6 minute read
José Da Silva
from Sullivan+Strumpf Contemporary Art Gallery Sydney & Melbourne, Australia & Singapore – Jan-Mar 2024
Interviewed by Claire SummersPortrait photograph by Rhett Hammerton
CLAIRE SUMMERS:
The 18th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art meditates on the thematic Inner Sanctum. What makes this curatorial direction poignant in this moment in time?
JOSÉ DA SILVA:
Inner Sanctum isn’t a biennial that critiques the present moment. I want to create a more timeless exhibition that reminds us of the role artists have in shaping our understanding of the human condition and the public art museum as a place that enlivens the social imagination. I’m drawn to the concept of an ‘inner sanctum’ not only because it describes a space of refuge and sanctuary from the outside world but because figuratively, it can represent the faculty of imagination that allows us to see culture and society differently. Who better than artists, poets, musicians, and writers to demonstrate this insight? This isn’t a radical proposition for a biennial, and Inner Sanctum doesn’t try to use art to solve the social and ecological forces shaping the present and future. In the most straightforward way, it reminds us of the value of imagination and remaining open to new possibilities.
CLAIRE SUMMERS:
Your career has been coloured by diverse and ambitious projects. How has the experience of curating an event of this scale differed from other curatorial projects under your direction?
JOSÉ DA SILVA:
After six years of running a university art museum, working again within a state gallery and accessing the extraordinary collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia has been thrilling. I used to work at the Queensland Art Gallery, so I’m well versed in the complexities of staging exhibitions of this scale and the incredible opportunity that institutional collections offer in creating new dialogues with contemporary projects. I’m taking full advantage of this. Throughout Inner Sanctum, Biennial works are presented in conversation with the collection, and collection works are seen throughout the exhibition to connect artistic knowledge across time and place.
CLAIRE SUMMERS:
The Adelaide Biennial has defined itself for leaning into risk taking, experimentation and innovation. How have these values governed your curatorial approach?
JOSÉ DA SILVA:
All the artists in Inner Sanctum have used this opportunity to push themselves – to think ambitiously about their practices and make something with immense personal significance. Some of their innovations might appear humble, others more consequential for their careers. What feels like a more significant risk is the absolute trust that AGSA has shown in encouraging a distinct point of view about contemporary practice. I’ve been making exhibitions in public institutions for over 25 years, and I’ve never felt more empowered and encouraged across every aspect of the project without compromise. I’ve endeavoured to share that independence with all the artists, recognising that the most important thing to do is honour the time, energy, and generosity of artists with the freedom to follow their instincts and ideas through to completion.
CLAIRE SUMMERS:
Art is a crucial tool tasked with expressing and provoking with the most urgent ideas of our time. What are the most vital ideas propelled by Inner Sanctum?
JOSÉ DA SILVA:
When I started working on Inner Sanctum, I thought a lot about why I became a curator and continue to work with artists. I’ve always believed that experiencing art gives us a licence to imagine ourselves and society anew and that exhibitions are essential to civic life because they invite us to participate with new ideas, narratives, and experiences. Both are made with the encouraging spirit of imagination and in a time of great cynicism and distrust of information, this potential feels more vital than ever. Institutions are always looking to artists to find solutions to the deepening inequality and precarity in our communities. I’m not interested in asking artists to bear that responsibility. Their work alone will spark curiosity and imagination, and that’s the sensation I want audiences to leave with. If we see value in our emotional, inner worlds, perhaps we will extend that empathy to others. If we can imagine a better world, we can work towards it.
CLAIRE SUMMERS:
What themes or streams of thought from your years of curatorial practice have permeated this experience at the Adelaide Biennial? Do you find there has been a commonality in your curatorial projects throughout your career or is each project decisively distinct?
JOSÉ DA SILVA:
Artists are always the foundation of my projects, and the ideas that take shape around exhibitions are an extension of their voices and concerns. My instinct for this Biennial was to focus on something poetic, perhaps even spiritual, in contemporary practice. For me, this was a sincere reflection of the work I’ve done previously and, maybe as I get older, my desire for a more tender approach to exhibition-making. While I had a framework for the Biennial when I was appointed, it only took shape through studio visits, conversations over meals and adventures travelling with artists, where I saw how all these different threads and ideas might work together as an exhibition. There are also certain reoccurring subjects on show in Inner Sanctum that you can trace throughout my career: an openness to thinking about contemporary visual and material culture, the public dimension of private experience, and representations of marginalised histories, bodies and experiences that reflect my own experience of the world.
CLAIRE SUMMERS:
How do you see the role of the Adelaide Biennial, or indeed biennials more broadly, as contributing to their local arts ecologies? What elements make them unique in the landscape they exist within?
JOSÉ DA SILVA:
Biennials offer artists a fantastic platform to be ambitious and present work to new, diverse and often larger audiences. The visibility and profile of biennials make raising money for projects easier, the possibility of acquisitions higher, and future exhibition opportunities are inevitable. All good biennials also take something from their location. Those unique qualities become the basis for an exhibition that can give back to a local community and speak to broader issues with local nuance. While there are obvious benefits to local artists in the project, the event brings greater engagement and interest to South Australia. This opportunity has allowed me to develop an entirely new network of artists and practices I might not have encountered otherwise, and you can expect South Australian artists to feature in many future projects.
The 18th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art launches on 1 March, 2024 and includes a new suite of works by Seth Birchall.
