Biennale of Sydney

14/03/2020 - 15/11/2020

Artistic Director: Brook Andrew

The urgent states of our contemporary lives are laden with unresolved past anxieties and hidden layers of the supernatural. NIRIN is about to expose this, demonstrating that artists and creatives have the power to resolve, heal, dismember and imagine futures of transformation for re-setting the world. Sovereignty is at the centre of these actions, and shines a light on environments in shadow. I hope that NIRIN gathers life forces of integrity to push through often impenetrable confusion.

Optimism from chaos drives artists in NIRIN to resolve the often hidden or ignored urgency surrounding contemporary life.

22nd Biennale of Sydney (2020) Exhibition Report.pdf

Artistic Director

Brook Andrew

Brook Andrew is an interdisciplinary artist who examines dominant narratives, often relating to colonialism and modernist histories. Through museum and archival interventions and curatorial projects, he aims to make forgotten stories visible and offer alternative pathways for interpreting history in the world today. Drawing inspiration from vernacular objects and the archive he travels internationally to work with communities and various private and public collections.

His recent research includes an ambitious international comparative Australian Research Council project Representation, Remembrance and the Memorial, responding to the repeated high-level calls for an Australian national memorial to Aboriginal loss and the frontier wars. In 2017, Brook Andrew was the recipient of the prestigious Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (SARF) and in 2016 was appointed Photography Residencies Laureate at the Musée du quai Branly, Paris. In 2014 Brook worked closely with the collections of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Museo de América and Museo Nacional de Antropología for the exhibition ‘Really Useful Knowledge’ curated by WHW at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia.

He curated TABOO in 2012/13 at the MCA Sydney. This was presented alongside a demanding public debate program called Blakatak that included esteemed First Nation creatives and was devised in conversation with John von Sturmer, a social anthropologist with a distinguished career in Aboriginal studies.

Brook is Associate Professor at MADA, Monash University; Honorary Senior Fellow within the Indigenous Studies Unit and the School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne; and Associate Researcher, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. He is currently a Charlie Perkins scholar undertaking a DPhil at the Ruskin School of Art, The University of Oxford. Brook Andrew is represented by Tolarno Galleries, MelbourneRoslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney and Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris and Brussels.

Participants

Pedro Wonaeamirri
Kunmanara Mumu Mike Williams
Unbound Collective
Ahmed Umar
Gina Athena Ulysse
Warwick Thornton
Tennant Creek Brio
Latai Taumoepeau
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers
Suohpanterror
Anders Sunna
Adrian Stimson
STARTTS (NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors)
Shaheed / Witness / Kashmir
Victoria Santa Cruz
Fátima Rodrigo Gonzales
Andrew Rewald
Lisa Reihana
Reading Oceania
Laure Prouvost
Rosana Paulino
Taqralik Partridge
Parramatta Female Factory
Erkan Özgen
Manuel Ocampo
S.J Norman
Musa N. Nxumalo
Paulo Nazareth
Elicura Chihuailaf Nahuelpán
MzRizk
The Mulka Project
Zanele Muholi
Mostaff Muchawaya
Jota Mombaça
John Miller and Elisapeta Heta
Barbara McGrady
Sissel M. Bergh
Mayunkiki
Katarina Matiasek
Misheck Masamvu
Teresa Margolles
Noŋgirrŋa Marawili
Ibrahim Mahama
Tarek Lakhrissi
Kylie Kwong
Kulimoe’anga Stone Maka
Bronwyn Katz
Emily Karaka
Justin Shoulder
Arthur Jafa
Lucas Ihlein and Kim Williams
Sarah Houbolt
Lily Hibberd
Aziz Hazara
Lawrence Abu Hamdan
Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian
Josep Grau-Garriga
Stuart Geddes and Trent Walter
Nicholas Galanin
FUNPARK Coalition
Brian Fuata
First Dog on the Moon
Jes Fan
FAFSWAG
Andre Eugene
Léuli Eshrāghi
Préfète Duffaut
Karla Dickens
Demian DinéYazhi´ and R.I.S.E.: Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment
Jose Dávila
Randy Lee Cutler
Colectivo Ayllu
Club Ate: Justin Shoulder and Bhenji Ra
Vajiko Chachkhiani
Tania Bruguera
Eric Bridgeman and Haus Yuriyal
Breaking Bread
Mohamed Bourouissa
Anna Boghiguian
Karim Bleus
Blacktown Native Institution
Bhenji Ra
Huma Bhabha
Namila Benson
BE.
Bankstown Poetry Slam
Denilson Baniwa
Sammy Baloji
ArTree Nepal
Joël Andrianomearisoa
Lhola Amira
Maria Thereza Alves
Charlotte Allingham
Tony Albert
Adrift Lab
15 Screens