Curated by Charles Merewether
Global fusion is the default biennial theme these days. But for Australian society—an international stir-fry in an Anglo-Celtic broth—blending flavors has been a way of life for most of the past century. Curated by intermittent Australian Charles Merewether, the fifteenth Biennale of Sydney, titled “Zones of Contact,” takes as its conceptual foundation the seemingly inexhaustible topic of sociocultural exchange. Merewether, an art historian who has taught at universities in Sydney, Barcelona, and Mexico City, is a senior fellow at the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research at the Australian National University. Assembled by such a seasoned boundary rider, this biennial features strong Middle Eastern, Baltic, Eastern European, and Asian components alongside sympathetic Western fare—a citywide smorgasbord spread over sixteen sites and venues.
