The Oslo Biennial has revealed details for its first edition, which aims to depart, in more ways than one, from the traditional every-two-years-style format for biennials. Curated by Eva González-Sancho Bodero and Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk, the exhibition will be called osloBIENNALEN.
The first edition will open on May 25 of this year and run into 2024. A representative for the biennial said that the opening date of the exhibition’s second edition has not yet been decided, though, at the earliest, it would not take place until 2025.
The result of a research initiative called Oslo Pilot, the first osloBIENNALEN will focus on placing artworks in public spaces, rather than inside museums. Some 26 projects will be unveiled over the course of 2019, with more to be announced over the coming years.
“The City of Oslo has a long-standing tradition of supporting art in public space and it is one of our priorities to find new ways of connecting the arts and the general public,” the biennial’s executive director, Ole G. Slyngstadli, said in a statement. “The curatorial vision of this first edition sets the premise for a five-year program evolving through a series of collaborations with artists and partner organizations, inviting you to rethink and explore Oslo’s public spaces through the production and display of works of art.”
The first batch of projects will be revealed on May 25, when the inaugural biennial opens. The artists producing those works are:
Mikaela Assolent
Benjamin Bardinet
Julien Bismuth
Anna Daniell
Carole Douillard
Ed D’Souza
Mette Edvardsen
Jan Freuchen, Sigurd Tenningen, and Jonas Høgli Major
Gaylen Gerber
Hlynur Hallsson
Rose Hammer (Dora García, Per-Oskar Leu, Victoria Durnak, Nora Joung)
Marianne Heier
Michelangelo Miccolis
Mônica Nador and Bruno Oliveira
Michael Ross
Belén Santillán
Lisa Tan
Øystein Wyller Odden
A second group of projects will go on view on October 18. The artists making those works are:
Adrián Balseca
Marcelo Cidade
Jonas Dahlberg
Edith Dekyndt
Tomáš Džadoň
Javier Izquierdo
Graziela Kunsch
Knut Åsdam