A new model for the biennale

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Has the format of contemporary biennale lost its way, or are artists simply not provided a correct platform to produce their art? We see how the Ultracontemporary format is developing in Copenhagen with Thierry Geoffroy / Colonel and Tijana Miskovic.

Thierry Geoffroy / Colonel and curator Tijana Miskovic are rewriting the predisposition of the traditional “biennale”, unheard of since Harald Szeemann’s curatorship of documenta 5 in 1972 where his “breakthrough mega-exhibition” redefined the hic et nunc (“here and now”) in the 100-day live project.  Happening spoke with the organizers to discuss their innovative project in motion in Copenhagen: a new breed of biennale to establish the “now” and the happenings in the world, realized by Danish-French artist Thierry Geoffroy and curator Tijana Miskovic, taking the form of the Ultracontemporary Biennale in September 2017.

 

“This biennale should have the name ultracontemporary, let’s say, in reaction to the contemporary that is not contemporary of the now"
Thierry Geoffroy in Copenhagen
 

Tijana Miskovic and Thierry Geoffroy / Colonel
 

 


The date is fast approaching. Do you have many interested parties for the biennale?

Tijana Miskovic: We currently have a lot of international activities, travelling and presenting the ultra contemporary idea, across the globe and in Denmark. We are looking for concrete partners who can help us realize the biennale in 2017. In that way we are still growing. But since it's in 2017 we still have some time.

Thierry Geoffroy: The artists here though cannot be ready to work in this “ultracontemporary” way. So it’s important that when we launch the biennale they are already trained. It’s a bit like sport, you don’t do a marathon unprepared, you train for a few months before. So it’s the same principle here, we have to warm up.  

 


Will artists focus on the same issues?

TM: There is a layer of unpredictability, as we don’t know what is going to happen in 2017. Before the biennial we will have different institutions and guest curators, and they will discuss the overall themes or ways the artists will express themselves. The unpredictable element will be the reality around the biennale.

TG: Maybe Denmark will be at war, maybe climate change will have made the Maldives disappear.. The now is the subject. But details of the now we don’t know.
 



Will there be any rules for the artists, in terms of subject matter?

TG: There are rules actually, but the rules are not about the subject, they are about punctuality. For example at the format emergency rooms, the artist must come to exhibit at 12 o clock. If the artist is one minute late, they are not part of the show.
 

Social media has developed a lot and will facilitate your project, if there's a delay in social media it won’t be so ultracontemporary anymore?

TG: How can artists work at the same tempo as social media? You can tweet a sentence, but what if an artist doesn't use words, if he creates an image or a video, then how do we show it? You can show an image of a sculpture on twitter but it's not the same as really seeing it.

TM: We are also investigating the field between media and art. By going to parliament, being in dialect with national TV - where we can reach 25% of the population the same day - it's not only about artists reacting to what is in the newspaper. It's also the other way around, maybe artists can be the ones spotting things before journalists. It’s not about imitating the way media works, but it is about recreating the same speed, having the chance to enter the same visibility and maybe be the ones presenting the problems the journalists. It’s another way of reporting about reality, a new category between artists and journalists.



According to you, contemporary art is out of date as soon as it is made, is this to do with the artists?

TG: Our aim is not to attack the artist, it is to attack the structure. For example, the latest Documenta theme was war and conflict, they took artists to visit the concentration camps around Kassel, to produce work about the Second World War. A lot of these people were taken to the camp via the train station. Kassel actually produces a lot of weapons, and these weapons are also sent via the same train station. So while people are mourning historical murder, tanks are being sent to go and kill protesters in Saudi Arabia, Qatar or Bahrain, these people are being killed by tanks made in Kassel. And so artists were off creating artwork about past wars and all the while these weapons are being created in such close proximity. But that is the fault of the structure, and the artists were following that structure.

TM: The historic content is not in itself being criticized, its the fact that it glosses over an important part of the theme of war and conflict, given that today’s conflicts are not accounted for.

TG: The artist produces for the platform. If an artist wants to focus on what is happening today, we can provide the platform to do it. Right now this kind of platform exists for artists on the internet or graffiti artists.


What is happening next?

TG: We are planning on attending other biennales to try and challenge them, from there we will start the warm up process. We have already opened some exhibition spaces in Copenhagen. We’re also teaming up with a techno festival at the moment as well as starting to match artists with journalists to create investigative work. In April we will open an Academy of Emergency art to teach and train artists to work ULTRACONTEMPORARY.