A new state of the arts: developing the biennial model as ethical art practice

Abstract

The contemporary art biennial has proliferated internationally to the point of ubiquity in the past few decades. Of primary importance in understanding this phenomenon is the relationship between biennials and the disparate cultural contexts in which they exist. This paper examines the growth of the biennial as a responsive exhibition model that can be successfully adapted to connect and engage art, audiences, and local environments. Focusing specifically on Prospect.1, the biennial that took place in New Orleans from November 2008 to January 2009, this paper analyzes how the biennial model has become a platform for social engagement, signaling a shift toward the development of the biennial as ethical art practice.

Keywords:

• Prospect.1
• contemporary art biennial
• art museums
• biennial
• public art
• social engagement
• social responsibility
• New Orleans
• Hurricane Katrina

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Janet Marstine and Alexander Bauer for their continued advice, support, and encouragement in developing this paper for publication. Special thanks also go to the anonymous reviewers whose wisdom and insight helped shape this article.

Notes

1. City-wide biennials have rapidly become more ‘public’ in the past several years, by commissioning more artwork in open or non-traditional art spaces, leading visitors on self-guided tours of neighborhoods throughout biennial cities. An early example of this trend was the 2005 Istanbul Biennial, in which curators Vasif Kortun and Charles Esche used open-air markets, apartment buildings, and abandoned factories as exhibition spaces.

2. This is certainly the case with institutional biennials, such as the Whitney Biennial and the Carnegie International, but also rings true of city-wide biennials as well, in which biennial curators often hold other curatorial or directorial positions in the same city. Dan Cameron is the Director of Visual Arts at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, in addition to acting as curator and director of Prospect. New Orleans though the two institutions are only loosely connected through his positions at each.

3. Mary Jane Jacob's pioneering exhibition, Places with a Past: New Site-Specific Work in Charleston in 1991, was a Prospect.1 precursor to deep engagement with place via curatorial practice, albeit in the form of a terminal exhibition.

4. It is a widely held belief amongst residents of the Lower Ninth Ward that the government blew up the levee system protecting their neighborhood from the Industrial Canal to save wealthier areas of the city from being submerged during Hurricane Katrina. While this belief has little factual evidence to sustain itself, the story gives credence to the legitimate wariness and paranoia many citizens in that neighborhood feel towards the state. For testimonials from residents who heard the ‘levee explode,’ see Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke, HBO Films, 2006.