Brook Andrew will be the artistic director of the 22nd Biennale of Sydney (BoS), due to be held in 2020.
The artist, who acknowledges both Wiradjuri and Celtic ancestry, has exhibited in the BoS before, in both 2010 and 2018.
Andrew will be the first Indigenous Australian artistic director of the event since its first iteration in 1973.
“I aim to work together with artists, collectives and communities, from Australia and around the globe, to reconfigure the world as we see it and reveal rich local and global rhizomes and unique individual cultural expressions in one place.”
As an artist Andrew is known for working with both public and private collections to create installations that draw attention to the legacy of colonial history. He is currently engaged in a three-year Australian Research Council (ARC) funded project titled, Representation, Remembrance and the Monument. This research focuses on ways to memorialize the Indigenous causalities in the Australian Frontier Wars, 1788 to the 1930s.
“The artist is at the centre of our work at the Biennale of Sydney,” said chairman of the Biennale of Sydney Kate Mills when announcing Andrew’s appointment. “The Biennale of Sydney offers an exciting geographical perspective for debate, controversy and cutting-edge discussions. As we collectively face an increasingly complex future, we are proud to celebrate the substantive, transformative creative practice of Brook Andrew as he imagines alternative visions for the future.”
You can hear Brook Andrew speak next week as part of Monash University Museum of Art’s public programs. A panel discussion, ‘Walking on Bones, Empowering Memory: Brook Andrew and guests’, will be held on Tuesday 26 June, 6pm – 8pm, at the State Library of Victoria. Bookings essential.
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