Art tests modernity
The motto of this year's, already 16. edition is "Test Exposure". "This means that art is not just a separate area. In its forms and works, it reflects everyday matters, sometimes very important, basic for our emotions" explains Piotr Krajewski, artistic director of the Biennial. He points out that art is a kind of commenting experience. It enters different fields - psychology, biological and social sciences, engineering. "It then becomes a kind of test of modernity" adds Krajewski.
WRO all over Wroclaw
What we can expect to see for a month and a half in different locations Wroclaw (including the WRO Art Centre, the new building of the University Library, the National Museum, in Scena na Świebodzkim, Entropia Gallery, or Renoma shopping centre)? "We present the latest art and we want to see how it will present itself in these unusual spaces" says Piotr Krajewski. There will be screenings, installations, performances, concerts (in cooperation with the Musica Electronica Nova Festival), workshops, conferences (e.g. on the city of the future) and programs for children. Also, the new WRO award for the best Polish media art degree will be honoured.
Piotr Kurka' installation, "Easy Reader"
Sofa on one leg, a casual reader
Artists from around the world prepared 2300 works. Among them are "Balance From Within" by American Jacob Tonski. This is the installation with a 170-year sofa, put upright on one leg and holding the position (with the technology used in satellites). Art fans will like e.g. Quayola's installation "Captives", a series of sculptures cut in the material by a robot (referring to the cycle by Michelangelo, which the master did not finish). Originally from Taiwan, Ya Wen Fu and her unusual installation "Space in Between" will capture the attention of many who are interested in body movement in space and engineering. And Peter Kurka will show that while there are fewer and fewer Easy Riders, we can still become one.
100,000 visitors
The head of the Biennal expects that in May and June in all the events will be attended by no less than 100,000 people (this is the number of visitors recorded during the last WRO, in 2013). "All of a sudden, it turned out that there are groups of audience with very different needs, interests, with a different view of the media, and different experience. Those who can discover something interesting, but also introduce their assessment criteria" admits the artistic director of the Biennial. One of the curators, among others, is a writer and literary critic Agnieszka Wolny-Hamkało.
Admission to many events from 13 May to 30 June will be free. "We do not want to curb our audience" explains Piotr Krajewski. Detailed programme is available at the Biennal's website.
