Fondation Cartier Partners with Biennale of Sydney

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The Biennale of Sydney and Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain have announced a five-year creative partnership to support First Nations Art.

The partnership, which spans 2023 to 2027, will back multiple projects including programming for the Biennale’s 24th and 25th editions (in 2024 and 2026).

Tony Albert, a Kuku Yalanji artist, has been appointed to the newly created role of Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain First Nations Curatorial Fellow.

‘Tony is an exceptional figure in the Australian art and cultural scenes, widely respected and influential across several generations of artists and practitioners,’ said 24th Biennale of Sydney Artistic Directors Cosmin Costinaș and Inti Guerrero.

‘The uncompromising questioning of power relations and political formulations in his artistic practice have pushed boundaries and contributed to exposing the ongoing effects of colonialism on First Nations people in Australia,’ they said.

In his role, Albert will work with 14 First Nation artists commissioned by Fondation Cartier to produce works for the Biennale’s upcoming edition, titled Ten Thousand Suns (9 March to 10 June, 2024).

‘In my hopes and dreams I believe that this partnership will bring outstanding commissions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and curatorial excellence to the rest of the world,’ Albert said.

Last year Fondation Cartier presented the first solo exhibition in Europe of works by influential Australian Indigenous artist and Kaiadilt woman Sally Gabori.

First Nations Australian artists participating in Ten Thousand Suns include Doreen Chapman (Manyjilyjarra), Kaylene Whiskey (Yankunytjatjara), and Segar Passi (Meriam Mir/Dauareb). —[O]

Main image: Tony Albert. Courtesy the Biennale of Sydney. Photo: Daniel Boud.