Vancouver Biennale 2014-2016: Open Borders/Crossroads. For more details visit vancouverbiennale.com.
The Vancouver Biennale has a unique way of bringing people together while at the same time dividing public opinion.
Since the 2014-2016 public art exhibition launched this past spring, contemporary sculptures by world-renowned artists have been popping up all over the Lower Mainland - North Vancouver included. As with all art, not every piece appeals to every taste, and that's a good thing as far as festival founder and president Barrie Mowatt is concerned.
"Because it's in the public domain, everyone has an opinion and that's part of what public art is about," he says.
The Vancouver Biennale is a non-profit charitable organization funded through grants, corporate sponsorship, in-kind gifts, philanthropic donations and the sale of art after each of its bi-annual exhibitions. This is the third time Vancouver has been transformed into an openair museum, and Mowatt says he continues to be surprised by which pieces generate the most debate.
"Did we think Miss Mao was going to be controversial? Not really," he says, referring to a stainless steel sculpture by China's Gao Brothers installed in Richmond in 2009 that depicted Chairman Mao Zedong as a diminutive figure perched atop a giant Vladimir Lenin head. Did organizers expect the late Dennis Oppenheim's Device to Root Out Evil - an inverted church plunked down near Coal Harbour - would be uprooted from its temporary home in 2008 amidst controversy? "Not a hope," Mowatt says.
Just last month, three enormous fiberglass resin jellybeans by Canadian artist Cosimo Cavallaro appeared in Vancouver's Charleston Park, to the annoyance of some dog owners who preferred the off-leash area bean-free. Evidently, not everyone is in love with Love Your Beans.
"People often feel possessive of their green space," Mowatt says, but adds that the relationship between the public and public art can change over time. "Invariably you'll have people who will then write to you months later, or a year later, and say,
'You know, I've really grown a fondness of these works and I'm really afraid to see them go now.'" Take for example Amaze-ing Laughter. The 14 bronze laughing men created by Beijing-based Yue Minjun were placed near English Bay as part of the 2009-2011 Biennale.
"I got nothing but eight hours of verbal abuse from citizens when we were installing them," Mowatt recalls. But the figures grew wildly popular among residents and visitors alike and when the exhibit drew to a close, Lululemon founder Chip Wilson pitched in $1.5-million to make the artwork a permanent beachside fixture.
This round, the Biennale has expanded to the City of North Vancouver, transforming the historic Pipe Shop building at Shipbuilders' Square into an exhibition space for rotating groups of Brazilian artists. Additionally, Rey Sargent Park outside the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art is now home to The Meeting - a circular formation of eight red squatting figures by Chinese sculptor Wang Shugang. And the most recent North Shore installation is Walking Figures - a set of nine cast iron sculptures dispersed along Lonsdale Avenue between 13th and 23rd streets. The headless, armless human forms are the handiwork of Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz, who Mowatt describes as "one of the top 40 most significant artists in the contemporary art world." He values the series at about $2 million - "a rather expensive artwork."
Abakanowicz's sculptures have appeared in public venues and museums worldwide. Her largest permanent installation is Agora, a set of 106 walking figures in Chicago's Grant Park. A smaller group of her leggy sculptures can also be found near Broadway and Cambie Street in Vancouver.
Despite Abakanowicz's reputation in the contemporary art world, not all North Vancouver residents are fans of their new nine-foot-tall neighbours. Local painter Dene Croft was so affronted by their appearance, he decided to write a letter to the city expressing his distaste.
"They're just plain ugly, and I don't care who created them or how they got there," he says, describing the sculptures as anti-esthetic art, an acquired taste more suitable for a museum than the public realm.
"It's great being provocative to a degree, and it's great waking public tastes to what's out there in terms of art, but I think, for the most part, when we're trying to pretty-up our community or add something esthetic to it, perhaps those walking men statues weren't the best choice."
While Croft understands the Biennale is an international exhibit, he would like to see local artists afforded more opportunity to create public art that reflects the community in which it's installed.
"Above all else, I feel that our local artists need as much support as they can get and I would love to see local art with a North Shore flavour, or a Vancouver or B.C. flavour."
The temporary nature of the new iron statues is no conciliation for Croft.
"Even two years, I think, is too long. We've got to suffer those damn things for two years and they, to my mind, are bloody horrific. They really are. I hate the damn things."
Artists exhibiting in the Biennale were handpicked by a curatorial team headed up by Shengtian Zheng of China and Marcello Dantas of Brazil. Mowatt explains that while politicians and developers may have to pander to conventional tastes when considering new public art, the Biennale curators do not. That provides a unique opportunity for the exhibitors, Mowatt explains, likening the Vancouver Biennale - and all art biennales for that matter - to Academy Awards for artists.
"For the established artists, it gives them an opportunity to do works in a scale that they might not have the flexibility to do otherwise."
A handful of Vancouverarea artists are exhibiting in the current Biennale, but the majority of participants are international in keeping with the festival's Open Borders/Crossroads theme. In addition to very visible public sculptures, the Biennale program also includes new media, film, music and performance works, as well as residencies for visiting artists.
Mowatt says the exhibit creates a consciousness of Vancouver as an art capital and opens doors for local artists to show their work outside of Canada.
"You now have people talking about art in public spaces," he says. "That doesn't happen unless you have something that could be an alley to excite that discussion."
