What is this Biennial Project, you may ask?
Well, the answer is that it nothing more and nothing less than this: a collaborative project by talented
and fun-loving artists to explore the nature and understand the perception of biennial exhibits within the
art world - and in so doing to develop a collective body of work that will ultimately be shown in as many
biennial exhibits as possible - especially the really cool ones. Towards this end we will investigate
the who, what, how and why of getting into a biennial, so as to be better able to develop a suitable body
of work.
How, you may ask, did we get started on such a project?
Well, the beginning was like this: in the fall of 2007, one of our cool globe-trotting friends
had just returned from the Venice Biennale, where she had been inundated with Biennial Art – the
great, the good, the bad, and the really really bad.
She, like other members of our really cool artist community before her, had several conflicting reactions to seeing
all this stamp-of-approval art in one place.
First, that much of the art was inspirational, second, that much of it sucked, and finally, that much of the stuff that
we and our really cool artist friends were doing was better.
So why weren’t WE there, sipping chianti and
chatting up pretty young things at the openings?
To answer this question, we have had to look deeply and honestly into ourselves, and upon so doing,
frankly, we like what we see, and feel we have the qualities necessary to achieve major success.
WE’ve read a little art history,
WE have the sense of ironic detachment mandatory in today’s environment,
WE know enough not to inject our work with any real emotion or technique,
WE are careful to always include the suitable current buzzwords when describing our work,
WE have cool black outfits,
WE never make much sense when asked direct questions, and
WE suck in the straight world.
So why haven’t WE become the Art Rock Stars we so clearly deserve to be?
What is preventing us from fulfilling our dreams, and how can we change it?
From these profound existential questions came the work group that came to be known as The Biennial Project.
We hope you will travel with us on this ongoing journey of discovery.