Biennial Blogging from Afar

As I gear up to start my PhD (topic: The Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art and the Shaping of Berlin as an International Cultural Metropolis), I thought I’d establish a blog where I can gather my thoughts, other people’s thoughts, images, videos and other things to help stimulate and motivate myself. Seeing as though the Venice Biennale opened last week and my Facebook newsfeed has been exploding with photos and news from friends and colleagues enjoying the art, canals and aperol spritz, I thought I’d use this occasion to begin my musings about biennials in general.

First up is a video blog by a good pal and colleague of mine An Paenhuysen. I like her candid approach to communicating about art, whether she’s using the medium of writing, video or conversation. The video helps illustrate the atmosphere and initial responses from some art world players at one of the world’s biggest international arts events.

Also this week, Anthony Schrag an artist and friend of mine has launched a crowd funding campaign to raise funds for an artwork he has been commissioned to complete. The work takes the form of a walk, or a kind of pilgrimage, if you will, from Aberdeenshire in Scotland, to Venice. The work questions what a biennial is and how it is that it has become a sort of sacred site for the art world. The piece appropriately follows on from Anthony’s previous work, which has often explored the link between art and people and the role of contemporary art within society:

http://wefund.com/project/lure-of-the-lost-a-contemporary-pilgrimage/p67015/