Arts

Ai Wei Wei among big names bringing public art to Vancouver Biennale

by Janet Smith on March 6th, 2014 at 5:01 PM
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      Vancouver's outdoor spaces are about to get a little more dramatic.

      Famous Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei was confirmed this week as one of the names installing major outdoor installations for the third Vancouver Biennale exhibition, which is scheduled to run for the next 18 months. It's the same festival that brought you those beloved Amazing Laughter guys, now permanently installed at English Bay, in its last incarnation.

      Ai, whose work has drawn the ire of the Chinese government and included covering a museum with hundreds of children's backpacks and filling entire rooms with porcelain seeds, will see his work go into an as-yet-unspecified Vancouver park. If it's like any of his past work, expect it to be monumental and provocative.

      Elsewhere, Vik Muniz, Jonathan Borofski, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, and Andy Goldsworthy will also create some of the 20 works to be installed later this month. Look also for giant, pink lotus flowers floating offshore, as conjured by Korea's Choi Jeong Hwa.

      With the Biennale expanding its reach, 10 more will go into spaces in New Westminster as well, including Brazilian artist Jose Rensende's upended freight containers, formed into V shapes, proposed for Pier Park.

      The Biennale is expanding into a new International Pavilion that will feature a national Brazilian group exhibition, a new CineFest LIVE documentary film program with retrospectives, urban projections, and live presentations by filmmakers, and a commissioned orchestral work by Canadian composer Vivian Fung.

      It's also launching the Biennale International Residency Program, bringing in emerging artists from around the world to Vancouver to create "social interventions" and to engage with local artists. Residency coordinators include Ken Lum and Khaled Hourani.
       
      More specific announcements are expected over the coming weeks; keep track at vancouverbiennale.com.

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