The 2nd Athens Biennale 2009 HEAVEN will take place from 15 June to 4 October. The exhibitions and events of the biennale will unfold along the coastline of Palaio Faliro in various buildings and public spaces. It is designed as a large-scale, multi-faceted contemporary art event, with several exhibitions, activities, music and theatre performances, film screenings and symposiums, with the participation of more than 100 international artists.
Artistic directors XYZ (Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, Poka-Yio, Augustine Zenakos), who curated the 1st Athens Biennale 2007 DESTROY ATHENS, have invited an eclectic group of curators to contemplate the subject of Heaven, a broad topic that touches on notions such as lost innocence, nature and ecology, utopias and ideal communities. From this premise, a creative dialogue begins, which will reflect upon the theme itself as well as the methodology surrounding large-scale periodical exhibitions. The diverse approaches of the 2nd Athens Biennale 2009 team of curators will retain their autonomy, while interconnecting creatively and claiming a narrative cohesion which will be further reflected in the exhibition design by architect and artist Andreas Angelidakis.
The multiple visual art and performance installations in public spaces will be curated by stage director and choreographer Dimitris Papaioannou and artist Zafos Xagoraris.
Exhibitions, installations, public interventions and screening programmes will be curated by Chus Martínez, chief curator of MACBA, and independent curators Cay Sophie Rabinowitz, Nadja Argyropoulou, Christopher Marinos and Diana Baldon.
The first edition of the Athens Biennale was a great success. The aspiration is for the 2nd Athens Biennale 2009 HEAVEN to be even more successful than the first, which attracted more than 50,000 visitors and was hailed by the international press as one of the best contemporary art exhibitions in 2007 worldwide. It was the subject of wide coverage in such publications as Libération, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Berliner Zeitung, Neue Zeurcher Zeitung and Het Financieele Dagblad, and received positive reviews in international art periodicals, such as Artforum, Frieze, Flash Art, Art Review, Contemporary, Art in America and Art Fairs International, among others.
The Biennale has sprung from the terrific energy that has characterised the visual arts in Athens in recent years. Its aim since its establishment has been to provide a contemplative space for contemporary art which will produce exhibitions of high quality, addressing a wide audience and forming a channel of communication between the local and the international contemporary art scenes.
For more information visit: www.athensbiennial.org
Start date: 15 Jun 2009
End date: 4 Oct 2009
Start time: 12:00
End time: 00:00
Venue:
Coastline of Athens: Beaches of Palaio Faliro and Kallithea, from the Faliron Olympic Complex to Flisvos and Batis.
Tickets:
12€
09.06.2009
