The Biennial of Cuenca, Ecuador, continues its consolidation process as a forum open to all expressions of contemporary plastic arts with no reservations regarding format or medium. Under this premise the Biennial is taking solid steps toward a renewed cultural policy committed to principles of artistic integration that do not limit themselves to holding imposing exhibitions every two years, but that arrange continuous programs of dissemination of an educational and theoretical nature to sponsor an effective introduction to contemporary artistic manifestations for all segments of the community.
From this perspective, the Biennial has created the Office of Artistic Management within its internal structure, which will be in charge of articulating all levels in the development of the X Edition, in aspects such as Curatorship, Museography Theory, Education and Communication, all with the same conceptual and operational objective
It is important to point out that in order to contribute to the educational work of the Cuenca Biennial and sponsor a full and motivated participation by the citizenry around the X Edition, relevant cultural institutions of Cuenca (the Municipality, House of Culture and Central Bank) have jointly structured a City Agenda, clearly defined around the historic nucleus of local artistic activity. This Agenda will take place in the exhibition spaces of the participating institutions, so that citizens are able to appreciate a systematic panorama of pictorial manifestations and creations of Cuenca during the 20th century, as well as contemporary artistic expressions, all with the help of related educational material.
Also new is the inclusion in the competition of works from geographical areas outside the American continent. Until the ninth edition the Cuenca Biennial had limited the field of countries to the western hemisphere, whose practices and artistic production constituted the exclusive object of study of the event. In the tenth edition, Europe, Africa and Asia will be present for the first time in the exposition.
The work of the X Biennial is under way for the competition exhibition to be held from October 22 to December 4 of 2009. It revolves around the basic theoretical pillars that govern this new edition: Institutional Policy, General Postulates, Curatorial Principles and the Conceptual Basis. They are components with links among themselves, since the conceptual proposal – Intersections: Memory, Reality and New Eras – is in agreement with the premises, that “the Biennial should be sensitive to the current era of visual art and cultural in general, maintaining a wide vision in which criteria of quality predominate in the selection of the artists’ proposals,” with “well defined spaces” that endeavor to attain “an essential principle for a good museography… in both conventional and unconventional places.”
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