Curatorial Duo to Lead the Biennale of Sydney 2024
By Angelique Santos
Portrait of (left) INTI GUERRERO and (right) COSMIN COSTINAS. Photo by Joshua Morris. Courtesy Articulate.
On May 31, the Biennale of Sydney (BoS) appointed the Berlin-based curators Cosmin Costinaș and Inti Guerrero as the artistic directors of the 24th edition of the festival, which is scheduled to open from March 9 to June 10, 2024.
In BoS’s 49-year history, this is the second time for the Biennale to be spearheaded by two directors. The duo have co-curated numerous exhibitions together in the past decade including the touring exhibition “A Journal of the Plague Year” (2013–15), which traveled from Hong Kong to Taipei, Seoul, and San Francisco; “Soil and Stones, Souls and Songs” (2017) at Hong Kong’s Para Site; and “Long Green Lizards” (2018) for Dak’Art, the 13th Biennale of Contemporary African Art.
Early this year, Costinaș has stepped down from his position as the executive director and curator of Para Site, where he has bridged Hong Kong with the international art scene during his 11-year tenure. He has curated the Romania Pavilion at the latest Venice Biennale this year and recently overseen the Kathmandu Triennale 2022 as the artistic director.
Guerrero, former artistic director of Manila’s non-profit Bellas Artes Projects, is currently teaching curatorial studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in northwest Belgium. He also previously curated the 38th EVA International, Ireland’s Biennial in Limerick in 2018, and worked as Estrellita B. Brodsky Adjunct Curator at Tate, London from 2016 to 2020.
While the themes and details of the next BoS are yet to be released, the duo explained that their vision is to “create a space that examines the past and present through multiple art languages, from places of struggle and resistance to collective joy, while celebrating and respecting place.”
Kate Mills, chairman of BoS, is impressed by the co-curators’ community-focused proposal, which “resonated deeply with the Biennale’s ethos of community” and highlighted pressing matters of great concern to local communities.
