Curating in a Time of Ecological Crisis: Biennales as Agents of Change

Description

Curating in a Time of Ecological Crisis reaffirms the relevance and impactful role of art, revealing how contemporary art exhibitions can capture the zeitgeist and advance new and collaborative approaches to a more sustainable inhabitation of Earth. The book is largely focused on biennales, which it argues are the contemporary exhibition models with the greatest capacity to offer new perspectives and propose alternative ways of connecting with our social and natural environments. Felicity Fenner demonstrates this by showing how curators of these high-profile exhibitions are responding in creative and engaging ways to the issues that preoccupy artists and society more broadly, of which the ecological crisis is paramount. Drawing on case studies from different parts of the world, the author reveals how biennales can make a constructive contribution to debates and attitudes around climate change, and how the role of the curator has evolved to re-embrace a duty of care not just to art but to the natural world as well. Curating in a Time of Ecological Crisis investigates how large-scale exhibitions of contemporary international art can become agents of change. As such, the book will be essential reading for scholars, students, and practitioners with an interest in exhibitions, curating, contemporary art, and environmental sustainability. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents List of figures Preface Introduction 1 Exhibiting Nature through the Decades: from Earthworks (1968) to Down to Earth (2020) Pioneering Curators of Environmental Art: The United States in the Late 1960s A Cautionary Tale: Beuys’ 7000 Oaks and the 1984 Biennale of Sydney Recent Museum Exhibitions 2 Critical Ecosystems: Biennales and New Curatorial Strategies in Response to Climate Change 2019 Lyon Biennale 2020–2021 EVA International Biennial of Contemporary Art 2018 and 2020 Taipei Biennial 3 Environment and Empowerment: Biennales as Legacy Projects 2020 Biennale of Sydney Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial Conclusion Index