Internet Landscapes and Ghost Telephones

Whilst it is inevitable that one cannot get to all events during the Biennale, we have done the hard yards for you – highlighting key events only recently announced. So get out your calenders, diaries or ical for the technologically adept, and lock these events in:

The Embassy of the Real, Cockatoo Island will be hosting the Biennale Opening Night offering art goers to experience art after dark in the cavernous spaces of the former shipyard and convict settlement. Performances will be led by Sydney Djs and live acts, as well a one-off performance by boychild, a persona born on stage in San Francisco’s thriving queer club scene. Limited tickets are available here.

During the opening weekend at Cockatoo Island Justene Williams collaborates with Sydney Chamber Opera to present Victory Over the Sun. This radical revisiting of the legendary (anti-)opera was first performed in Russia in 1913.

Introducing Biennale artists to our local collections, a month-long chain performance titled Ghost Telephone promises new encounters and revisions of some of our most well known works. Curated by 20th Biennale attaché Adrian Heathfield, international artists have been selected to work in situ to channel and transform the spirits of specially chosen art works on display at the Embassy of Spirits (Art Gallery of New South Wales). The performances will be presented daily from Tuesday 15 March, and Adrian Heathfield will talk about these ‘Spiritual Affinities’ on Saturday 19 March at the Gallery’s Domain Theatre.

At the MCA forecourt, Richard Bell’s latest iteration of Embassy, 2013-16, is a restaging of and homage to the original Aboriginal Tent Embassy that was first assembled on the lawn of Parliament House in 1972. It will host a series of screenings and talks with special guests.

At the newest location to the Biennale, Mortuary Station, the Embassy of Transition will involved transition talks free to the public across three Saturdays (26 March, 16 April and 21 May. One not to miss is Tibetologist and Buddhism expert who will discuss the transition to the afterlife and the The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which also features the work of artist Charwei Tsai.

Bringing performance in the gallery to a forefront, a trio of events explore this practice led firstly by a lecture by 20th Biennale attaché Andre Lepecki, secondly a one day ‘salon’ exploring choreography in the gallery context, and finally a mini-symposium presenting reflections both on the performance in the 20th Biennale and in the wider field.

There is a whole lot more, however we didn’t want to overwhelm you all at once. For further events and information you can also waltz on over to 20bos.com.