The Perennial Biennial

Over the last four years, Europe has witnessed significant political and cultural changes. This unrest has brought about an urgency and desire for closer collaboration in the arts. The Perennial Biennial has been developed in response to this and will operate as a year-round collaboration to further the field of biennial practice and strengthen European biennial networks across five major partners in Germany, Latvia, Slovenia, Norway and the UK.

The project will support curatorial practice, research, writing and discourse in the biennial field through collaborative working, staff exchanges and the sharing of expertise and models for sustainable practice. Its aim is to create dynamic national and international commissioning partnerships, which will strengthen the biennial sector in each location. The network will support a number of European Biennials to participate in the International Biennial Association (IBA).

In the frame of the project, the International Center of Graphic Arts (MGLC) took over the organization and management of two key project activities:

Workshop cycle Perennial Biennial

MGLC organizes five workshops attended by 15 curators and artists selected on the proposal of the participating biennials. The workshops were designed by Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez in collaboration with project partners on the following topics: Material accountability (mentor: Stéphane Verlet-Bottéro), Residing with others (mentor: Shela Sheikh), Spaces of humbleness (mentor: Rasha Salti), Rootedness, situatedness (mentor: Pauliina Feodoroff), Who keeps the cube white (mentor: Binna Choi). At the workshops, under the guidance of mentors, participants deal with proposals for sustainable models of biennial events. Representatives of the MGLC / Graphic Biennial Ljubljana are: Omsk Social Club, Lara Mejač and Neja Zorzut. The final event of the workshop cycle will take place in July 2023 in Riga, Lithuania, as part of the 3rd RIBOCA Biennial.

International Conference “Being a Citizen of the World Today?”

During the 34th Graphic Biennial Ljubljana (18 November 2021), MGLC organized an international conference that analyzed the issues of cosmopolitanism and biennials and other cyclical international events in the field of contemporary visual art. The conference was designed by Nevenka Šivavec, with speakers: biennial leaders and curators, theorists, culturologists: Alia Swastika (Indonesia), Jo-Anne Birnie-Danzker (Canada), Aljoša Pužar (Slovenia), Konstantinos Stafylakis (Greece), Mahret Ifeoma Kupka (Germany) and Sami Al Daghistani (Slovenia).

The project also includes the exchange of employees and professional staff of the project partners. In November 2021, the MGLC hosted Samira Ghoualmia from the Berlin Biennale. Her work focuses on mediation and educational programs. In 2023, scheduled for June, our colleague Gregor Dražil will be a guest of the Bergen Biennale.

MGLC – Mednarodni grafični likovni center

(Partner)

Ljubljana

All projects of Slovenian producer

Foreign producers in the supported project

Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art Ltd. (leader)

United Kingdom (EU)
Bergenstriennalen AS (partner)

Norway
biedriba Rigas Starptautiska Bienale (partner)

Latvia (EU)
KW Institute for Contemporary Art - Kunst-Werke Berlin ev (partner)

Germany (EU)

Funded projects

Shadow Pandemic: Hidden Voices

Open House Europe (OHEu)

Third Stage

VERSOPOLIS – WHERE POETRY LIVES

Uncomfortable Beings, Azra, Best Imaginary Friends Forever

LINA - Learn, Interact, and Network in Architecture

Reactivating unused urban spaces through architecture and arts (ReCITYing)

Art Nouveau: a new EUtopia

Creative Industries Development Centre (KUL)

Web 3.0 Accelerator for Sustainable Cultural Tourism (Web3Tour)

Studiotopia: Enter the Symbiocene with Arts and Science (Studiotopia 2)

Bio Awakening - developing bio-art practices in Western Balkan

TestArt

GREENSTAGE

Climate Art Fusion Caravane (CARAVANE)

Connecting Emerging Literary Artists (CELA)

Cultural BEES

Transmedia stories of insularity (TRAST)

Female Digital Creativity (FLUX)

Planet Hope (New European Fiction) (PH)

More than a Story (MTaS)

Our Little Library: Through literary bridges to reading adventures (OLLLB)

Connected with Books (CWB)

Operation Nova

Moving Balkans

Exploring Expanded Publishing: EX-Pub

Thinking Publishing (ThinkPub)

Novel Europe (NovelEU)

REVIVE

Temporama: Mini Slate 2023

Studi Virc: Mini Slate 2023

The 10th and 11th edition of FeKK - Ljubljana Short Film Festival

The 20th and 21st Kino Otok - Isola Cinema International Film Festival

20. and 21. ANIMATEKA International animated film festival

Film in Hospital 2.0

EU Youth Cinema: Green Deal 2024-2026

Cinema without barriers (CWB)

Literary Agent Platform: Capacity building (LAP CB)

Tramal Films Mini Slate 22 (TFMini22)

Vertigo Slate 2022: Chestnuts, Memory of Autumn Mists, OHO, Splashing around

Staragara slate 22

Our Little Library: Literary exchanges

Testing Ground (TestG)

Better Live

Variola - Dark Spring TV series

SEMA

Paradiso

Leave the door open

The Big Green

The Long Way Down

New approaches for local media (NEWLOCAL)

Life Long Burning – Futures Lost and Found (LLB3)

Time For Live Art (LIVETIME)

Our Little Library: Literary Exchanges

Women Power in Comics (WOMCOM)

Movement, Digital Intelligence and Interactive Audience (MODINA)

Fortissimo. An interactive digital tool that brings kids closer to classical music (FF)

Spring Cleaning

Animation Festival Network

CulturalDeTour - Sustainable Cultural Tourism by Design Driven Innovation

Building the future of democracy through art, science and technology (EUDigitalDeal)

The Museum of the Commons. Towards a Healthier Arts Ecosystem (MoC)

ACT: Art, Climate, Transition

Baths, gothic churches and miners’ houses

Fake Lies

THE FILM CORNER RELOADED - A CULTURAL APPROACH

CINEMINI EUROPE

FC Freedom

Body

Movies in Motion

Voix de la Poesie Europeenne

Trust me, I'm an artist

The Faces Behind the Nose - Promoting Hospital Clowning as a Recognized Genre of Performing Arts

SYMBOLS - Culture of Death& Cultural Life: New audiences and creations around European Cemeteries!

SWICH - Sharing a World of Inclusion, Creativity and Heritage

SPECTRUM 14|15

Small Size, Performing Arts for Early Years

Performing the Museum

Masters & Servers: Networked Culture in the Post-Digital Age