May 31, 2026
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Inopportune: Stage One by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang.
Memories [images by duskdevivision]
WHAT’S A BIENNALE?
A biennale (Italian for “biennial” = “every other year”) is a large-scale international contemporary, NON-commercial art exhibition held every two years. They typically feature artists from all over the world to highlight the latest global trends, cultural dialogues, and conceptual themes. ‘
Venice Biennale is the he oldest and most prestigious of them all, established in Italy in 1895, and its currently running, May 9 to November 22, 2026.
WHAT IS THE BIENNALE OF SYDNEY?
“The Biennale of Sydney is one of the leading international contemporary art events. It plays an indispensable role in Australia’s engagement with the world, and a meaningful role in the life of the nation.
Since its inception in 1973, the Biennale of Sydney has provided a platform for art and ideas, showcasing the work of 2,400 artists from more than 130 countries. Today it is considered one of the leading international contemporary art events, recognised for commissioning and presenting innovative, thought-provoking art from Australia and around the globe.” – ABOUT TBOS
Since its inception in 1973, the Biennale of Sydney has provided a platform for art and ideas, showcasing the work of 2,400 artists from more than 130 countries. Today it is considered one of the leading international contemporary art events, recognised for commissioning and presenting innovative, thought-provoking art from Australia and around the globe.” – ABOUT TBOS
Rememory.
March 14 – June 14, 2026.
“History versus memory, and memory versus memorylessness. Rememory as in recollecting and remembering as in reassembling the members of the body, the family, the population of the past.”
– Toni Morrison, Mouth Full of Blood: Essays, Speeches, Meditations by Toni Morrison, 2019. p. 323.
– Toni Morrison, Mouth Full of Blood: Essays, Speeches, Meditations by Toni Morrison, 2019. p. 323.
“The 25th edition reimagines Morrison’s idea of rememory […] Through the defiant act of sharing, seeing, and understanding,[…] Rather than focusing on linear storytelling, the edition will highlight how we can become active participants in retelling our collective histories by revisiting and reinterpreting past events.
Rememory celebrates the diverse contexts, understandings, and experience of humanity by inviting artists to reflect on their own roots while engaging with Sydney and its surrounding communities and histories.
The edition will feature works that explore migration, exile, and belonging, giving voice to stories from Aboriginal communities and the divergent diasporas that shape Australia today.” READ MORE
2010
“….visitors loved many aspects of the free exhibition, from the extraordinary artworks that premiered in Australia to the dynamic program of performance, music and film. With interest in contemporary art on a steep incline, we will continue to rise to the challenge of making contemporary art accessible to the broadest possible audience.
[…]
…THE BEAUTY OF DISTANCE: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age presented works by established and emerging artists from all over the world in seven remarkable venues. returning to the legendary Cockatoo Island, an island in the middle of Sydney Harbour that has by turns been a convict prison and a dockyard for shipbuilding and repair, the Biennale presented more than 50 site-specific artists’ projects.”
2012
“For the 18th Biennale of Sydney, the exhibition on Cockatoo Island was subtitled Stories, Senses and Spheres.
The artworks displayed on the island continued many of the ideas explored in other Biennale venues by opening up the senses to wind, water and earth, and their embedded meanings, in collaborative
and interactive projects that had shared storytelling and caring at their core. Several artworks on the island encouraged active participation by and interaction from visitors…”
18th-Biennale-of-Sydney-2012-
and interactive projects that had shared storytelling and caring at their core. Several artworks on the island encouraged active participation by and interaction from visitors…”
18th-Biennale-of-Sydney-2012-
WHAT'S THE BUZZ ABOUT [THE 25TH] BIENNALE OF SYDNEY 2026?
1. Biennale of Sydney review: a world, and an organisation, in decline
by Gina Fairley. Mar 13, 2026. – Full review at Arts Hub
Rememory takes its title from Toni Morrison’s writing on the persistence of memory and historical absence. [READ a 2019 article offsite]
Artistic Director Hoor Al Qasimi describes the exhibition as illuminating ‘the overlooked and forgotten histories upon which the world is built’. Yet Al Qasimi herself was notably absent from the exhibition’s media preview. The explanation offered was that the focus should remain on the artists. […] This absence feels particularly strange given the significance of Al Qasimi’s appointment…
[…]
The exhibition reflects a broader shift across international biennales: fewer headline-grabbing installations and more practices grounded in archives, oral histories and community knowledge. Work after work engages with experiences of trauma, erasure and resistance. It’s a welcome recalibration in many respects. […] But this cumulative weight can overwhelm rather than illuminate.
[…]
Yet there are standouts here. Nikesha Breeze’s expansive installation Living Histories anchors the double-height space with quiet authority. A towering fabric column referencing the African baobab tree stands amid ghostly projections on translucent scrims and a small timber shack evoking the fragile architecture of memory, drawing on firsthand accounts of enslaved African Americans.”
TS MAY ARTS: Living Histories by Nikesha Breeze
2. 25th Biennale of Sydney, “Rememory”
by Tom Melick. May 16th, 2026. [Full article here]
“Most biennales tend to overpromise on their engagement with their host city. The sheer size of the 25th Biennale of Sydney, featuring more than eighty artists and collectives spread across five far-flung venues, pins its success to the workings of local government, an underfunded arts sector, and the city’s public transport.
While every curator of the biennale is obliged to work with these constraints, Hoor Al Qasimi appears to have incorporated them into the ethos of a show that features many voices with no clear heroes. Her theme is “rememory,” a neologism taken from Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987), where memory takes on a pictorial, collective form, and history becomes something you “bump into” even if erased or forgotten, and especially if repressed. An exhibition of memory work, then, where past meets present in the act of looking.”
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3. 25th Biennale of Sydney opening night controversy
“The Biennale of Sydney has been plunged into a deep political and social crisis following the opening night of its 25th edition at the White Bay Power Station. What was envisioned as a landmark celebration of global contemporary art was instead marred by what New South Wales Premier Chris Minns described as “horrid rhetoric” delivered by a visiting performer.
During the “Lights On” concert on Friday night, New York-based artist Zubeyda Muzeyyen, who performs under moniker DJ Haram, reportedly used her set to broadcast a series of inflammatory remarks that have since drawn fierce condemnation from government leaders and community organizations alike.“
4. Read the comments. The article shown seems saturated in bias sauce as observed by others.
As a Brown Woman, art lover and a professional creative, I prefer art events to be controversial because the art is exciting. ART IS INHERENTLY POLITICAL. What it’s not is a mule for agenda and propaganda. Frankly someone like me should be curating the Biennale. If someone asks me I am ready to explain why. – SN