BRIGHTON PHOTO BIENNIAL 2006
THE UKS LEADING FESTIVAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY
6-29 October 2006
2006 CURATOR: GILANE TAWADROS
www.bpb.org.uk
mail@bpb.org.uk
Press: 44 (0)1273 643 052
BRIGHTON PHOTO BIENNIAL announces its 2006 Edition, intimate in scale and international in scope. Curator Gilane Tawadros selects historical, contemporary and newly commissioned photographic and moving image works, exploring the thin line between past and present, fact and fiction, illusion and reality.
Tawadros keynote exhibition Nothing Personal is located at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery and the Prince Regents flamboyant Royal Pavilion. Exhibited together for the first time are prints from Richard Avedon and James Baldwins collaborative 1964 book Nothing Personal, shown alongside striking works from international collections by William Eggleston, Walker Evans, Paul Fusco, Runa Islam, Richard Misrach, Fiona Tan, Jeff Wall and Andy Warhol. These often melancholic images reflect on the compelling attractions and dark shadows inherent in empire, drawing connections between Britain as an emerging imperial nation and the United States of America in recent decades.
Fabrica, a contemporary art space in a former Regency church, hosts the European premiere of Alfredo Jaars The Sound of Silence, a dramatic new installation focusing on South African photojournalist Kevin Carter. Studio photographer Van Leos extraordinary wartime self-portraits go on show at University of Brighton Gallery, which simultaneously hosts Adel Abdessemeds animated film God is Design. This is an energetic fusion of codes and styles, projected onto central Brightons Grand Parade thoroughfare.
David Claerbout presents a powerful recent work at Argus Lofts, the former printing presses of the citys local newspaper. In the Sussex countryside at Charleston Farmhouse, once the rural enclave of Londons Bloomsbury Group, Henna Nadeem shows her series of collaged photographs Henna Nadeems Picture Book of Britain. Gabriel Kuri is Design Archives Artist in Residence at the University of Brighton, and for BPB he presents a public project throughout Brighton, drawing on the culture of display.
Orson Welles’ African-American theatre production of Macbeth forms the basis of a major BPB exhibition, Voodoo Macbeth, at Eric Mendelsohn’s De La Warr Pavilion at Bexhill-on-Sea. Curated by David A. Bailey in collaboration with Gilane Tawadros, Voodoo Macbeth contains film footage and archive photographs of Welles’ original production, plus screenings of the director’s films and a sound installation of his famous radio piece, War of the Worlds.
Gilane Tawadros is a curator and writer. She was founding Director of the Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA) in London, and has curated a large number of exhibitions including Fault Lines: Contemporary African Art and Shifting Landscapes (50th Venice Biennale, 2003); Veil (New Art Gallery, Walsall; Bluecoat Art Gallery & Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool; Modern Art, Oxford, 2003 and Kulturehuset, Stockholm); David Adjaye (inIVA, 2004) and The Real Me (ICA, 2005).
A substantial illustrated BPB 2006 Catalogue will be available, co-edited by Gilane Tawadros and David Chandler, Director of Photoworks. The catalogue features new essays and writing by Tawadros and other commissioned authors. Published by Photoworks in association with BPB.
Brighton Photo Biennial 2006 presents a full programme of Talks and Events, including the BPB 2006 Conference on 28 October 2006. Conference speakers to be announced. Venue Pavilion Theatre, Brighton.
BPB gratefully acknowledges its funders: Arts Council England / Brighton and Hove City Council / Photoworks / University of Brighton.
Brighton is a vibrant, dynamic city located just 50 minutes by train from central London (Victoria Station). Gatwick International Airport is just 30 minutes from Brighton. Gatwick enjoys direct flights from many European cities and from New York.
Visit the new Brighton Photo Biennial website at www.bpb.org.uk