IBA Stage: 23rd Biennale of Sydney – rīvus

Foreground: Ana Barboza and Rafael Freyre, Water ecosystem, 2019-2022 (detail). Courtesy the artists & Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Lima. Background: Cave Urban, Flow, 2022 (detail). Courtesy the artists. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from Andrew Cameron AO and Cathy Cameron; Jessie French, The Myth of Nature –agaG1, 2021-2022 (detail). Courtesy the artist & Anaïs Lellouche. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from the Australia Council for the Arts and assistance from the Sustaining Creative Workers Initiative. The Sustaining Creative Workers Initiative is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and Regional Arts Victoria; Leeroy New, Flotilla, 2022. Courtesy the artist. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from the Australia-ASEAN Council and assistance from Mirvac and Parramatta Artists’ Studios; Iltja Ntjarra (Many Hands) Art Centre, Pmarra Nurna-kanha Ntarntarai – Care for our Country, 2022. Courtesy the artists & Iltja Ntjarra / Many Hands Art Centre. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous assistance from the Australia Council for the Arts and assistance from Artback NT; D Harding, Untitled (wall composition), 2022. Courtesy the artist & Milani Gallery, Brisbane. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from the Australia Council for the Arts; Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Fishbone IV, 2019-2022. Courtesy the artist & Green Art Gallery, Dubai. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous assistance from SAHA Association; Mata Aho Collective, He Toka Tū Moana: She’s a Rock, 2022 (detail). Courtesy the artists. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from Creative New Zealand; Paula de Solminihac, Fogcatcher, 2018-2021. Courtesy the artist. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous assistance from Graeme and Mabie Briggs and assistance from the Catholic University of Chile and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs | Government of Chile; and Nicole Foreshew, YIRUNG BILA (SKY HEAVEN RIVER), 2022. Courtesy the artist. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous support from the Australia Council for the Arts. Installation view, 23rd Biennale of Sydney, rīvus, 2022, The Cutaway at Barangaroo. Photography: Document Photography.

IBA Stage
23rd Biennale of Sydney – rīvus
July 26, 2022 (Tuesday)
7:00pm (Sydney/GMT+10)

We are delighted to announce that the next IBA Stage will feature a presentation of the 23rd Biennale of Sydney which took place between March 12th and June 13th 2022. One of the leading international biennials established in 1973, it is the largest exhibition of its kind in Australia,  the Biennale of Sydney has commissioned and presented exceptional works of art by more than 1,900 national and international artists from more than 130 countries.
It plays an indispensable role in Australia’s engagement with the world, and a meaningful role in the life of the nation. The Biennale presents the most dynamic contemporary art from around the globe in venues across Sydney. The Biennale of Sydney amplifies the voices of artists and tell the stories of our global communities, as they drive momentum for lasting cultural change.

rīvus, as the 23rd edition of the Biennale of Sydney was titled, departs from the notion that indigenous knowledges have long understood non-human entities as living ancestral beings with a right to life that must be protected. But only recently have animals, plants, mountains and bodies of water been granted legal personhood. Following this reasoning, José Roca (Artistic Director of rīvus) and his curatorial team which included Paschal Daantos Berry, Anna Davis, Hannah Donnelly, and Talia Linz, asked themselves what might these entities have to say if we consider them as individual beings.

The 23rd Biennale of Sydney is articulated around a series of conceptual wetlands situated along waterways of the Gadigal, Burramatagal and Cabrogal peoples. These imagined ecosystems are populated by artworks, experiments, activisms and research, which together follow the currents of meandering tributaries, expanding out into a delta of interrelated ideas including river horror, creek futurism, Indigenous science, cultural flows, ancestral technologies, counter-mapping, queer ecologies, multispecies justice, hydrofeminism, water healing, spirit streams, fish philosophy and sustainable methods of co-existence.

IBA Stage is an online series by the International Biennial Association in which invited biennials have the chance to deliver a presentation of their most recent projects, shaped in the way and form each biennial will feel more comfortable with. The events in this series have a live audience of registered members to participate in Q&A session moderated by the IBA team. Each event however will be streamed through our social media outlets to allow a wider audience to experience it.

To register for the this event please follow the link below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqd-iurjMjGtNckgFl5AyHibNC9BK01Eue