With the coming of the post-media or post-conceptual age, artists have become more concerned with creating new narrative structures for their stories, whether real or imaginary, and for their experiences, whether major or minor.
The starting point is no longer the matter and technique of traditional painting or sculpture, but a concept, an idea or a story which is then given concrete form. Up to a certain point, it can even be said that the originality of the artistic act hinges on the originality of narrative constructions marked by great diversity of materials and innovative forms of spatial organization.
Aware of the fact that our world is a world of stories and that a biennial should above all bear witness to its time, Gunnar B. Kvaran, curator of the Biennale de Lyon 2013, is proposing an exploration of contemporary international narrative art in its many forms. The accent is on the works of artists who, rather than settling for straightforward narrative or self-narrative, are committed to structuring their visual accounts and developing specific narrative systems—among others Matthew Barney (US), Tavares Strachan (US), Paulo Nazareth (BR), Anne Lislegaard (DK / NO), Yang Zhenzhong (CN), and David Douard (FR).
12th Biennale de Lyon is open through 29 December, 2013.
www.biennaledelyon.com
