David Eichholtz
Jul 22, 20173 min
FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art announces its first group of participating artists, artists-in-residence and presenting partners for its first edition, titled An American City: Eleven Cultural Exercises, running July 14, 2018 through September 30, 2018. Conceived of by FRONT’s Artistic Directors Michelle Grabner and Jens Hoffmann, this multipart presentation of interconnected “cultural exercises” will investigate the significance and meaning of staging a large-scale international triennial in the contemporary context. Bringing together more than 55 local, national and international artists across mediums and disciplines, FRONT will partner with sites throughout the city of Cleveland and beyond to explore artistic collaborations, intellectual exchanges and curatorial dialogues connecting the city and the Great Lakes region to broader global, political and economic networks. FRONT’s ambitious program will weave critical approaches to museum exhibitions, public and educational programs, residencies, publications and research strategies in a complex presentation.
FRONT will collaborate with cultural institutions and site-specific locations in Cleveland, foregrounding meaningful partnerships within the city’s cultural fabric and urban history to present focused projects, oscillating between large-scale commissions and exhibitions by recognized artists and emerging practitioners. Grabner and Hoffmann will develop these exhibitions in close collaboration with the institutions’ respective curators.
“As an experimental program of exhibitions, residencies and public events, FRONT investigates what it means to stage a large-scale international biennial or triennial today, looking carefully at the feasibility, necessity and structures of large art events, proposing alternatives and reprioritizing typical exhibition hierarchies,” says FRONT’s Executive Director, Fred Bidwell.
Describing the exhibition, FRONT Artistic Director Jens Hoffmann said, “Over the course of the year leading up to the opening, FRONT will work to examine the local, regional and global influences that have shaped a 21st century American city located outside the traditional centers of cultural power and production in the United States.”
“An American City considers the complex transformations that Cleveland, Ohio, a medium-size city in the center of the country, has undergone in recent decades,” says FRONT Artistic Director Michelle Grabner, “and examine how Cleveland’s particular history might parallel those of other cities in the United States and around the world.”
Participating artists & artists-in-residence as of July 14, 2017 Asian Dope Boys; Nasser Al-Salem; Juan Araujo; Dana Awartani; Eric Baudelaire; Dawoud Bey; Barbara Bloom; Candice Breitz; Nicholas Buffon; A.K. Burns; Gerard Byrne; Sean Connelly; Sarah Crowner; Abraham Cruzvillegas; Marlon de Azambuja; Casey Jane Ellison; Harrell Fletcher; Claire Fontaine; Simon Fujiwara; Cyprien Gaillard; Dani Gal; Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster; Maryam Jafri; Cui Jie; Hao Jing Ban; Li Jinghu; William E. Jones; Alex Jovanovich; Lin Ke; Mike Kelley; Luisa Lambri; Guillaume Leblon; Adriana Martínez; Laura Huertes Millán; Adriana Minoliti; Sarah Morris; Naeem Mohaiemen; Kirsten Pieroth; Michael Rakowitz; Cheng Ran; Jennifer Reeder; John Riepenhoff; Kay Rosen; Allen Ruppersberg; Tino Sehgal; Indr? Šerpytyt?; Yinka Shonibare, MBE (RA); Katrín Sigurdardóttir; Cally Spooner; Julian Stanczak; Martine Syms; Zhou Tao; Jim Trainor; Philip Vanderhyden; Jan Van der Ploeg; Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Búrca; Carey Young
FRONT is made possible through the generous support of:
The City of Cleveland
The Cleveland Foundation
Destination Cleveland
The Falk Brothers Fund
The George Gund Foundation
The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation
The Eric and Jane Nord Family Fund
The Richard and Alita Rogers Family Foundation
FRONT International Founding Patrons
Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell
Sandy and Sally Cutler
Agnes Gund
Richard and Michelle Jeschelnig
Donna M. and Stewart Kohl
Jan Lewis
Toby Devan Lewis
Scott Mueller
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