The book of the 11th edition of the international exhibition, curated by Argentinean curator Victoria Noorthoorn (gathering 78 artists from all over the world, mostly from Europe, Africa and Latin America), conceived as an autonomous montage of visual and verbal works engendering a multiplicity of meanings.
“This is not a catalogue for the 11th Lyon
Biennale. It is one of the works of the 11th Biennale. Or,
if you prefer, an alternative Biennale: a
miniature version of a Biennale that might have
been (...).
The order of texts and images in this book can
be compared to that of poems in a poetry
collection, or stories in a book of short stories. They are not ordered according to random,
capricious, rational, spatial or chronological
criteria. A text suggested an image, an image
required a specific text. This is how the book
came to be.
The texts included in this book are not
designed to accompany the works of the 11th
Biennale, and neither do they explain them. They do not talk about them, they talk with
them. They themselves are also works of art in
their own right.
This book, such as it is, presents works of art:
some are chiefly visual, others verbal. This montage of visual and verbal works
engenders, like all montages, new images, new
texts, and multiple meanings. The reader may read this book from
beginning to end, as if they were visiting an
exhibition, or reading a book, or living. It can
also be flicked through in any direction, in
which case the experience would be like
dreaming of an exhibition after visiting it, or
living an alternative life.
The contemporary exhibition system
increasingly encourages visitors to read the
gallery texts which introduce or explain the
work before looking at or experiencing it;
sometimes instead of looking at or experiencing
it. The work thus becomes subordinate to the
text and the text to the work in a mutually
servile relationship which benefits no-one. This
Biennale and this book represent a modest
attempt to revert or at least to expose this
tendency.”
Victoria Noorthoorn, Carlos Gamerro, Ruben Mira, and Alejandro Tantanian
Published on the occasion the 11th Lyon Biennale, from September to December 2011 (
www.biennaledelyon.com).
Texts, works and contributions by Gabriel Acevedo Velarde,
Ayreen Anastas,
Roberto Arlt,
The Artic Perspective Initiative,
Ronaldo Azevedo,
Zbynek Baladrán,
Ernesto Ballesteros,
Lenora de Barros,
Hannah van Bart,
Eduardo Basualdo,
Samuel Beckett,
Erick Beltrán,
Walter Benjamin,
Thomas Bernhard,
Diego Bianchi,
Guillaume Bijl,
Arthur Bispo do Rosário,
Pierre Bismuth,
Katinka Bock,
Jorge Luis Borges,
Paul Bowles,
Ulla von Brandenburg,
Cyrille Bret,
Fernando Bryce,
François Bucher,
Georg Büchner,
William Burroughs,
John Cage & Henning Lohner,
Augusto de Campos,
Beatriz Catani,
The Center for Historical Reenactments,
Virginia Chiota,
Robbie Cornelissen,
Marina De Caro,
Jochen Dehn,
Julien Discrit,
Elsa Drucaroff,
Marlene Dumas,
Eschyle,
Ariel Farace,
Morton Feldman,
Stano Filko,
Robert Filliou,
Yona Friedman,
Aurélien Froment,
Richard Buckminster Fuller,
René Gabri,
Carlos Gamerro,
Witold Gombrowicz,
Luis de Góngora y Argote,
Milan Grygar,
Joana Hadjithomas,
Felisberto Hernández,
Arturo Herrera,
Homère,
Michel Huisman,
Jessica Hutchins,
Roberto Jacoby,
Yun-Fei Ji,
Khalil Joreige,
Franz Kafka,
Christoph Keller,
Irina Kirchuk,
Lúcia Koch,
Eva Kotátkova,
Robert Kusmirowski,
Osvaldo Lamborghini,
Luciana Lamothe,
Moshekwa Langa,
Langer,
Ruth Laskey,
Guillaume Leblon,
Kemang Wa Lehulere,
Christian Lhopital,
Laura Lima,
Jarbas Lopes,
Jorge Macchi,
Linda Matalon,
Cildo Meireles,
Ruben Mira,
Laurent Montaron,
María Moreno,
Hugo Mujica,
Victoria Noorthoorn,
The Otolith Group,
Bernardo Ortiz,
Juan L. Ortiz,
Nicolás Paris,
Sarah Pierce,
Dominique Petitgand,
Garrett Phelan,
Sarah Rapson,
Thierry Raspail,
Tracey Rose,
José Alejandro Restrepo,
Alexander Schellow,
Benjamin Seror,
Gabriel Sierra,
Tom Stoppard,
Elly Strik,
Jonathan Swift,
Neal Tait,
Alejandro Tantanian,
Javier Téllez,
Daniela Thomas,
Barthélemy Toguo,
Erika Verzutti,
Miguel Vitagliano,
Christophe Wavelet,
Judi Werthein,
William Butler Yeats,
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye,
Héctor Zamora.
See also the
second volume of the 11th Lyon Biennale catalogue, and the catalogues of the
14th,
13th,
12th, 10th (volumes
1 and
2),
9th, and
7th editions.
