Biennials
Writing
On Wet Ontologies, Fluid Hierarchies and Hope-Soaked Propositions at the 23rd Biennale of Sydney
By Emma O'Neill
26.08.2022
This year’s Biennale of Sydney, titled rīvus, included the work of Aotearoa-based artists Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi and Mata Aho Collective. Emma O’Neill, a writer working on Gadigal Land, responds to the exhibition and some of the work presented by the 89 participants invited to interact with different forms and bodies of water.
Writing
documenta fifteen or lumbung one?
By Bruce E. Phillips
12.08.2022
For documenta fifteen, the arts collective FAFSWAG were invited to participate as members of the lumbung process established by this year’s curatorial collective ruangrupa. In the absence of the trophy artist phenomenon so entrenched within mega-exhibitions, Bruce E. Phillips responds to the work of different participating collectives exhibiting in Kassel and discusses how introducing a non-European exhibition-making concept into the heart of arguably Europe’s most revered art event was bound to confound those unwilling to consider a differing perspective.
Calendar
Sriwhana Spong, 17th Istanbul Biennial
17 September —
20 November 2022
Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
Calendar
Nikau Hindin and Yuki Kihara, STILL ALIVE, Aichi Triennale 2022
30 July —
10 October 2022
Various venues across Aichi, Japan
Writing
An interview with Yuki Kihara
By Contemporary HUM
24.05.2022
In the opening week of the 2022 Biennale di Venezia, HUM sat down with the artist representing Aotearoa, Yuki Kihara, to discuss her exhibition Paradise Camp, and what it means to bring a Pasifika, Fa'afafine voice to the international audience of this major event.
Writing
An interview with the curators of 'Paradise Camp'
By Contemporary HUM, Ioana Gordon-Smith, Natalie King
24.05.2022
In the opening week of the 2022 Biennale di Venezia, HUM sat down with the Aotearoa New Zealand pavilion’s Curator, Natalie King, and Assistant Pasifika Curator Ioana-Gordon Smith, to talk about bringing Yuki Kihara’s Paradise Camp to Venice.
Calendar
Anh Trần, 8th Biennial of Painting: The ‘t’ is Silent
26 June —
02 October 2022
Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium
Calendar
Sarah Rose, Brent Biennial 2022
08 July —
11 September 2022
Various venues across Brent, London, United Kingdom
Calendar
Le Moana Arts, 'Shel We' by Tupua Tigafua
17 May —
22 May 2022
BIBU Biennial, Helsingborg, Sweden
Writing
HUM live from the 2022 Venice Biennale
By Contemporary HUM
24.04.2022
From 20 - 24 April 2022, HUM brings you live coverage, exclusive images and videos from the opening week of The Milk of Dreams, The 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, including Yuki Kihara's Paradise Camp for the New Zealand Pavilion. Stay tuned!
Writing
Reimagined Futures
By Johanna Bear
23.03.2022
Featuring work from Aotearoa artists Edith Amituanai, Brian Fuata, Christina Pataialii, Shannon Novak and Shannon Te Ao as well as collaborators from Aotearoa in the project Kā Paroro o Haumumu: Coastal Flows / Coastal Incursions, this piece from writer and curator Johanna Bear considers the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial’s celebration of Indigenous futures, collaborative and community-based practices, and new ways of understanding the world around us.
Writing
Naahdohbii: To Draw Water & What It Means To Come Together
By Franchesca Hebert-Spence
10.03.2022
Featuring Aotearoa artists Israel Birch, Nikau Hindin, Jeremy Leatinu’u, Nova Paul, Rachel Rakena and Keri Whaitiri, the inaugural Indigenous Triennial at the Winnipeg Art Gallery/Qaumajuq (WAG/Q) in Winnipeg, Naadohbii: To Draw Water, presents a collaborative curatorial approach to Indigenous artists’ work—Franchesca Hebert-Spence visits the exhibition and talks to the curators about the curatorial process, the opportunities offered through cross-cultural exchange, and the adherence to the specificities of place and history fostered through the exhibition.
Calendar
Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi and Mata Aho Collective at the 23rd Biennale of Sydney
12 March —
13 June 2022
Sydney, Australia
Calendar
Pacific Sisters and Ahilapalapa Rands in the Hawaii Triennial 2022
18 February —
08 May 2022
Hawaii Contemporary, Honolulu, Hawaii
Calendar
Mata Aho Collective at the Toronto Biennial of Art
26 March —
05 June 2022
Arsenal Contemporary Art Toronto, Canada
Writing
A painter’s painter
By Clare Gemima
07.02.2022
Aotearoa artist Christina Pataialii features in the fifth New Museum Triennial, one of the world’s leading exhibitions for emerging artists. New York-based writer Clare Gemima visits the exhibition and reflects on Pataialii’s rule-breaking approach to painting technique, and the artist’s search for a language for her family history, identity and the cultural “in-between”.
Writing
Vivian Lynn / Liliane Lijn
By Laura Castagnini
07.10.2021
Following her death in 2018, pioneering feminist artist Vivian Lynn is receiving unprecedented international attention, after a lifetime of exhibiting widely in Aotearoa, but never outside of New Zealand. Following her recent inclusion in the 13th Gwangju Biennale and a solo exhibition at Southard Reid, London, Laura Castagnini reflects on the long-overdue revival of feminist art practices from the 1980s, and considers the striking parallels between Lynn’s work and her London-based counterpart, Liliane Lijn.
Writing
The Near Side
By Jon Bywater
13.05.2020
The 22nd Biennale of Sydney opened on 14 March 2020 and unfortunately had to close its doors only nine days later due to Covid-19. Prior to its closing, writer Jon Bywater managed to visit NIRIN, looking in particular at participating artists from Aotearoa including Emily Karaka, Elisapeta Heta & John Miller, Lisa Reihana, Kulimoe’anga ‘Stone’ Maka, and FAFSWAG.
Writing
Mata Aho Collective at the Dhaka Art Summit
By Pauline Autet
21.04.2020
We finish our first series focusing on the Asia region with Contemporary HUM Editor Pauline Autet interviewing Mata Aho Collective on their participation in the Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh in February 2020, where they partook in panel discussions and practised a type of waiata (song) called a pātere.
Writing
Always in Transit
By Aaron Lister
18.09.2019
A conversation with Yona Lee about her new site-specific installation, In Transit (Highway) (2019), presented at the 15th Lyon Biennale, her training as a cellist, and the development of this ongoing project. With an introduction from Daria de Beauvais, Senior Curator at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and Co-Curator of this year's Biennale.
Writing
An interview with Dane Mitchell
By Contemporary HUM
24.06.2019
HUM's editorial team sat down with artist Dane Mitchell to discuss his work for the New Zealand Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, Post hoc. The work, both ambitious in scale and subject, has sparked discussions on global climate change and meditations on what has truly disappeared from the world.
Writing
Maddie Leach: The Grief Prophesy
By Hjalmar Falk
08.06.2018
Maddie Leach's project The Grief Prophesy, created for the Gothenburg International Biennale for Contemporary Art (GIBCA) 2017, addresses the disturbing and intriguing circumstances surrounding an alleged Satanic murder, committed by members of a well-known Swedish black metal band. Swedish historian Hjalmar Falk discusses the work.
Writing
An interview with Bruce Barber
By Contemporary HUM
22.09.2017
As part of Contemporary HUM's series of interviews with New Zealand artists exhibiting during the 57th Venice Biennale, we talk with Bruce Barber about his work Party without Party (2017), included in the exhibition Personal Structures: Open Borders at the Palazzo Bembo.
Writing
Islands on Sale
By Alastair Carruthers, Contemporary HUM, Mata Aho Collective, Tessa Giblin
05.08.2017
In this panel discussion between Erena Baker and Bridget Reweti (Mata Aho Collective), Alastair Carruthers (Commissioner of NZ at Venice 2017) and Tessa Giblin (Commissioner and Curator of Ireland at Venice 2017), the participants discuss globalisation, national identity, the politics of representation and New Zealand's role in contemporary international art discourse.
Writing
Urges of Imperialism Unravelled
By Rhana Devenport
01.05.2017
Rhana Devenport, Curator of the New Zealand Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale, sets the context for Emissaries, Lisa Reihana's exhibition representing Aotearoa New Zealand at the 57th Biennale di Venezia.
Project
HUM live from the Venice Biennale
Updates from the vernissage
For the past three editions, the HUM team has attended the vernissage of La Biennale di Venezia in Italy. We bring you live coverage during the opening week, not only from the official New Zealand pavilion, but also from collateral events featuring artists from Aotearoa. In addition to daily posting blog entries, videos and images, we also publish exclusive interviews with some of the New Zealand artists and arts practitioners involved in putting together this major international event.
Project
Yuki Kihara at the 59th Venice Biennale
Partnership
Small island ecologies, climate change, queer rights, Gauguin’s gaze, intersectionality and decolonization; these are just some of the topics explored by interdisciplinary artist Yuki Kihara in her project Paradise Camp, representing New Zealand at the 59th Venice Biennale in Italy. HUM is proud to be a media partner of this exciting project, open to the public from 23 April - 27 November 2022.
Calendar
Nikau Hindin, John Pule, and Rosanna Raymond at the 4th Kathmandu Triennale
01 March —
31 March 2022
Patan Museum, Bahadur Shah Baithak, Nepal Art Council, Taragaon Museum and Siddhartha Art Gallery, Nepal
Calendar
Evan Woodruffe, Jamie Berry and Jimmy James Kouratoras at the 9th Beijing International Art Biennale
18 January —
01 March 2022
National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
