A PLATFORM TO EXPLORE THE SHIFTING TERRITORIES OF THE MOVING IMAGES IN THE CONTEMPORARY ART.
FAENA ART announced the opening of the Biennale of Moving Images (Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement or BIM) at Faena Bazaar and Park in Miami Beach on April 13th. A selection of highlights from the biennial were installed in non-traditional spaces in the Faena District and were accompanied by a robust open air screening program in the patio of the Faena Bazaar as well as in the Faena Hotel screening room.
Originally created for The Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève under the artistic direction of Andrea Bellini in collaboration with Cecilia Alemani, Caroline Bourgeois and Elvira Dyangani Ose, the Biennale of Moving Images is a one-of-a-kind hybrid event bringing together visual artists, film directors and performers. Seeking to investigate new exhibition models and formats by building a show as a choir, the exhibit brings polyphonic voices together, offering a window into contemporaneity.
This marks the 15th edition of the Biennale of Moving Images however presented in the United States for the first time. Comprising a wide array of multimedia installations, films and documentaries usually shown in cinemas, the Biennale of Moving Images is situated somewhere between a cinema festival, a constellation of solo video installations, and a site for research and experimentation. Within this format, artists were invited to push the boundaries of traditional media. The biennial offered a diverse program of special screenings and talks.
Alan Faena commented on the program, “It is with great pleasure that we present the Biennale of Moving Images, bringing to Miami a platform for contemporary art that enriches the cultural fabric of the city.”
Unlike most biennials, the BIM is unique in its exclusive presentation of new works that have been commissioned and produced for the occasion with no specific curatorial theme to respond to. This “uncurated” biennial, brings the focus of the exhibition format back to the artist’s studio and practice. Ultimately, the works included seem to reveal several common themes that might be considered representative of this cultural moment and atmosphere. Figuring prominently in the exhibition are works that address: the transmutation of gender, the female figure and politics of gender; the general sense of foreboding, anxiety and apprehension in our current cultural climate worldwide; and questions of displacement, labor and the exploitation of resources.
“Our collaboration with the Biennale of Moving Images is ultimately a form of addressing presence, time, physicality and duration which reoccur as organizing principle in all that we do. We are proud partners of this ‘un-curated’ biennial that places the artist at the center of the project”, said Ximena Caminos, Artistic Director and Chair of FAENA ART.
Responding to the city and context of Miami Beach, FAENA ART invited two Miami-based artists to respond to these themes and participate in the video screening program. These artists are absorbed into the biennial model, becoming part of and extending the broader international conversation that started in Geneva.
Of the 28 original commissions created for the Biennale, FAENA ART presented seven of the video installations throughout the Faena Bazaar and Faena Park, appropriating these non-traditional spaces as sites to experience contemporary art.