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Artists: Kim Allen, Kari Altmann, Marcela Armas, Jeremy Bailey, Diego Berruecos, Zach Blas, Mariana Castillo Deball, Marcelo Cidade, Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker, Sterling Crispin, Debora Delmar Corp., de_sitio, Claudia Fernández, Francisco Fernández, Radamés “Juni” Figueroa, LaToya Ruby Frazie, Melissa Furness, Coco Fusco, Marcius Galan, Anna Bella Geiger, Cristóbal Gracia, David Hartt, Karl Haendel, Sarah Anne Johnson, André Komatsu, Robert Longo, Jorge Macchi, Laleh Mehran and Chris Coleman, Erick Meyenberg, Adam Milner, Nuria Montiel and Fernando Palma, Daniel Monroy Cuevas, Aliza Nisenbaum, Fernando Ortega, Bernardo Ortiz, Adam Pendleton, Tania Pérez Córdova, Jorge Satorre, Joaquín Segura, Matt Scobey, Skawennati, Eduardo Terrazas, and Ryan Trecartin.

NOW!
July 14–August 30, 2015
2015 Biennial of the Americas
Denver, CO, USA

The 2015 Biennial of the Americas is the third iteration of this international festival of ideas, art and culture in Denver, Colorado. The theme of the 2015 Biennial of the Americas is NOW! Today we stand on shifting ground, with one foot in a new geological era and one foot lingering on the structures of the past. The 2015 Biennial of the Americas will dive deep into our present circumstances, seeking to understand contexts, conditions, and challenges across the western hemisphere today.

Artistic program
Artists featured in the 2015 Biennial of the Americas from North, South and Central America and the Caribbean create visual art, music and dance in response to current issues and questions. They address specific situations where they live, as well as concerns shared across borders such as violence, environmental issues, technology, and social justice. Mexico City will form a particular focus in the program following the Biennial of the Americas Mexico City Summit held in June 2014.

Program highlights
The artists in the central exhibition of the Biennial of the Americas, Now? NOW! at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver capture complexities of now in the Western Hemisphere. The exhibition Oíd el Sueño de una Palabra / Listen to the Dream of a Word at the Biennial Pavilion in Downtown Denver results from a collaboration facilitated by Mexico City curatorial collective de_sitio. They invited a group of practitioners from different disciplines to interact with Museo Comunitario del Valle de Xico, a small, yet exemplary community organization in a marginal outskirt southeast of Mexico City. Vis-à-vis: Biennial Ambassadors Residency Exhibition at McNichols Civic Center features four ambitious new projects by artists Matt Scobey (US), Melissa Furness (US), Cristóbal Gracia (Mexico) and Daniel Monroy Cuevas (Mexico) developed through the 2015 Biennial Ambassadors Program. Aimed at nurturing creative links and deepening artistic dialogue across the Americas, the program focused for 2015 on connecting Denver and Mexico City through a series of ten-week residency exchanges run by contemporary art organizations ArtPlant and SOMA. Major public commissions by Mexico-based artists Erick Meyenberg and Marcela Armas examine the connection between Denver’s present, past and future.

Opening week festival and arts professional preview
July 14 to 19, all-day programming precedes evening symposia, and late night events celebrate the opening of Biennial venues. New this year is the Biennial Pavilion, a site for talks, workshops and performances, programmed with events throughout the summer.

Other highlights include a week-long residency of public performances and workshops by Brazil’s Companhia Urbana de Dança, presented in collaboration with the Newman Center for the Performing Arts, and a rare presentation of Matthew Barney’s latest film, River of Fundament, co-presented by the Clyfford Still Museum and Denver Art Museum. Biennial Night @ Civic Center, a major outdoor music and performance festival, features appearances by Jeremy Bailey (Canada), Black Violin (US), Wonderbound (US), and others.

The Artistic Director and Curator of the 2015 Biennial of the Americas is Lauren A. Wright.

Image: Robert Longo, Full-Scale Study for Five Rams (Ferguson, Hands Up: November 30, 2014), 2015. Charcoal on unique digital pigment print in 3 parts, 104 x 150 inches. Courtesy the artist and Metro Pictures, New York.