The Embassy of Non Participation, Sydney Biennale

The 20th Biennale of Sydney, inspired by a quote from leading science fiction author William Gibson, is titled: The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.

This edition of the Biennale is presented at seven main venues conceived as ‘embassies of thought’. Cockatoo Island (Embassy of the Real); Art Gallery of New South Wales (Embassy of Spirits); Carriageworks (Embassy of Disappearance; Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (Embassy of Translation); a bookshop (Embassy of Stanislaw Lem); a Mortuary Station (Embassy of Transition) and a solo exhibtion by Brad Butler and Karen Mirza at Artspace (Embassy of Non-Participation)

For more than 30 years, Artspace has existed as an alternative space dedicated to the presentation of contemporary and experimental art in a critical context. Along with existing works, the artists spent two months in residence at Artspace developing new works that draw on the rich history of the building and its surrounds, including its naval heritage, its use as an artists’ squat in the 1970s, issues facing the Indigenous communities of Woolloomooloo, the environmental activism of the Green Bans and ongoing gentrification in the area.

The multifaceted exhibition at Artspace is conceptualised as an infinity loop, which branches out in two directions linked through a central space near the entrance to the gallery. Here visitors are presented with two adjacent doors that offer different access points to the exhibition, and through which one must return to complete the picture. Thi is a riff off of Duchamp’s bespoke door in his tiny Paris apartment which was famously hinged on a jamb shared by two openings, thus serving two thresholds and three rooms simultaneously. A door that closes in one direction opens in another.

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