La Biennale de Montréal19.10.16 — 15.01.17Le Grand BalconThe Grand Balcony

Media Release

2016

Preliminary List of Artists and Special Projects Announced

New York, 3 May 2016— La Biennale de Montréal is pleased to announce the artists who will take part in its 2016 edition (BNLMTL 2016), on view to the public from October 19, 2016 to January 15, 2017. Entitled Le Grand Balcon, BNLMTL 2016 calls for a materialist and sensualist approach and recasts the pursuit of sensual pleasures, making a case for its decisive role in everyday life and political decision-making. The project bets on the liberatory potential of art and invites us to rethink both the (im)possibility of an emancipation through pleasure—and its urgency. It summons us to mobilize both the brain and the body’s capacities to their fullest to affirm the pleasure we must take—a hedonist politics—far from the easy rewards of consumption and the

indifference of (mere) knowledge.

Le Grand Balcon combines a multi-site exhibition, publications and a dynamic series of performances, concerts, film screenings, talks, tours, conferences, encounters and experiences. Le Grand Balcon was conceptualized and curated by Philippe Pirotte in dialogue with curatorial advisors Corey McCorkle, Aseman Sabet and Kitty Scott, and in close collaboration with Sylvie Fortin, Executive and Artistic Director of La Biennale de Montréal. BNLMTL 2016 is presented by La Biennale de Montréal and co-produced with the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC), in collaboration with 14 other local partners and venues.

Anna Imhof, Deal, 2015, MoMA PS1, New York, video, 21 minutes, photo: Nadine Fraczkowski

NEW PRODUCTIONS AND COMMISSIONS

Le Grand Balcon will feature an unprecedented number of new commissions and international co-productions of works by Canadian and international artists. Le Grand Balcon will premiere Hemlock Forest, a new film by New York-based Canadian artist Moyra Davey. In this project, the artist revisits her 2011 video Les Goddesses, pursuing her investigation of motherhood, loss, the epistolary and questions of representation. Partly shot in Montréal and featuring the artists’ sisters, Hemlock Forest is co-produced with the Bergen Kunsthall in Bergen, Norway.

German artist Anne Imhof will present Angst, an audacious new production that combines her interest in performance, drawing, sculpture, and installation with a live element. Angst is an “opera” in several acts constructed through a choreography of cryptic gestures, an abstract musical composition and sculptural elements. The opera that forms the basis of Angst is co-produced by Kunsthalle Basel and the Nationalgalerie—Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, supported by the Freunde der Nationalgalerie in collaboration with La Biennale de Montréal.

Montréal artist Celia Perrin Sidarous will be premiering a new photographic installation that explores the kinships

Moyra Davey, Hemlock Forest (production still), 2016

Celia Perrin Sidarous, Marble, Egg, Seashell and Images, 2015

between photography (or film) and sculptural and architectural forms. Following a logic that is at once internal and associative, the work enlists a considered manner of looking while suggesting latent narratives.

Le Grand Balcon will also feature exciting new productions by Montreal-based artists Valérie Blass, Michael Blum, Walter Scott and Myriam Jacob-Allard. An anthology of Cairo-based artist Hassan Khan’s writings will be published. Ambitious sound projects by New York-based Marina Rosenfeld and Cameroonian artist Em’kal Eyongakpa are also being produced.

PRELIMINARY LIST OF ARTISTS AND COLLECTIVES

The complete list will be announced in September 2016.Haig Aivazian (Lebanon); Njideka

Akunyili Crosby (Nigeria/USA); Knut Åsdam (Norway); Eric Baudelaire (France); Thomas Bayrle (Germany); Nadia Belerique (Canada); Valérie Blass (Canada); Michael Blum (Israel/Germany/France/Canada); Shannon Bool (Canada/Germany); Dineo Seshee Bopape (South Africa); Elaine Cameron-Weir (Canada/USA); Chris Curreri (Canada); Moyra Davey (Canada/USA); Nicole Eisenman (USA); Em’kal Eyongakpa (Cameroon/Netherlands); Liao Guohe (China); Judith Hopf (Germany); Anne Imhof (Germany); Luis Jacob (Peru/Canada); Myriam Jacob-Allard (Canada); Brian Jungen (Canada); Hassan Khan (Egypt); Meiro Koizumi (Japan); Zac Langdon-Pole (New Zealand/Germany); Tanya Lukin Linklater (USA/Canada); Kerry James Marshall (USA); Corey McCorkle (USA); Nathalie Melikian (Canada/Sweden); Joe Namy (Lebanon/USA); Shahryar Nashat (Switzerland/Germany); Camille

Norment (USA/Norway); Celia Perrin Sidarous (Canada); PURE FICTION (Germany); Lucy Raven (USA); Marina Rosenfeld (USA); Ben Schumacher (Canada/USA); Walter Scott (Canada); Benjamin Seror (France/Belgium); Frances Stark (USA); Luke Willis Thompson (New Zealand/UK); David Gheron Tretiakoff (France/Belgium); Luc Tuymans (Belgium); Jacob Wren (Canada); Haegue Yang (Germany/South Korea); Xu Zhen (China)

LE GRAND BALCON: AN OPEN-ENDED BIENNALE

“We are thrilled and honored to have the privilege to work with the wonderful artists selected by Philippe Pirotte, a curator whose energy, generosity, commitment and fearlessness have given the project an excitingly distinctive direction,” notes Sylvie Fortin, Executive and Artistic Director of La Biennale de Montréal.“Experimental, experiential and open-ended, Le Grand Balcon will be an exciting platform for artists, supporting their vision and their projects, and connecting them to a community of viewers best qualified by its engagement and its curiosity. We’re really proud to offer our growing public such a memorable project, in which the diversity of contemporary practice comes alive.”

“It’s been an exciting endeavor to think about this Biennale over the last year, traveling across Canada to learn about what’s going on in Montréal,

Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver,” states Pirotte. “Yet, the project is still very much in development, as a Biennale should. With so many new works, and with artists working in so many places around the world, Le Grand Balcon will be in a state of becoming all the way to the opening. It’s wonderful to work with an organization that can support such experimentation, and to benefit from the insights and generosity of our curatorial advisors and of colleagues in Montréal and around the world.”

A COLLABORATIVE PLATFORM

Building on the success of La Biennale de Montréal’s 2014 edition, Le Grand Balcon renews the organization’s ambitions and expands its collabor-ations. “La Biennale de Montréal’s innovative partnership with the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, a collaboration between two prominent Montréal institutions that began in 2013, has laid a solid foundation for the development of an internationally significant event that reflects the evolution, the diversity and the dynamism of Montréal’s art commu- nity,” states Fortin. “Thanks to this deepening partnership, and to the in-valuable contribution of our other local partners, La Biennale de Montréal can both aim to raise the profile ofMontréal and its arts communities and to actively contribute to the urgent redefinition of the role of contemporary art biennials, which are becoming increasingly critical and experimental.

It all begins and ends with art and our ability to imagine and enact new ways to shape the relationships between artists, context and audiences.”

“It’s very stimulating to play a part in the development of a project like Le Grand Balcon,” states John Zeppetelli, Director and Chief Curator of the MAC. “I am truly impressed by Philippe Pirotte’s curatorial approach and by the breadth and diversity of the selection announced today. The MAC is really pleased with its partnership with La Biennale de Montréal and its team and we are convinced that, together, we will offer Montrealers and visitors a powerful snapshop of today’s most relevant contemporary art. Le Grand Balcon will definitely position BNLMTL as one of the influential contemporary art biennials on the planet.”

LE GRAND BALCON IN NUMBERS

75 days 45+ artists (preliminary list)16 Canadian artists (including 8 Québec artists) 35 new works 23 countries (Belgium, Cameroon, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States) 15+ exhibition venues and local collaborations10 international co-productions4 publications

OPENING WEEK PROGRAM

Opening Days: October 18 – 21, 2016

Press and Professional Preview: October 18, 2016

Public Opening: October 19, 2016

–30–

The mission of La Biennale de Montréal is to foster, support, interpret and disseminate the most current visual arts practices by producing the biennial event BNLMTL. All of the initiatives of La Biennale de Montréal are premised on risk and experimentation. Its goal is to support daring, thought-provoking art practices and curatorial projects while offering the public a diversity of experiences.

Located in the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal makes today’s art a vital part of Montréal and Québec life. For more than fifty years, this vibrant museum has brought together local and international artists, their works and an ever growing public. It is a place of discovery, offering visitors experiences that are continually changing and new, and often unexpected and stirring. The Musée presents temporary exhibitions devoted to outstanding and relevant current artists who provide their own, particular insight into our society, as well as exhibitions of works drawn from the museum’s extensive Permanent Collection.

Marie Marais Press Attaché (Canada)T + 1 514 845 2821marais@cooptel.qc.ca

About

Noreen Ahmad, Director SUTTONT +1 212 202 3402 noreen@suttonpr.com

Erin WhittakerLa Biennale de MontréalT +1 514 521 7340erin.whittaker@bnlmtl.org

About La Biennale de Montréal

La Biennale de Montréal P.O. Box 39074, Saint-AlexandreMontréal (QC) H3B 0B2 Canada

www.blmtl.org

For more information or to arrange interviews, media may contact:

About the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal

La Biennale de Montréal19.10.16 — 15.01.17Le Grand BalconThe Grand Balcony

Canada’s Biennale

2016

Opening Days: October 18 – 21Press and Professional Preview: October 18Public Opening: October 19

Le Grand Balcon draws loosely on Jean Genet’s Le Balcon, in which the play’s high porch is a space of contestation between revolution and counter-revolution, reality and illusion. A recurring motif in Genet’s writing, his balcony is a place of perverse acts where representation itself can be perversely troubled.

For Genet (and for many other artists, including Shakespeare) the balcony is also a topos of amorous flirtation: a privileged but ambiguous space that brings lovers closer while keeping them apart. It is a desiring apparatus and a theatrical space that articulates the complex relationship between inside and outside, up and down. The balcony is also subject to a particular regime of visibility, a space where a person can dramatically stage herself, with power and vulnerability on display.

In Genet’s play, the Grand Balcon is a brothel that presents a fiercely ironical microcosm of the power elite besieged by revolutionary forces at the gates. In turn, the

Curatorial Statement

exhibition Le Grand Balcon enacts Genet’s concern with meta-theatricality and role-playing by unfolding experiences alongside “objects” that often refuse to reveal themselves as truths. As an exhibition, Le Grand Balcon aims to generate experiences that open up a mental space to rethink some of our most pressing matters—our ruinous ecological practices, the accelerating dematerialisation of the economy and the evolution towards a global prophetic community turned against itself. The works selected for Le Grand Balcon betray a preference for “images” of deep historical resonance that materially and sensorially bind us to the here and now. Thus the exhibition enjoins us to reconsider our pursuit of sensual activities: deeply felt pleasures. Can we develop a hedonistic politics? An ethical hedonism? A joyous utilitarianism and an aesthetics of sensual materialism that mobilise both the brain’s and the body’s capacities to their fullest, against the indifference of (mere) knowledge?

Along with Genet, Le Grand Balcon enlists the infamous Marquis de Sade, who adds a human’s right to pleasure to the canon of human rights. His advocacy of pleasure uncovers the paradoxes of the bourgeois principle of formal equality by exposing the fact that fantasy categorically resists universalization. Fantasy is the

absolutely individual way in which someone structures her/his “impossible” relation to things. Our exhibition aims for something quite radical: to develop an unruly and recalcitrant space that gives form to an aesthetics of resistance to the violence of quantification and categorization, and to the violence of naming and controlling. Calling for a materialist and sensualist approach and betting on the liberatory potential of art, this exhibition invites us to rethink both the (im)possibility of an emancipation through pleasure—and its urgency. It summons us to affirm the pleasure we must take—a hedonist politics—far from the easy rewards of consumption. It entreats us to recast the pursuit of sensual pleasures, enlisting pleasure anew to play a decisive role in everyday life and political decision-making.

In the tradition of Genet and de Sade, Le Grand Balcon will be simultaneously playful and fatalistic in its presentation of rooms, corridors and balconies where things can go—very creatively, very constructively, very pleasurably—astray.

—Philippe Pirotte, curator, Le Grand Balcon

Philippe Pirotte Curator

Philippe Pirotte is an art historian, curator, critic, and Director of the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste Städelschule and of Portikus, leading centres for contemporary art in Germany and beyond. Pirotte was one of the co-founders of the contemporary art centre objectif_exhibitions in Antwerp, Belgium. From 2005 to 2011, he was Director of the internationally renowned Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland where he organized solo exhibitions by artists such as Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Owen Land, Oscar Tuazon, Jutta Koether, Allan Kaprow, and Corey McCorkle. From 2004 to 2013, Pirotte held the position of Senior

Advisor at the Rijksakademie for Visual Arts in Amsterdam. In 2012, he became Adjunct Senior Curator at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. He also served as Advising Program Director for the Sifang Art Museum in Nanjing and is an advisor for the Kadist Art Foundation (Paris/San Francisco).

Sylvie Fortin Executive and Artistic Director

Sylvie Fortin joined La Biennale de Montréal as Executive and Artistic Director in September 2013. She was previously Editor-in-Chief (2004-2007) and Executive Director/Editor (2007-2012) of ART PAPERS, leading the Atlanta-based

Philippe Pirotte, Aseman Sabet, Kitty Scott, Sylvie Fortin. Corey McCorkle ; photo : Jean Malek

organization from a regional publication to a global thought leader. She was Curator of Manif 5 – the 5th Québec City Biennale (2010), Curator of Contemporary Art at the Ottawa Art Gallery (1996-2001), Program Coordinator at LA CHAMBRE BLANCHE (Quebec City, 1991-1994), and a long-term collaborator with the Montreal artist-run centre OBORO (1994-2001). Her critical essays and reviews have been published in numerous catalogues, anthologies and periodicals, including Artforum International, Art Press, C Magazine, Fuse, NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art and Parachute.

Corey McCorkleCuratorial Advisor

Corey McCorkle is an artist who lives and works in New York. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA) and the University of Illinois at Chicago (MFA), he also completed the Architecture Program at Pratt Institute in New York. He has had solo exhibitions at Maccarone, New York (2013, 2011, 2007); Artpace San Antonio, Texas (2010); FRAC île de France, Le Plateau, Paris (2010); Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium (2009); and Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland (2005). His work has been featured in many group exhibitions, including Inside Out, MOCA Cleveland (2012); Erre, Centre Pompidou-Metz (2011); The World is Yours, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæck, Denmark (2009); Le Corbusier: The Art of Architecture, Barbican, London, England

(2009); Political/Minimal, Kunst-Werke, Berlin (2008); Modern Ruin, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2008); Whitney Biennial 2008, Whitney Museum, New York; Traces du Sacré, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2008); 4th Berlin Biennale (2006); The Plain of Heaven, Creative Time, New York (2005); and Greater New York, PS1, New York (2004). McCorkle is the Interim Senior Lecturer who is responsible for the Art & Architecture course at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm since February 2015 and an Adjunct Professor at the Steinhardt School of Culture at New York University. Aseman SabetCuratorial Advisor

Aseman Sabet is a doctoral candidate in Art History at Université de Montréal. Her research examines the emergence of a theory of tactile knowledge in eighteenth-century esthetic discourse and art criticism. She is also an independent curator and a sessional lecturer who frequently contributes to a number of contemporaray art publications. She is co-director of the French chapter of the Canadian Society for Aesthetics and a member of the board of directors of the artist-run Centre Clark since 2014. She lives and works in Montréal.

Kitty Scott Curatorial Advisor Kitty Scott is the Carol and Morton Rapp Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. Previously she was Director of Visual Arts at The Banff Centre, Canada; Chief

Curator at the Serpentine Gallery inLondon, and Curator of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. Her extensive resume includes exhibitions of artists such as Francis Alÿs, Stephen Andrews, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Paul Chan, Peter Doig,Janice Kerbel, Ragnar Kjartansson, Ken Lum, Scott McFarland, Silke Otto-Knapp, Frances Stark and Ron Terada. She was a core agent for dOCUMENTA (13) in 2012 and co-curator of Liverpool Biennial 2018. Scott has written extensively on contemporary art for catalogues, books and journals and edited the publication Raising Frankenstein: Curatorial Education and Its Discontents (2010). She regularly lectures at arts schools and curatorial programmes throughout North America.

Haig Aivazianborn in 1980 in Beirutlives and works in Beirutsfeir-semler.com/gallery-artists/aivazian-1/

Njideka Akunyili Crosbyborn in 1983 in Enugu, Nigerialives and works in Los Angelesnjidekaakunyili.com/

Knut Åsdamborn in 1968 in Trondheim, Norwaylives and works in Osloknutasdam.net

Eric Baudelaireborn in 1973 in Salt Lake City, UTlives and works in Parisbaudelaire.net/

Thomas Bayrleborn in 1937 in Berlinlives and works in Frankfurt am Main, Germanygavinbrown.biz/artists/thomas_bayrle/works

Nadia Belerique born in 1982 lives and works in Torontonadiabelerique.com/

Valérie Blassborn in 1967 in Montréallives and works in Montréalcatrionajeffries.com/artists/valerie-blass/works/

Michael Blumborn in 1966 in Jerusalemlives and works in Montréal blumology.net

Shannon Boolborn in 1971 in Comox, BClives and works in Berlindanielfariagallery.com/artists/shannon-bool

Dineo Seshee Bopapeborn in 1981 in Polokwane, South Africalives and works in Azania, South Africaseshee.blogspot.ca/

Elaine Cameron-Weirborn in 1985 in Red Deer, ABlives and works in New Yorkelainecameron-weir.tumblr.com/

Chris Curreriborn in 1978 in Torontolives and works in Torontochriscurreri.com/

Moyra Daveyborn in 1958 in Torontolives and works in New Yorkmurrayguy.com/moyra-davey/selected-works/

Nicole Eisenmanborn in 1965 in Verdun, Francelives and works in Brooklynantonkerngallery.com/artist/nicole-eisenman/

Preliminary list of artists

Em’kal Eyongakpaborn in 1981 in Mamfe, Cameroonlives and works in Yayoundé, Cameroon and Amsterdamemkaleyongakpa.wordpress.com/

Liao Guoheborn in 1977 in Kolkata, Indialives and works in Changsha, Chinamabsociety.com/liao-guohe.html

Judith Hopfborn in 1969 in Berlinlives and works in Berlinkaufmannrepetto.com/artist/judith-hopf/

Anne Imhofborn in 1978 in Gießen, Germanylives and works in Frankfurt am Main, Germanybortolozzi.com/anne-imhof/

Luis Jacobborn in 1971 in Limalives and works in Torontobirchcontemporary.com/artist/luis-jacob

Myriam Jacob-Allardborn in 1981 in Val-d’Or, QClives and works in Montréalmyriamjacoballard.com

Brian Jungenborn in 1970 in Fort St. John, BClives and works in North Okanagan, BCcatrionajeffries.com/artists/brian-jungen/works/

Hassan Khanborn in 1975 in Londonlives and works in Cairocrousel.com/home/artists/Hassan%20Khan/bio

Meiro Koizumiborn in 1976 in Gunma, Japanlives and works in Yokohama, Japanmeirokoizumi.com/

Zac Langdon-Poleborn in 1988 in Aucklandlives and works in Darmstadt, Germanymichaellett.com/artist/zac-langdon-pole/

Tanya Lukin Linklaterborn in 1976 in Kodiak, AKlives and works in North Bay, ONtanyalukinlinklater.com

Kerry James Marshallborn in 1955 in Birmingham, ALlives and works in Chicagodavidzwirner.com/artists/kerry-james-marshall/

Corey McCorkleborn in 1969 in La Crosse, WIlives and works in New Yorkmaccarone.net/artists/corey-mccorkle/

Nathalie Melikianborn in 1966 lives and works in Vancouver and Malmö, Sweden

Joe Namyborn in 1978 in Lansing, MIlives and works in Beirut and Detroit, MIolivetones.com

Shahryar Nashatborn in 1975 in Geneva, Switzerlandlives and works in Berlin rodeo-gallery.com/artists/shahryar-nashat/

Camille Normentborn in 1970 in Silver Spring, MDlives and works in Oslonorment.net

Celia Perrin Sidarousborn in 1982 in Montréallives and works in Montréalcelia-perrin-sidarous.com

PURE FICTIONfounded in 2012 in Frankfurt am Main, Germanybased in Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Lucy Ravenborn in 1977 in Tucson, AZlives and works in New Yorklucyraven.com

Marina Rosenfeldborn in 1968 in New Yorklives and works in New Yorkmarinarosenfeld.com/

Ben Schumacherborn in 1985 in Kitchener, ONlives and works in New Yorkbortolamigallery.com/artist/ben-schumacher/works/

Walter Scottborn in 1985 in Kahnawake, QClives and works in Toronto and Montréalwwalterscott.com

Benjamin Seror born in 1979 in Lyon, Francelives and works in Brussels

Frances Starkborn in 1967 in Newport Beach, CAlives and works in Los Angelesfrancesstark.com/

Luke Willis Thompsonborn in 1988 in Aucklandlives and works in Londonhopkinsonmossman.com/artist/?artist=Luke%20Wil-lis%20Thompson

David Gheron Tretiakoffborn in 1970 in Francelives and works in Brussels

Luc Tuymansborn in 1958 in Moorsel, Belgiumlives and works in Antwerp, Belgiumdavidzwirner.com/artists/luc-tuymans/

Jacob Wrenborn in 1971 in Jerusalemlives and works in Montréaleverysongiveeverwritten.com/en/

Haegue Yangborn in 1971 in Seoullives and works in Seoul and Berlinheikejung.de/

Xu Zhenborn in 1977 in Shanghailives and works in Shanghaimadeincompany.com/en/produce.asp

Acknowledgments

Public Partners

International Partners

BNLMTL 2016 is presented by La Biennale de Montréal and co-produced with the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.

Institutional Partners

Major Partners

International Co-producers

Event Sponsor

The mission of La Biennale de Montréal is to foster, support, interpret and disseminate the most current visual arts practices by producing the biennial event BNLMTL. All of the initiatives of La Biennale de Montréal are premised on risk and experimentation. Its goal is to support daring, thought-provoking art practices and curatorial projects while offering the public a diversity of experiences.

Located in the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal makes today’s art a vital part of Montréal and Québec life. For more than fifty years, this vibrant museum has brought together local and international artists, their works and an ever growing public. It is a place of discovery, offering visitors experiences that are continually changing and new, and often unexpected and stirring. The Musée presents temporary exhibitions devoted to outstanding and relevant current artists who provide their own, particular insight into our society, as well as exhibitions of works drawn from the museum’s extensive Permanent Collection.

Marie Marais Press Attaché (Canada)T + 1 514 845 2821marais@cooptel.qc.ca

About

Noreen Ahmad, Director SUTTONT +1 212 202 3402 noreen@suttonpr.com

Erin WhittakerLa Biennale de MontréalT +1 514 521 7340erin.whittaker@bnlmtl.org

About La Biennale de Montréal

La Biennale de Montréal P.O. Box 39074, Saint-AlexandreMontréal (QC) H3B 0B2 Canada

www.blmtl.org

For more information or to arrange interviews, media may contact:

About the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal