Synopsis:

This symposium builds on the Biennale's title Every Step in the Right Direction to explore ways of confronting and re-working the world through contemporary art. Art has long provided a condition to investigate the circumstances of our times. However, its ability to bring people together has become more uncertain in the face of changing global politics, especially as different interests appropriate art as a means to advance ideological interests. Evermore, art is a common, though contested, space to discover opportunities and address predicaments.

This symposium takes shape as a streaming platform consisting of filmed lectures, written texts and live-audience panels allowing for real-time audience engagement. It brings together artists, curators, critics, historians, advocates and cultural workers who have sought more active roles in engaging with urgent social conditions, and whose work cannot be narrowly framed within the art world and its systems of presentation, validation and circulation. With the ethical imperatives of art and action in mind, this symposium will examine how action and rightfulness can enable us to move in the right direction, together.