies) from around the world would be rocking their own Kasbah at The Venice Biennale 54. Brice has seemingly put together a kick ass show even without our vision!!

Who would have thought?

Now that we have worked all that out we are proud to present our first installment of

THE BIENNIAL PROJECTS GUIDE TO VENICE 54

THE ONES TO WATCH OUT FOR:

CUBA!!!!!!!

We are really pleased to announce that  Cuban Artist Alexandre Arrechea will be doing more then rolling cigars this summer.  Alex has been chosen to represent Cuba! Go to his website http://www.alexandrearrechea.com and see for yourself how universal healthcare can foster great artists. 

Czechia!!!!!!!

.

Being that we will be traveling with a huge contingent from The Czech Republic we would be amiss not to mention that, after much squabbling amongst the members Czech Ministry of Culture and us as well, Dominik Lang will now be representing The Czech and Slovak Republic at this years event.

This young man of 30 will be presenting an exhibit called The Sleeping City and is also the perfect artist to keep the Pavilion clean for the fabulously talented Czech representative to the 55th Biennale 55  Bohuslav Petran.

For more information on Dom go to http://www.54venicebiennial.cz/

For more information on the noted Czech artist Bo Petran, check out www.atlantic works.org.

BANGLADESH!!!!!!!!

There are several countries coming to Venice for the first time. Entering this club is Bangladesh-being represented by Bangladeshi artists Mahbubur Rahman, Kabir Ahmed Masum Chisti, Imran Hossain Piplu, Promothesh Das Pulak and Tayeba Begum Lipi. These artists, who will presenting a show entitled Parables, are from an organization called Britto Arts Trust, which since 2002 has been giving the artists of Dhaka an alternative platform for arts. Bangladeshi culture is influenced by three great religions- Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam in successive order, with Islam having the most pervading and lasting impact. Bangladesh is the eighth most populous country and is among the most densely populated countries in the world. Next time you are near Dhaka do stop in and check them out.

http://www.brittoarts.org/

SOUTH AFRICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our favorite selection of Bicey’s this year would have to be Gavin Rain. Gavin Rain is a  South African painter in the neo-pointillist style who has only been painting full time for two years. To quote him from his       facebook page the day Bricy called him:

“the most amazing thing that can happen to an artist just happened to me... the curator of the Venice Biennale, the greatest art show in the world, just invited me to be a part of the 2011 show.... the fact that he even knew who I was staggered me.... I'm going to need a lot more tea to digest this... luckily there's no shortage of tea in Paris...”

A GUY WE LIKE!!!!!!!

See, as we at The Biennial Project

and Casey Kasem (born April 27)

will always tell you -

“Keep your feet on the ground

and keep reaching for the stars”.

On Friday March 11th Mz. Bice Curiger (Bicey to though of us who know her) released the list for the showing artists for The Venice Biennale 54. At first we were surprised that we did not get a phone call contacting us in person regarding which venue Our Important Work was to honor. We were waiting with much anticipation to learn whether we would showing in the Arsenal,  perhaps instead get play around in one of those darling Palazzo’s scattered all around the coastal town of Venice.

We do realize how expensive long distance phone calls are these days, and we might have forgotten to provide them with our Skype address. Being the Very Good Sports that we are, we sort of reveled in the excitement of scanning for names on a list like it was high school and we were looking to confirm that our rivals got put into the chorus as we of course continued to shine in all the lead roles.

Well, the chorus would have been great. After reading this so-called list a few hundred times, followed by frantic phone calls to Venice, we found that place in our artist souls which allowed us to come to accept that Bicey simply could not find us the proper fit this time around. I mean why give a group as great as The Biennial Project a so-so Venue. It would be like drinking beer out of a can at a black tie event.

By the way Bicey, it is considered polite to return phone calls in a timely manner. However, we do understand that you might be somewhat busy at this time, so we will refrain from talking about your manners behind your back.

Our emotional roller coaster, which started with giddy excitement, then took a dip to the vernal despair, and leveled out at peaceful acceptance to the point where we found ourselves able to take stock at who was actually showing. Our emotions were then skyrocketed to elation. A lot fantastic colleagues and good friends (and to be honest one or two enemies) from around the world would be rocking their own Kasbah at The Venice Biennale 54. Brice has seemingly put together a kick ass show even without our vision!!

Who would have thought?

Now that we have worked all that out we are proud to present our first installment of

THE BIENNIAL PROJECTS GUIDE TO VENICE 54

THE ONES TO WATCH OUT FOR:

CUBA!!!!!!!

We are really pleased to announce that  Cuban Artist Alexandre Arrechea will be doing more then rolling cigars this summer.  Alex has been chosen to represent Cuba! Go to his website http://www.alexandrearrechea.com and see for yourself how universal healthcare can foster great artists. 

Czechia!!!!!!!

.

Being that we will be traveling with a huge contingent from The Czech Republic we would be amiss not to mention that, after much squabbling amongst the members Czech Ministry of Culture and us as well, Dominik Lang will now be representing The Czech and Slovak Republic at this years event.

This young man of 30 will be presenting an exhibit called The Sleeping City and is also the perfect artist to keep the Pavilion clean for the fabulously talented Czech representative to the 55th Biennale 55  Bohuslav Petran.

For more information on Dom go to http://www.54venicebiennial.cz/

For more information on the noted Czech artist Bo Petran, check out www.atlantic works.org.

BANGLADESH!!!!!!!!

There are several countries coming to Venice for the first time. Entering this club is Bangladesh-being represented by Bangladeshi artists Mahbubur Rahman, Kabir Ahmed Masum Chisti, Imran Hossain Piplu, Promothesh Das Pulak and Tayeba Begum Lipi. These artists, who will presenting a show entitled Parables, are from an organization called Britto Arts Trust, which since 2002 has been giving the artists of Dhaka an alternative platform for arts. Bangladeshi culture is influenced by three great religions- Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam in successive order, with Islam having the most pervading and lasting impact. Bangladesh is the eighth most populous country and is among the most densely populated countries in the world. Next time you are near Dhaka do stop in and check them out.

http://www.brittoarts.org/

SOUTH AFRICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our favorite selection of Bicey’s this year would have to be Gavin Rain. Gavin Rain is a  South African painter in the neo-pointillist style who has only been painting full time for two years. To quote him from his       facebook page the day Bricy called him:

“the most amazing thing that can happen to an artist just happened to me... the curator of the Venice Biennale, the greatest art show in the world, just invited me to be a part of the 2011 show.... the fact that he even knew who I was staggered me.... I'm going to need a lot more tea to digest this... luckily there's no shortage of tea in Paris...”

A GUY WE LIKE!!!!!!!

See, as we at The Biennial Project

and Casey Kasem (born April 27)

will always tell you -

“Keep your feet on the ground

and keep reaching for the stars”.

Polke, the São Paulo Biennial, and Berlin

by N. Ami

[N. Ami is an American journalist living in Berlin, and a big fan of the Biennial Project.]

An Homage to Sigmar Polke:

Taking Stock of a Friendship Between Artists

Exhibition at the Academy of Arts,

Pariser Platz, Berlin, January – March, 2011.

                                            Sigmar Polke, 1995
                                            Photograph, 8 x 12 inches
                                            Photo by Klaus Staeck
                                            (c) VG Bild-Kunst

by N. Ami

A Remarkable Friendship

For over 40 years, Sigmar Polke and Klaus Staeck were artist pals. Staeck became an art collector, publisher, and gallery owner, and is now President of the Academy of Arts in Berlin. Polke (pronounced “polka”), one of the most influential contemporary artists in Germany, died in June 2010 of cancer at age 69.

Staeck organized this very personal exhibition as a tribute to his friend. Of the more than 90 works by Polke in the show, as well as numerous catalogs and photos of Polke, most are from the private collection of Staeck. I was moved by this show, the record of a remarkable friendship.

Great Exhibition Space

The Academy of Arts is located in prime space and is easy to find. It is a few steps away from the Brandenburg Gate, one of the best known landmarks in Berlin. A renowned cultural center, the Academy’s architecture differs starkly from its massive historic neighbors by its shear glass façade. It has 5 large exhibition rooms, and also houses a fine independent bookstore and spiffy café.

Those 5 rooms give the viewer ample space to see the prolific range of Polke’s experiments in painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture. Dominant are collage and montage done with offset lithos, serigraphs, and copy-machines. Some of these works are huge, as much as 7ft x 10ft. Overall, these big ones are bright and fanciful. His most usual tools were a camera, a photocopier, and his great wit.

                          Sigmar Polke: The Cash Is Laughing, 2002
                          Offset Litho/ Serigraph on Cardboard
                          28 x 20 inches
                          Edition Staeck
                          (c) VG Bild-Kunst

Biennial

Yes, he had work in the XIII Biennial in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1975! A series of those works are included in this show. They were collaborations with the artists Achim Duchow, Astrid Heibach, and Katharina Steffen for the artists’ newspaper called “Day by Day… They Take Some Brain Away.”

These satirical works are, according to the exhibition notes, “a wild mixture of sex, revolution, and sensation as presented in the contemporary politics and men’s fantasies, as seen through the eyes of the bourgeois press.” The pieces are two-sided, printed offset on newsprint. They are indeed wild, with montages from Hollywood film posters, magazine ads, comic books, and political commentary.

The series for the Biennial was done at a time when young German artists watched a new country rise from its fascist ashes. The artists had a healthy anarchistic skepticism, and could observe the new post-war influence of the West with great irony.

For example, in Polke’s 1974 documentary photo series of beggars in New York City and beggars in Cologne, Germany, the two groups appear identical.

Polke and Gerhard Richter had already named their new art movement “Capitalist Realism” in the 1960s.

My Favorites

Most striking are Polke’s very early prints with “raster” grids – now (since computers) known as bitmaps – where he would take a small section of dots on a grid (say, from a conventional newspaper photo or comic book) and enlarge the dot-pattern to a gigantic scale. Then he would playfully work into that abstraction further with drawing and other printmaking.

He learned to “scale-up” this raster beyond recognition and then to create a whole new imagery within it. Technically, he was worlds ahead of other innovators in this area. Best of all, he took his work seriously, but never forgot how to play.

Consider his 1969 sculpture, “A Device With Which One Potato Can Circle Around Another Potato,” about 30 inches high, with two potatoes, wood, rotating metal arms and screws, and a loudly grinding motor. The potatoes can be replaced with newer ones, as needed. The viewer personally turns the electric switch on and off, setting the thing in motion.

My favorite works were a whole wall full of one-page faxes, sent between Polke and Staeck – over a hundred of them between 1995 and 2008. These were little goofy messages and sketches sent by fax, mostly about the two artists arranging meeting times with each other.

These little messages were so lively and real. It made me wish that the two guys could still send each other silly faxes and set more meeting times together.

And it made me wonder why the artists I know don’t send each other homemade things that can be tacked on the wall and saved. I mean, emails are better than nothing, but art is art.

So send your pals something goofy today!! There’s real power in it. And remember that some people die too soon, and then sadly those pals are gone.

            Sigmar Polke [eating an egg] with a detail of "Unwelcome Gifts," 2003
            Photograph, 8 x 12 inches
            Photo by Klaus Staeck
            Edition Staeck
            (c) VG Bild-Kunst