May 12, 2021 – December 31, 2021
WRO Media Art Biennale, the largest review of contemporary art in Poland, begins on 12 May
The 19th edition of the WRO Media Art Biennale – the largest review of contemporary art in Poland – opens on Wednesday, 12 May with the Start Reverso exhibition. It will feature installations, performances, lectures and meetings. This year’s Biennale programme comprises 84 works by artists from across the world, presenting cutting edge technologies and adressing issues that continue to concern humanity, as well as diverse forms of experiencing art. The WRO Biennale will run until December, both for live and online viewing. Admission is free. Some of the events require booking in advance.
Since 1989 the WRO Biennale has been dedicated to presenting the most interesting tendencies and developments in new media culture. The motto of the 19th edition of the event is Reverso, meaning inversion and conversion. It is about exiting the gallery and entering artistic studios, stepping out into the urban space and open air, as well as opening various channels and forms of contact between the audience and participants – both in digital and physical terms.
Post-world images on the opening day
The launch of the WRO Biennale (12 May) will see installations by artists from several countries that address the challenges of communication and sense of community in the age of artificial intelligence. The Entropia Gallery (5:30 pm) will host the work by The Internet of Dead Things Institute, whose activities are dedicated to repurposing obsolete information and communication technologies. At the IP Studio (6:30 pm), we will listen to the sounds of a melting glacier: the work Rhone is the result of a 3-month expedition to the Rhone Glacier, the birthplace of one of Europe’s biggest rivers. On the same day the WRO Art Center (8 pm) will present an oneiric vision of a disintegrating post-world in the work All Or Nothing At All, and an artistic reflection on the notorious Doomsday Clock in Atomic Time Torture.
Performances, lectures, meetings
The subsequent days will include events at the Barbara, including the presentation of Synthesis, a performative lecture on remote artistic collaboration, and a meeting with Dutch artists, the authors of the installation All Or Nothing At All, on view at the WRO Art Center until the end of May. The Laboratory Theatre Space at the Grotowski Institute will host a video show and media performance (13 May) by Gil Delindro, Portuguese artist in residence in Wrocław, the author of the Rhone installation and one of the most interesting representatives of the new generation of artists working in the field of sound and media art. Another event taking place at the Grotowski Institute will be a performative lecture by Iza Szostak entitled Future Presence (15 May). Moreover, in collaboration with Culture Zone Wrocław and the Institute of Cultural Studies, the Biennale will hold a meeting entitled Pictures from the End of the World, organised as part of the City Academy series. It will take place on 27 May at the Barbara and will be broadcast on Facebook.
Start Reverso will run until the end of May. The subsequent exhibition of the Biennale opens on 18 June.
Biennale live and online until December
The WRO 2021 Biennale comprises four exhibitions tagged #artificialintelligence and #community (May and June), #climate and #city (July and August), #groundsofart and #scale (September and October), and #artists and #digitaltrace (November and December). It also includes the 7th Best Media Arts Graduation Projects Competition and Reverso Redux, a long-term project involving performance activities and concerts taking place simultaneously in two locations – one always held in Wrocław and the other, among others, in Paris, London or Fukuoka. The Biennale’s programme also features a Junior WRO series dedicated to children, and a volunteer programme The Art Wires.
The events of the WRO Biennale will take place from May to December 2021, live and online, in Wrocław (at the WRO Art Center and other art venues) and in partner cities such as London, Paris, Fukuoka and Helsinki.
Admission to the Biennale is free. The audience should keep in mind the restrictions due to the limited number of visitors allowed in the galleries at one time. For the same reason, the performances and screenings require registration by e-mail – for details please visit the event’s official website: https://wro2021.wrocenter.pl
Programme:
START REVERSO (May 12-30)
#artificialintelligence #community
Entropia Gallery / May 12-28 / opening: 17:30
The Internet of Dead Things Institute
MinitelSE
installation
IP Studio / May 12-28 / opening: 18:30
Gil Delindro (PT)
Rhone
installation
WRO Art Center / May 12-30 / opening: 20:00
Persijn Broersen (NL), Margit Lukács (NL)
All Or Nothing At All
installation
Ivan Petkov (BG)
Atomic Time Torture
installation
Barbara / May 13, 13:00
Kaisu Koivisto (FI), Anna Nykyri (FI), Paweł Janicki (WRO)
The Before, the Now and the Potential Future: Synthesis.
presentation
Barbara / May 13, 14:30
Persijn Broersen (NL), Margit Lukács (NL)
artist talk
Grotowski Institute, Laboratory Theatre Space / May 13, 18:30
REPLAY
video screening
Grotowski Institute, Laboratory Theatre Space / May 13, 21:30
Gil Delindro (PT)
Voidness Of Touch
performance REVERSO REDUX
HEVRE, Cracow / May 13, 21:30
Aleksander Janicki (PL)
Dzeus II
performance REVERSO REDUX
Grotowski Institute, Laboratory Theatre Space/ May 14, 18:30
REBOOT
video screening
Grotowski Institute, Laboratory Theatre Space / May 15, 21:30
Iza Szostak (PL)
Future Presence
performative lecture
Barbara / May 27, 18:00
Pictures from the End of the World / City Academy
presentation of video works with commentary: Laura Grudniewska