Curated by Hou Hanru, the Biennale de Lyon 2009 opened on 14-15 Sept. 09, featuring performances by Ha Za Vu Zu, Eko Nugroho, the YangJiang Group, Agnes Varda, Dejode & Lacombe, Dora Garcia… It is now open until 3rd January 2009 and shows works (half of them specifically produced for the Biennale) created by 60 artists in four different venues. THE SPECTACLE OF THE EVERYDAY In the age of globalisation, it is not enough for contemporary art to become a spectacular phenomenon embraced by almost all people in all corners of the world. It’s even more important to testify that artists and art communities from different parts of the globe are increasingly sharing the common understanding and strategies to reinvent themselves through engagements with the realm of everyday life. More and more artists are magically turning the ordinary into novel forms, meanings and usages while innovative collective mobilisations are brought to the forefront as a more democratic structure of art practices and their social functions. They are the core of the global art and culture scene today. Through intensely presenting and promoting these initiatives using the most efficient tools, including spectacular events like international biennials, truly innovative and relevant contemporary art practices will obtain a much larger visibility and help us build a new, genuinely public space for our era. After 20 years of existence and growth, the Biennale de Lyon is now facing a new challenge to reinvent itself. Exploring and presenting the new tendency of the global art scene in its common efforts to reinvent the ordinary into something spectacular and unique, or a new multitude of expressions of diversity, complexity and interactivity, the Biennale itself will certainly reach a new youth. And it’s the best recipe to confront the current crisis that the whole world is entangled with… The Spectacle of the Everyday is fundamentally changing both the spectacle and the everyday! Taking place in several venues in the Lyon city and its suburban areas, the Biennale, with works by about 60 artists from different parts of the world, will be structured as a multi-dimensional system that reflects both intellectually and physically the dynamism and complexity of the thesis – the Spectacle of the Everyday – itself. HOU HANRU Curator, Biennale de Lyon 2009 Born in 1963 in China, Hou Hanru is Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs and also Chair of Exhibition and Museum Studies at the San Francisco Art Institute.an Artistic Director. He is based in Paris and San Francisco. THE ARTISTS Adel ABDESSEMED Bani ABIDI Maria Thereza ALVES Fikret ATAY George BRECHT BIK VAN DER POL Pedro CABRITA REIS Sophie DEJODE & Bertrand LACOMBE Jimmie DURHAM Latifa ECHAKHCH Mounir FATMI Dora GARCIA Shilpa GUPTA HA ZA VU ZU HeHe (Helen Evans & Heiko Hansen) Oliver HERRING Takahiro IWASAKI KUSWIDANANTO A.K.A. JOMPET Leopold KESSLER Ian KIAER LEE Mingwei Mark LEWIS Michael LIN LIN Yilin LIU Qingyuan & YAH Barry McGEE Robert MILIN Carlos MOTTA Wangechi MUTU Eko NUGROHO Ceren OYKUT Adrian PACI Dan PERJOVSCHI SOCIÉTÉ RÉALISTE Oliver RESSLER Pedro REYES Rigo 23 SARKIS Katerina SEDA Sarah SZE TAMA TSANG Kinwah UN NOUS (Antonio Gallego, José-Maria Gonzalez, Roberto Martinez, Patrick Pinon) Eulàlia VALLDOSERA Agnès VARDA WONG Hoy Cheong HUANG Yongping XIJING MEN (CHEN Shaoxiong, Tsuyoshi OZAWA, Gimhongsok) YANG Jiechang YANGJIANG GROUP (ZHENG Guogu, CHEN Zaiyan, SUN Qinglin) L’ÉCOLE DU MAGASIN CONTACT: Professional Relations Management Biennale de Lyon 3 rue du Pdt Edouard Herriot – BP 1137 69203 Lyon cedex 01 – France Tel. +33 (0)4 72 07 41 41 pros@biennale-de-lyon.org