sculpturegarden.ch
Following the success of its first edition in summer 2018, the new Sculpture Garden biennale will be held for the second time from June 12 to September 10, 2020 in the heart of the City of Geneva. The ambition of this project is to establish itself as a major summer artistic event for the region, offering Geneva, its inhabitants and the many national and international visitors an outdoor exhibition of high-caliber during the whole summer. The opening of the exhibition will take place on June 12 at the Hôtel-Restaurant du Parc des Eaux-Vives.
Initiated and organized by artgenève in collaboration with the MAMCO (Geneva’s contemporary art museum) and the City of Geneva, the Biennale is curated by Balthazar Lovay, former director of Fri Art Kunsthalle, Fribourg.
In 2020, the Biennale will present some thirty large-format sculptures, many of them produced specifically for the exhibition by young artists. Sculpture Garden will take place in three magnificent public spaces particularly popular during the summer period: Parc des Eaux-Vives, Parc La Grange, and Quai Gustave-Ador. Several events such as after-work cocktails, conferences bringing together personalities from the art world, and performative evenings will regularly animate the event. A mediation program will also be proposed.
For its second edition, the exhibition is breaking new ground. It honors original productions, young artists and hybrid works created by artists and designers. Fountains, benches, architectures, flags or mobiles, works that are participatory, engaging or in dialogue with the Eaux-Vives and La Grange parks draw the contours of a new way of thinking about sculpture today.
Ambitious by its international dimension, by the number of invited artists and the themes addressed, the exhibition is also defined by a humble relationship with parks, nature and landscape. The steering committee of the Biennale and the curator have created the conditions for artists to propose projects designed for these public spaces and produce them for the event. Responding to the quality of these places has proved to be a constant in the proposals, which also use pre-existing constructions (pavilion, chalet) or are associated with the natural elements of the site.
The artists come from Geneva, Switzerland, Europe, England and the USA, with an almost equal representation of men and women. About ten young artists and students from the Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne (ECAL) are among the selected artists, undoubtedly great discoveries for the public.
Artists
New productions
Andrea Branzi (*1938, IT), Dora Budor (*1984, CR-US), Timothée Calame (*1991, CH), Morgan Courtois (*1988, F),
Dewar & Gicquel (*1976, F |*1975, F), Ida Ekblad (*1980, NO), Isa Genzken (*1948, D), Gina Fischli (*1989, CH), Yona Friedman (1923-2020, FR), Trix & Robert Haussmann (*1933, CH | 1931, CH), Ghislaine Leung (1980, UK), John Knight (*1945, US), Matthew Lutz-Kinoy (*1984, US-FR), Lou Masduraud (*1990, CH), Jean-Luc Moulène (*1955, FR), Nathalie Du Pasquier (*1957, FR-IT), Ser Serpas (*1995, CH-US), Michael E. Smith (*1977, US)
Existing works
Neïl Beloufa (*1985, FR), Lynda Benglis (1941-US), Rosemarie Castoro (1939–2015), Valentin Carron (*1977, CH), Tracey Emin (*1963, UK), Louise Lawler (*1947, US), Eva Rothschild (*1971, UK), Olivier Mosset (*1944, CH), Markus Oehlen (*1956, DE), Stefan Tcherepnin (*1977, US)
Special projects
Adel Abdessemed (*1971, FR), ECAL/Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne, Tomo Savić-Gecan, (1967, CR), Francesco Vezzoli (1971, IT)
Opening : Friday June 12, from 6 pm at the Restaurant du Parc des Eaux-Vives