Coordinator: Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art Ltd. (UK)
Partners: Bergenstriennalen AS (NO), biedriba Rigas Starptautiska Bienale (LV), International Centre of Graphic Arts (SI), KW Institute for Contemporary Art – Kunst-Werke Berlin ev (DE)
Project amount: 335.480 EUR
EU support: 200.000 EUR (59,62 %)
Project duration: 1. 8. 2018–1. 8. 2022 > september 2023*
Over the last four years, Europe has witnessed significant political and cultural changes. This unrest has brought about an urgency and desire for closer collaboration in the arts. The Perennial Biennial has been developed in response to this and will operate as a year-round collaboration to further the field of biennial practice and strengthen European biennial networks across five major partners in Germany, Latvia, Slovenia, Norway and the UK.
The project will support curatorial practice, research, writing and discourse in the biennial field through collaborative working, staff exchanges and the sharing of expertise and models for sustainable practice. Its aim is to create dynamic national and international commissioning partnerships, which will strengthen the biennial sector in each location. The network will support a number of European Biennials to participate in the International Biennial Association (IBA).
In the frame of the project, the International Center of Graphic Arts (MGLC) took over the organization and management of two key project activities:
Workshop cycle Perennial Biennial
MGLC organizes five workshops attended by 15 curators and artists selected on the proposal of the participating biennials. The workshops were designed by Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez in collaboration with project partners on the following topics: Material accountability (mentor: Stéphane Verlet-Bottéro), Residing with others (mentor: Shela Sheikh), Spaces of humbleness (mentor: Rasha Salti), Rootedness, situatedness (mentor: Pauliina Feodoroff), Who keeps the cube white (mentor: Binna Choi). At the workshops, under the guidance of mentors, participants deal with proposals for sustainable models of biennial events. Representatives of the MGLC / Graphic Biennial Ljubljana are: Omsk Social Club, Lara Mejač and Neja Zorzut. The final event of the workshop cycle will take place in July 2023 in Riga, Lithuania, as part of the 3rd RIBOCA Biennial.
International Conference “Being a Citizen of the World Today?”
During the 34th Graphic Biennial Ljubljana (18 November 2021), MGLC organized an international conference that analyzed the issues of cosmopolitanism and biennials and other cyclical international events in the field of contemporary visual art. The conference was designed by Nevenka Šivavec, with speakers: biennial leaders and curators, theorists, culturologists: Alia Swastika (Indonesia), Jo-Anne Birnie-Danzker (Canada), Aljoša Pužar (Slovenia), Konstantinos Stafylakis (Greece), Mahret Ifeoma Kupka (Germany) and Sami Al Daghistani (Slovenia).
The project also includes the exchange of employees and professional staff of the project partners. In November 2021, the MGLC hosted Samira Ghoualmia from the Berlin Biennale. Her work focuses on mediation and educational programs. In 2023, scheduled for June, our colleague Gregor Dražil will be a guest of the Bergen Biennale.
*The project was extended for one year due to COVID-19 and is ending in September 2023.
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