Biennale of Sydney 2008, the artists

18 June - 17 September 2008
16th Biennale of Sydney

The 2008 Biennale of Sydney is organised around the conceptual framework Revolutions – Forms That Turn.
Billed this year as a celebration of the defiant spirit, the exhibition will bring together some of the most revolutionary artists the world has ever known alongside the shining stars of today.

The theme of the 16th Biennale, Revolutions – Forms That Turn, suggests the impulse to revolt, a desire for change, and seeing the world differently. Many works in this year’s exhibition will be participatory, encouraging people to step inside art and discover new ways of looking and thinking about life today. Movement is a strong feature – works turn, spin, go in reverse, mirror, make noise and even blow up.

The free exhibition is expected to welcome more than a quarter of a million visitors, and more than 180 artists from 42 countries including 65 new art works, presented alongside some of the world’s most ground-breaking art from the avant-gardes of last century.
Curator: Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev

Sydney biennale of 2004; Biennale website
Sydney biennale of 2006; Biennale website


Participating artists Biennale of Sydney





jean michel basquiat
contemporary art
sculpture
modern art
video art
Jean Michel
Basquiat


a small museum and a large library of contemporary art




PARKETT ART : Parkett is published in direct collaboration with important international artists, whose oeuvre is explored in several essays by leading writers and critics. Each artist also creates a special signed and numbered edition exclusive to Parkett, which may take any form, from unique works of art to prints and multiples.

COLOUR (Documents of Contemporary Art) : Whether it is scooped up off the palette, deployed as propaganda, or opens the doors of perception, color is central to art not only as an element but as an idea. This unique anthology reflects on the aesthetic, cultural, and philosophical meaning of color through the writings of artists and critics, placed within the broader context of anthropology, film, philosophy, literature, and science. Those who loathe color have had as much to say as those who love it. This chronology of writings from Baudelaire to Baudrillard traces how artists have affirmed color as a space of pure sensation, embraced it as a tool of revolution or denounced it as decorative and even decadent. It establishes color as a central theme in the story of modern and contemporary art and provides a fascinating handbook to the definitions and debates around its history, meaning, and use.

MAGNUM Photography: Magnum Magnum brings together the best work, celebrating the vision, imagination, and brilliance of Magnum photographers, both the acknowledged greats of photography in the twentieth century - among them Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Eve Arnold, Marc Riboud, and Werner Bischof - and the modern masters and rising stars of our time, such as Martin Parr, Susan Meiselas, Alec Soth, and Donovan Wylie. And it shows the work at a breathtaking scale: the vast page size of Magnum Magnum gives the photos an impact never seen before in book form.