The Strasbourg Biennale of Contemporary Art is led by Strasbourg citizens using the medium of contemporary art to provide the opportunity to explore the issues of our increasingly digital world.
The cradle of Humanism, Strasbourg’s rich history and heritage are apparent throughout the city. Its position straddling the border and as a European capital establish Strasbourg, and the wider Grand Est region, as the ideal location for exploring the central theme of human’s place in the digital age.
Enthused by and deeply attached to the city of Strasbourg, the founding members of the Biennale want to extend its reach to an international level through a contemporary artistic approach that invites the public to question their position and role in the digital revolution.
An encounter with contemporary art
Contemporary art offers a way to invite the public to reflect and discuss on its themes. The purpose of the Strasbourg Biennale is to create, open and facilitate debate. It gathers artists, the public, and institutional, cultural and private partners to inspire discussion, raise awareness, and stimulate us to step back and see the bigger picture through an artistic and cultural programme with an international dimension.
With the aim of involving all visitors, whether or not they are aware of contemporary art, the Strasbourg Biennale focuses on offering accessible exhibitions accompanied by workshops, conferences and debates that question aspects of our lives in a time of digital revolution.
A central theme: human’s place in the digital age
From the dawn of the modern era, innovation has been at the crossroads between art (ars) and new technologies (techne).
As such, during the humanist revolution of the 15th century, human was redefined, placed in a space of freedom and knowledge at the intersection of ars and techne.
Today, in the age of the digital revolution, at a time when human and objects are inextricably entwined, where the Internet is often viewed as a place for knowledge and discussion, we aim to question the role of humans and their freedoms in relation to cyberspace, between ars and techne.
This and future editions of the Strasbourg Biennale will reveal artists’ views on the influence of new technologies on the creative process, our social interactions, our private lives and our liberties and also on the limits and diversions from the original utopian ideal of the internet.
Many artists use new technologies as expressive tools or in their creative research processes. Others develop artworks in more traditional mediums that question the relationships between humans and their technological environment. Still others continue using new technologies to try to understand, exploit and explore our systems and contemporary modes of operation.
Key to our modern era, the question of human’s role in the age of new technologies will be addressed in each edition of the Strasbourg Biennale of Contemporary Art.
The first edition, Touch Me, focuses on the idea of citizenship in the digital age.