Biennale di Lione: Manifesto of Fragility

Biennale di Lione: Manifesto of Fragility

Silvana 2022
French and English translations of the exhibition catalogues by Scriptum

  • “Manifesto of fragility: Beirut and the Golden Sixties” At the macLYON Beirut and the Golden Sixties presents a pivotal moment in modern history from the vantage point of an ongoing crisis, highlighting the entanglement of past and present cycles of fragility and resistance. With more than 230 artworks by 34 artists and 300 archival materials from more than 40 collectors, this part of the 16th Lyon Biennale introduces fresh perspectives on a pivotal period in the history of Beirut, a city that is still burdened by the weight of its irreconcilable ambitions.

  • “Manifesto of fragility: The many lives and deaths of Louise Brunet” The 16th Lyon Biennale: manifesto of fragility positions fragility at the heart of a generative form of resistance that is emboldened by the past, responsive to the present and primed for the future. In acknowledging fragility as one of few universally felt truths in our divided world, the Biennale assembles a host of creative practices and objects spanning two millennia that variously speak to the vulnerabilities of people and places, past and present, near and far.

Conceived as a collective statement authored through word, image, sound and movement by 200 artists and creatives, it calls on a community of resilient voices to draft a manifesto for a world that is blamelessly fragile.

The Biennale is structured around three distinct yet inter-connected layers, where fragility and resistance are explored through the lens of the individual, the city, and the world respectively. : The many lives and deaths of Louise Brunet, Beirut and the Golden Sixties et A world of endless promise.

  • “Manifesto of fragility: A World of Endless Promise” A world of endless promise, on view here and at eleven other locations across the city of Lyon representing Lyon’s diverse cultural and architectural history, embodies various faces of fragility through contemporary and historical artworks, new site-specific commissions, and a diversity of objects.It presents a panorama of past and current moments of global perseverance and proposes future forms of being in the world.