Can Montreal become home to “one of the most influential contemporary art biennials on the planet”?
John Zeppetelli, director and chief curator of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, hopes so.
Zeppetelli and the museum are one of the main partners in the Biennale de Montréal, which announced its preliminary artist list, themed under “Le Grand Balcon,” at a press conference today in New York.
“We are convinced that, together, we will offer Montrealers and visitors a powerful snapshot of today’s most relevant contemporary art,” Zeppetelli said in a related press release. “‘Le Grand Balcon’ will definitely position BNLMTL as one of the most influential contemporary art biennials on the planet.”
There are more than 45 artists on the preliminary artist list for what curator Phillipe Pirotte has called the “open-ended” Biennale de Montréal, which debuts to the public on October 19 at various Montreal venues.
Included in that initial tally are 16 Canadian artists, 8 of whom are from Quebec, specifically.
“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 Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver,” biennial curator Pirotte—formerly director of the internationally renowned Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland—said in a press statement. “Yet, the project is still very much in development…[it] will be in a state of becoming all the way to the opening.”
Among the highlights of the preliminary list is a new commission by New York–based Canadian artist Moyra Davey; her video Hemlock Forest, which includes appearances by her sisters and filming in Montreal, will pursue her investigation of motherhood, loss, the epistolary and questions of representation. (To learn more about Davey’s approach to some of these themes, read our recent interview with her.)
Other new productions for the biennial are expected from Montreal-based artists Valérie Blass, Michael Blum, Celia Perrin Sidarous, Walter Scott and Myriam Jacob-Allard.
Some of the other Canadian artists included thus far are Nadia Belerique, Elaine Cameron-Weir, Ben Schumacher, Shannon Bool, Chris Curreri, Luis Jacob, Brian Jungen, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Nathalie Melikian and Jacob Wren.
Here is the full preliminary list of artists for the 2016 Biennale de Montréal:
Haig Aivazian
born in 1980 in Beirut
lives and works in Beirut
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
born in 1983 in Enugu, Nigeria
lives and works in Los Angeles
Knut Åsdam
born in 1968 in Trondheim, Norway
lives and works in Oslo
Eric Baudelaire
born in 1973 in Salt Lake City, UT
lives and works in Paris
Thomas Bayrle
born in 1937 in Berlin
lives and works in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Nadia Belerique
born in 1982
lives and works in Toronto
Valérie Blass
born in 1967 in Montreal
lives and works in Montreal
Michael Blum
born in 1966 in Jerusalem
lives and works in Montréal
Shannon Bool
born in 1971 in Comox, BC
lives and works in Berlin
Dineo Seshee Bopape
born in 1981 in Polokwane, South Africa
lives and works in Azania, South Africa
Elaine Cameron-Weir
born in 1985 in Red Deer, AB
lives and works in New York
Chris Curreri
born in 1978 in Toronto
lives and works in Toronto
Moyra Davey
born in 1958 in Toronto
lives and works in New York
Nicole Eisenman
born in 1965 in Verdun, France
lives and works in Brooklyn
Em’kal Eyongakpa
born in 1981 in Mamfe, Cameroon
lives and works in Yayoundé, Cameroon and Amsterdam
Liao Guohe
born in 1977 in Kolkata, India
lives and works in Changsha, China
Judith Hopf
born in 1969 in Berlin
lives and works in Berlin
Anne Imhof
born in 1978 in Gießen, Germany
lives and works in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Luis Jacob
born in 1971 in Lima
lives and works in Toronto
Myriam Jacob-Allard
born in 1981 in Val-d’Or, QC
lives and works in Montreal
Brian Jungen
born in 1970 in Fort St. John, BC
lives and works in North Okanagan, BC
Hassan Khan
born in 1975 in London
lives and works in Cairo
Meiro Koizumi
born in 1976 in Gunma, Japan
lives and works in Yokohama, Japan
Zac Langdon-Pole
born in 1988 in Auckland
lives and works in Darmstadt, Germany
Tanya Lukin Linklater
born in 1976 in Kodiak, AK
lives and works in North Bay, ON
Kerry James Marshall
born in 1955 in Birmingham, AL
lives and works in Chicago
Corey McCorkle
born in 1969 in La Crosse, WI
lives and works in New York
Nathalie Melikian
born in 1966
lives and works in Vancouver and Malmö, Sweden
Joe Namy
born in 1978 in Lansing, MI
lives and works in Beirut and Detroit, MI
Shahryar Nashat
born in 1975 in Geneva, Switzerland
lives and works in Berlin
Camille Norment
born in 1970 in Silver Spring, MD
lives and works in Oslo
Celia Perrin Sidarous
born in 1982 in Montréal
lives and works in Montréal
PURE FICTION
founded in 2012 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Lucy Raven
born in 1977 in Tucson, AZ
lives and works in New York
Marina Rosenfeld
born in 1968 in New York
lives and works in New York
Ben Schumacher
born in 1985 in Kitchener, ON
lives and works in New York
Walter Scott
born in 1985 in Kahnawake, QC
lives and works in Toronto and Montreal
Benjamin Seror
born in 1979 in Lyon, France
lives and works in Brussels
Frances Stark
born in 1967 in Newport Beach, CA
lives and works in Los Angeles
Luke Willis Thompson
born in 1988 in Auckland
lives and works in London
David Gheron Tretiakoff
born in 1970 in France
lives and works in Brussels
Luc Tuymans
born in 1958 in Moorsel, Belgium
lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium
Jacob Wren
born in 1971 in Jerusalem
lives and works in Montreal
Haegue Yang
born in 1971 in Seoul
lives and works in Seoul and Berlin
Xu Zhen
born in 1977 in Shanghai
lives and works in Shanghai
