Stedelijk @ Rijksakademie: book launch and a series of artist dialogues

This Thursday the first Stedelijk @ Rijksakademie event took place. This program will focus contemporary art and theory and will provide a platform for artist’s dialogues.

On the occasion of the book launch of Making art global (part I): the third Havana Biennial 1989, Gerardo Mosquera and Rachel Weiss lectured and there was a discussion on the special approach of the third Havana Biennial (in 1989) in the history of biennials and large-scale exhibitions.

The event was streamed live on our website 

Havana Biennial
The third Havana Biennial is the subject of the book that will be launched this evening. One of few international contemporary art events in the world during its time, the third Havana Biennial was innovative and groundbreaking in manifold ways. Moving away from the notion of national representations, which had been standard practice since the foundation of the Venice Biennial in 1895, the Havana Biennial sought a more thematic approach.

From which specific context did this biennial arise, and how has it developed since? What place does the biennial take up in exhibition history, an increasingly popular subject of art history? And how is the project initiated by the third Havana Biennial realized in biennials and large-scale exhibitions today? Should we perceive it as a unique phenomenon, particular to its time and place, or does it relate to other exhibitions of contemporary art in the world that set out similar goals? 

These questions were  discussed in two keynote presentations, delivered by Gerardo Mosquera (freelance curator and critic; involved in the first, second, and third Havana Biennial) and Rachel Weiss (professor of arts administration and policy, School of the Art Institute of Chicago), respectively. Afterward, a moderated debate took place with Gerardo Mosquera, Rachel Weiss and Direlia Lazo (freelance curator).

About the book Making Art Global (Part 1): The Third Havana Biennial 1989:
The second book in Afterall’s Exhibition Histories series focuses on the third edition of the Bienal de La Habana, which took place in 1989. In the core essay, Rachel Weiss examines the ways in which this exhibition extended the global territory of contemporary art and redefined the biennial model. A key member of the curatorial team, Gerardo Mosquera, contributes a reflection on the project, and its constituent exhibitions and events are documented photographically. The book also includes papers delivered by Geeta Kapur and Mirko Lauer at the Bienal conference and republishes reviews of the Bienal by Coco Fusco and Luis Camnitzer. Opening with an introduction by Charles Esche and bringing together recent interviews with participating artists Alex Ángeles, José Bedia, Alfredo Márquez, and Lázaro Saavedra. crucial texts from the time are complemented with vital new material, including 105 color images and 18 black-and-white images.