Arts Le Havre 2008

The sec­ond Bien­nial of Con­tem­po­rary Art in Le Havre will take place June 7–30, 2008. Orga­nized by Groupe Par­touche in tan­dem with the city of Le Havre, the Bien­nial will be co-curated by Dutch artist Ger van Elk and by David Per­reau, direc­tor of LE SPOT, con­tem­po­rary art cen­ter in Le Havre (Normandy).

Two cura­tors, two visions—perhaps generational—of con­tem­po­rary art, and two expres­sions of artis­tic con­vic­tion. For Ger van Elk, guest cura­tor at Musée Mal­raux, it is a ques­tion of redefin­ing stance before the work of art. Elk speaks of inti­macy, of an inti­macy that seems to have van­ished, or to be on the point of van­ish­ing from con­tem­po­rary art bien­ni­als. Perreau’s take is quite dif­fer­ent: the pro­duc­tions on dis­play will serve to rede­fine our use and appro­pri­a­tion of pub­lic urban space. These works will bring their artis­tic con­tri­bu­tions into crit­i­cal light.

This edi­tion of the Bien­nial will also see the cre­ation of the Par­touche Award for Exper­i­men­tal Short Film. Groupe Par­touche spon­sor­ship of cul­tural events through­out France (Fes­ti­val d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, the Bien­nale d’art con­tem­po­rain de Lyon) has led orga­niz­ers of the Le Havre Bien­nial to imag­ine a gath­er­ing of minds around the issue of pub­lic and pri­vate involve­ment in con­tem­po­rary art, and in cul­ture gen­er­ally. Indeed, one of the Biennial’s ambi­tions is to become a locus for reflection—never an imped­i­ment to action.

The first Bien­nial had set the stage for an event that was meant to last, by virtue of its qual­ity, its choice of artists, and its com­mit­ment. The sec­ond edi­tion means to con­firm this identity.

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