IBA Stage: 3rd Biennale Matter of Art

Exhibition view, Biennale Matter of Art 2024, exhibition view, National Gallery Prague – Trade Fair Palace © Jonáš Verešpej

IBA Stage: 3rd Biennale Matter of Art
September 3, 2024 (Tuesday)
5:00 pm (Pregue/GMT+2)

We are excited to host, as part of our IBA Stage series, one of the most interesting new biennials initiated in the last few years: Biennale Matter of Art.

Established in 2020 in Prague by local art initiative tranzit.cz, Biennale Matter of Art was, in the words of its founders, an attempt to “explore whether and how it is possible to do large-scale exhibitions […] as political and institutional interventions.” It has hence had a very clear political goal of creating a space for political and cultural dialogue for those voices excluded or not noticed in the mainstream public sphere.

This year’s edition, whose main exhibition carries the title “Grafting Solidarities – From the Factories to the Fields”, curated by Katalin Erdodi and Aleksei Borisionok, expands over two main venues: the Trade Fair Palace of the National Gallery and the Lidice Gallery and is supported by a bilingual publication “Sowing unrest” (find more info here if you are interested).

In combining their respective interests, the curators of the biennale, Katalin Erdődi and Aleksei Borisionok, have worked with the method of “grafting,” a technique used in agriculture and medicine to join different plant parts as well as animal or human tissue so that they can grow together and become stronger. Borisionok and Erdődi imagine relationships and resonances between the individual works in the exhibition unfolding in a similar way. Key themes include the legacy and future of workers’ movements as well as rural transformation and the struggles of rural people for a good life and social change, which come together in stories of unrest, resilience, and solidarity across the changing contexts of the urban and the rural.

In the words of the curators:

“In an oversaturated world of images, we still hardly know how labor works – be it agricultural, logistical, or creative. We see the current edition of Matter of Art as an attempt to articulate and translate the complexities of contemporary life and work beyond the rural–urban divide. Threading various histories of dispossessed farmers, care workers on strike, looted museum objects, extracted minerals, and depressed militants, we present a project that tackles the supposedly failed alliances between peasants and workers. The exhibition opens up as a landscape and a demonstration of tools, materials, scores, inviting you to join the trip through their stories – perplexing and exciting,” says curator Aleksei Borisionok about the concept.

“One of the driving forces behind our work for the biennale has been to show that understanding rural change is key to understanding social change at large. Small farmers are at the forefront of fighting the climate crisis; their way of life and their knowledge can offer alternatives, yet they struggle to survive, let alone thrive. We can learn a great deal from each other if we engage in more intense dialogues across the rural–urban divide. I see the biennale as a space for such encounters: a space for learning, for listening, for feminist storytelling, in which “quiet histories” and silenced voices can make themselves heard. A space for thinking about more-than-human relations, to the land, to bodies of water, plants, animals, minerals, and others. The rural and the urban are not a binary; challenging the urban hegemony of our thinking is necessary for the sake of multiperspectivity – so that we can see the world in a more nuanced and differentiated way and graft solidarities that acknowledge a deep urban–rural interdependence,” adds Katalin Erdődi.

To have the possibility to hear and discuss with the individuals behind biennials has been a key component of what we believe IBA can offer to our members and the wider public and we value your participation through our live streams. As always IBA Stage events are meant as a moment to hear about a project through its makers and have the opportunity to participate in a Q&A session at the end of the presentation.

Click here to register for the event or follow us through our usual social media channels.