Everything You Need To Know About The Coimbra Biennial of Contemporary Art ♦ The third edition of the Coimbra Biennial of Contemporary Art begins on Saturday, exploring different areas of the city, with works by 39 artists that sometimes “irritate”, sometimes can function as an antidote to a “noisy” world. The biennial, whose theme is “The Third Margin” (title of the short story by Brazilian João Guimarães Rosa), will be present in Coimbra until December 29, with the participation of 39 artists from 21 countries, in a selection that sought to be equal in gender (19 women and 20 men) and different generations, with a focus on young and emerging artists who share the space with well-known names like American Susan Hiller, British filmmaker and artist Steve McQueen and Egyptian-Canadian Anna Boghiguian. Secrets From Portugal brings you everything about the Coimbra Art Biennal, that can be visited until December 29th, ENJOY!
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Coimbra Biennial of Contemporary Art is an initiative of the Círculo de Artes Plásticas de Coimbra. It is organized in conjunction with the Coimbra City Council and the University of Coimbra and was first presented in 2015. Its prime goal is to foster reflection around the circumstances that led to the University of Coimbra – Alta and Sofia being classified by UNESCO as World Heritage.
The biennial emerges as an attempt to understand the symbolic and effective meaning of the new circumstances of the city – that of a World Heritage site — and proposes a confrontation between contemporary art and heritage by exploring the risks and multiple possibilities associated with this cultural heritage which now belongs to Humanity.
Anozero, therefore, is an action programme for the city which, by systematically questioning the territory in which it is sited, may contribute to constructing a cultural era which can affect and transform Coimbra and the Central Region.
Continuing with the Santa Clara-a-Nova Monastery as one of the central exhibition spaces, the biennial also occupies the College of Arts, the Science Museum, the Coimbra City Hall or the Avenida Galleries, among other spaces.
The reflection on time from an hourglass from which a trickle of sand will flow along the biennial (Laura Vinci) or the dialogue between a poem by Natália Correia and the tale of Guimarães Rosa (Marilá Dardot) are other proposals for this. The convent. In the City Hall, there is the work of Paulista José Spaniol – “with a vocation to be the star of the biennial”, said the curator – and, through the streets of Coimbra, it will be possible to see the panels of the Turkish Meriç Algun, with questions found on visa application forms.
At the College of Arts, Steve McQueen presents a 2002 work, “Once Upon a Time,” a sequence of 116 photographic images that NASA sent into space accompanied by a soundtrack built from voices of unknown languages. At the biennial, you will also see Peruvian Maya Watanabe’s reflection on the civil war that has affected her country or Moroccan Bouchra Khalili’s Foreign Office, which plunges into the lost past of Algeria’s post-independence era.
Susan Hiller, Anna Boguiguian or David Claerbout are other artists present at the biennial. Ana Hatherley and Augusto de Campos are also represented from an exhibition on concrete and visual poetry, curated by Tomás Cunha Ferreira, an artist who also participates in the event.
The biennial can be visited until December 29, with temporary exhibitions, workshops, readings, debates, guided tours and other side events.
