The Ten Best Events at the 19th Biennale of Sydney

Regardless of your thoughts on the Biennale boycott (and if you care about both art and asylum seekers, you probably had a few), the festival's eventual split with long-term sponsor Transfield has come as at least a temporary relief. Now, there is no reason for people to avoid attending the 19th Biennale of Sydney, and to miss out on a wondrous, inspiringly thought-out and immaculately implemented iteration of the event. Artistic director Juliana Engberg, usually of Melbourne's Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, has a great gift for curation (and communication; you must listen to her speak about the art), and she'll be a tough act to follow.

So, yes, it appears the carefree summer days are drawing to a close (or over? They're over, aren't they?), but you can take consolation in the impressive selection of art, talks, films, workshops, forums and performances on offer across our most exciting cultural venues. Autumn's looking pretty awesome, to be honest.

Tacita Dean: Event for a Stage

Carriageworks plays host to this intriguing world premiere from England-born, Germany-based artist Tacita Dean, probably best know for her 16mm film works. With a lengthy (Turner Prize-nominated) career largely based around film, photography and drawing, Dean is dipping her toes in the theatre pond with this explorative co-commission with Carriageworks. Using English actor Stephen Dillane, Event For a Stage explores the relationship between theatre, sound and voice, raising questions about invention, artifice and the impact of technology upon the worlds of art and film. “I am never prouder than when my labour appears as nothing but the soundtrack of life,” Dean writes.

1-3 May 8pm, 4 May 5pm; $25-$35; Carriageworks Bay 17

Yingmei Duan: Happy Yingmei

Happy Yingmei is probably one of the more unusual events on offer. Chinese performance artist Yingmei Duan will, for the entire length of the Biennale, be stationed in a kind of dreamlike forest installed at the Art Gallery of NSW. In a performance-meets-sound installation, Duan will hand out handwritten wishes (presumably beneficent ones) to gallery patrons. Part of the Chinese avant-garde, Duan worked as a painter before switching over to pure performance art and took part in the now iconic To add one meter to an anonymous mountain, a collaboration between Beijing’s East Village artists. Her solo work often explores human instinct, particularly fear and desire.

21 March to 9 June; Wednesdays 12-8pm, Thursdays-Sundays 11-5pm; free; Art Gallery of NSW

Biennale Boot Camp

The very title Boot Camp may send shivers of pure dread running through your soul (at least for those who’ve experienced a sadistic personal trainer with highly honed humiliation techniques). But fear not! This is different. You catch a ferry to Cockatoo Island, where a personal trainer/artist will lead you around art works that are activated by the human body. At each work you’ll perform a series of exercises while learning about the piece. It basically sounds like you’ll be distracted from the fact that you’re exercising by how cool the art is. Moderate fitness levels are requested… whatever “moderate” means.

From 30 March, Sundays, 8:45-11am; free (not including ferry ticket); meet at Wharf 5, Circular Quay. Image Credit: Marko Luli, Space Girl Dance, 2009 (video still)

States of Mind Film Series

The States of Mind Film Series will be held Wednesdays and Sundays at the Art Gallery of NSW. You’ll be able to take in free screenings of films all about (you guessed it) states of mind, with themes like fantasy, madness and memory. The program includes Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2000), Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (2003) and Michael Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). Check the Art Gallery of NSW website for the screening schedule.

23 March - 8 June; Sundays 2-4pm, Wednesdays 2-4pm and 7:15-9pm; free; Domain Theatre, Art Gallery of NSW

Cardiff and Miller: City of Forking Paths

Blending technology with art, City of Forking Paths is a site-specific interactive walk. First step, comfy shoes; second, a smartphone (beg, steal or borrow); third, download the app and let it guide you around The Rocks, experiencing scenarios and discoveries crafted to complement this year’s Biennale theme, ‘You Imagine What You Desire’. Creators Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller (who have designed interactive walks all around the world) recommend dusk but timing is flexible — just remember to book. City of Forking Paths is the first “legacy artwork” to emerge from the Biennale, meaning the City of Sydney Council are forking up big bucks to make it a permanent part of the City Art collection.

1 May onwards; available daily; dusk tours recommended; free; booking essential

Nick Waterlow OAM Memorial Lecture, Juliana Engberg

Juliana Engberg, this year’s artistic director of the Biennale, will be speaker at The Nick Waterlow OAM Memorial Lecture, a biannual event commemorating the contribution of treasured Australian art expert and former Biennale curator Nick Waterlow to academia and the arts. Engberg is also artistic director of the ACCA (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne), a role she somehow juggles alongside curating, writing, teaching, designing and publishing. You can have a read of her blog Engberg on the Road, written as she travelled the world developing the Biennale (what a job!). A cracking good speaker, Engberg will be talking about the act of making art — specifically, it’s “libidinous, amorous and compulsive aspects.” Sounds pretty juicy.

5 April; 3.30-4.30 pm; free; Domain Theatre; Art Gallery of NSW. Image Credit: Emma Sullivan.

Mystery Tours

Those who like to be surprised may want to sign up for a Mystery Tour. The brief is pretty vague (how mysterious!) but from what we can gather, get to Cockatoo Island on a Saturday morning and you’ll be led on a special journey. It will be “special” because (a) you don’t know where you’re going, and (b) you don’t know who will be conducting the tour. Each week, you see, a new celebrity will put on their tour guide hat, from artists to writers to who knows what (celebrity is a very loose term these days isn’t it?). But their uniting quality will be their love of art. So that’s nice.

From March 29; Saturdays; 11.30am; free; Cockatoo Island

Panel: Where Angels Fear to Tread

Where Angels Fear to Tread is a food-for-thought panel discussion led by artists whose work has a definitively sociopolitical focus. Norway’s Bodil Furu and Ane Hjort Guttu, Switzerland’s Siri Hermansen and Australia’s Susan Norrie are all artists who have embedded themselves within a variety of geographical locations in order to develop artwork exploring the local culture and sociopolitical situation. They will be chatting about the highs and lows of their process, ranging from conception through to reception. Jeff Khan, artistic director of Performance Space, will act as chair.

25th March; 6-8pm; free; Carriageworks. Image: Susan Norrie, Dissent, 2012 (video still).

Behind the Scenes

Designed with those studying or teaching art and curatorship in mind, Behind the Scenes gives you the chance to join Australian artist Benjamin Armstrong and MCA staff for a collection of presentations and talks, all of which will reveal the behind-the-scenes processes involved in putting on the Biennale. If you’re determined to run your own gallery, be a professional artist or, heck, maybe even direct the Biennale one day, this event could provide a valuable insight into just what it takes to pull off an art event of this scale. I’m guessing a lot of coffee was involved.

6 May; 12.30- 2pm; $10 for students, teachers free; bookings essential; MCA. Image: TV Moore, Installation view of the 19th Biennale of Sydney at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Photograph by Ben Symons.

MCA ARTBAR curated by Ross Manning

If you’ve never been to the MCA after dark, you should head to ARTBAR. The gallery will be blissfully free from gangs of screaming school kids on excursions (I know that was me once, but I was angelic) and tourists who slam their backpack into your face when you’re trying to appreciate a Tracey Moffatt series. You can wander around exhibitions unmolested, with drinks in between. Plus, the best part is that guest curator Ross Manning, a featured 19th Biennale of Sydney artist known for his colourful kinetic sculptures, will be transforming the space into, and I quote, “a pulsating piece of performance art”. Alliteration like that always makes one giddy with anticipation, doesn’t it?

30 May; 7-11pm; $25 at the door; MCA

Hero image: The Turbine Hall at Cockatoo Island. Photo by Lindsay Smith.