BOOK:The Catalogue of the 20th Sydney Biennale

The first Biennale of Sydney was held in 1973 as part of the opening celebrations of the Sydney Opera House. The Biennale was the first Biennale to be established in the Asia-Pacific region and, alongside the Venice and São Paulo Biennales and Documenta, is one of the longest running exhibitions of its kind.

By Dimitris Lempesis

“The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed”, is the title of the 20th Biennale of Sydney exhibition, is inspired by a comment by leading science-fiction author William Gibson, and also serves as a framework for this investigation. The first part of the title speaks not only to the fact that the exhibition is about the now but more than that, it suggests that perhaps we have already surpassed our own ideas about the future. The second part reminds us that access to information, the internet and other more basic resources is by no means universal, many people are denied the opportunity to benefit from (or participate in) these new spaces where information can be exchanged. These conditions of uneven distribution are not inevitable, however, they are largely the result of historical and current geopolitics and economic power structures. This book is published to accompany the 20th Biennale of Sydney, directed by Dr. Stephanie Rosenthal, which takes these keys themes as its starting point. Staged at several different venues, the exhibition is organised into several different “Embassies of thought”, each of which are reflected in this beautifully-produced volume. Together, the pages function like a reader, helping to peel back the exhibition’s conceptual layers. The catalogue also includes a series of roundtable discussions with other artists participating in the exhibition. The catalogue is available in March from the Biennale’s website: www.biennaleofsydney.com.au