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Ballarat International Foto Biennale: Exploring the world through many a lens
Securing Linda McCartney
When Fiona Sweet is asked what she loves about photography, the reasons flow in abundance.
“It’s a wonderful medium,” the artistic director of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale (BIFB) expresses with keen elation. “It can be split up in so many different ways – documentary, fine art, social change, history. And since photography has been invented, so many seminal images have been created that have been really important in order for us to understand the happenings of the world.
Linda McCartney, Self Portrait, Sussex, England, 1992
“It’s really a democratic art form, and easily accessible. When we go into schools or public programming, there is no barrier in engaging in our programs. Looking at community engagement and broader reach, it breaks down barriers for audiences not usually comfortable going into the white box of a gallery.”
While she doesn’t claim to be a photographer herself, Fiona has had years of experience as a designer and art director, and her love for this particular art cannot be downplayed.
Fiona was appointed as the biennale’s artistic director in 2016, and immediately made creative decisions that would influence the festival’s reach and popularity for years to come.
“I wanted to ensure we didn’t have artists exhibiting who had been exhibited elsewhere in Australia,” Fiona says.
“Also, because we are a regional town, I wanted to ensure we had the kind of exhibition that was going to attract large audiences.”
In 2017, internationally acclaimed artist David LaChapelle exhibited as the festival headline, attracting droves of art lovers to the city.
According to Fiona, 41 per cent of festival goers that year had never been to Ballarat.
“The whole idea is to encourage audiences to come to a place they wouldn’t usually visit and to get a feel for the beauty and history of our city,” Fiona says.
While the 2017 BIFB was taking place, Fiona was in the midst of negotiations to try and secure Linda McCartney’s works for a future festival. The negotiations took four years, but it was well worth the effort.
McCartney’s works will now be showcased as part of the festival’s headline exhibition Linda McCartney: Retrospective, curated by Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney.
Featuring more than 200 exclusive photographs, the display will present the spontaneous and unique experiences involving the iconic people and places that shaped Linda’s life.
Linda McCartney, The Beatles, Abbey Road, London, 1969
With over three decades of photos from 1965-1997, Retrospective depicts the evolution of youth pop culture and captures raw moments of history’s most famous rock stars – the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Eric Clapton. Other highlights include never-before-seen prints from the McCartney family’s trips to Australia in 1975 and 1993.
“I’ve always loved (Linda’s) work and always known her as a photographer,” Fiona says.
“She’s someone who’s worked in rock n’ roll and celebrity photography and who hadn’t exhibited in Australia before. I thought she’d be interesting not just for photography and art lovers, but for people who love music and rock n’ roll.
“My role as artistic director is to encourage the broadest cross-section of audiences to come along and engage in the biennale.
A most significant festival
Image: @medadesignau of Aïda Muluneh’s outdoor exhibition The World is 9
Fiona says this year’s festival will provide visitors an opportunity to discover some of Ballarat’s beautiful buildings and spaces, some of which have never been explored before – such as the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute’s recently-opened basement.
And while her team has had to grapple with the struggles presented by COVID, she proudly proclaims this festival to be the best yet.
“It has been quite difficult, but what we did was make sure we complied with COVID safe indoor spaces and increased our outdoor and public programs,” Fiona says.
“This is my third festival and even though we’ve had COVID in our midst, it is absolutely the best.”
Dubbed one of the most significant photographic arts festivals in Australia, the BIFB consists of two major photographic programs – a curated Core Program showcasing work from Australian and international artists, as well as an Open Program that fosters the development of new and emerging artists.
While this year’s festival saw a delay in its opening due to COVID restrictions, it is still set to take place over two months and will feature education programs, workshops, artist talks, foto walks as well as an extended outdoor program.
One of the highlights of the outdoor program is the Say it with Flowers site-responsive exhibition at the Ballarat General Cemetery. Curated by Wotjobaluk curator Kat Clarke, the showcase features the work of artists from around the world, each responding to memory, mortality, longing and community through the medium of photography.
The show includes the work of Ballarat’s renowned indigenous artists the Pitcha Makin Fellas.
The group’s work further contributes to the exhibition’s aim of challenging the cemetery as a dormant space and demystifying it as an arena for contemplation and reflection.
The 2021 BIFB will also include a special After Dark component punctuated by a series of Black Lives Matter projections on the Town Hall, and the chance to dine at six of the city’s most loved restaurants.
Exploring the BIFB outdoor program. Image @vegasandrose
A poetic experience inspired by the tyranny of distance
London-based photographer Alix Marie has one surmounting objective when creating her work.
“I just hope to create a physical and poetic experience,” Alix says.
Her world-premiere, titled Styx, will be taking place in Ballarat’s grand National Centre of Photography as part of the BIFB Core Program.
The exhibition sees the French artist delve further into her interest in water deities and the intersection between the body, its representation and an expansive idea of photography.
“I often explore the persistence of myths and their relation to the contemporary in my work,” Alix explains.
“In my last project, I addressed the mermaid/siren figure, the ambiguity of its evolution and symbols in relation to gender construction, so creatures linked with water were still on my mind.
“When I was approached to be part of the (festival), two things resonated strongly: the ceiling of the exhibition space made from ship metal, and of course the fact that I would be creating the work across oceans, in the midst of a global pandemic.
Alix Marie, Styx, 2021 (detail)
“Water, remoteness, death, and “in between” states were all important seeds for the project.”
Alix says it is difficult knowing she cannot be present for the world-premiere of her work, but says it will be intriguing to hear of the audience’s response and experience – albeit virtually.
“It has been interesting to work in such a way, and the project was made with the situation in mind,” she says.
“The idea of going through and seeing through was omnipresent. Going through an experience, as with the pandemic or mourning, going through spatially as going through water across the world, translated in the installation.”
