On Thursday, the 20th of June, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, ifa Gallery Berlin invites you to a solar celebration for the book launch of Ten Thousand Suns, a richly illustrated 360-page hardcover publication accompanying the 24th Biennale of Sydney. Published by the Biennale of Sydney and Griffith University, the book features new and existing essays, poetry, literary pieces, first English translations of important historical texts, as well as documentation of the 116 artists participating in the Biennale. Please join us for a presentation of the conceptual threads of the Biennale and accompanying publication by Artistic Directors and editors Cosmin Costinaş and Inti Guerrero, followed by drinks in honor of the artists in the Biennale supported by ifa: Mariana Castillo Deball, Köken Ergun, Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano, and Satch Hoyt, and Berlin-based Biennale artists Agnieszka Polska, Monira Al Qadiri, and Ming Wong.
Ten Thousand Suns conveys divergent images. The singular life-giving body that is the sun, like the world it shines light upon, has otherwise been known under thousands of different words in as many languages. Each name carries with it a different cultural viewpoint, many of which do not rely on a vision of a single sun. The image of many suns evokes projections of a scorching world, both in several cosmological visions and in our moment of climate emergency and of a world ablaze. Yet Ten Thousand Suns also conveys the joy of cultural multiplicities affirmed and of carnivals as forms of resistance rallying against colonial oppression and dehumanisation.
Contributors to the book include: Amelia Groom, Billie Phillips, Brontez Purnell, Carole Y. Johnson, Cosmin Costinaş, Ebonie Fifita-Laufilitoga-Maka, Elyas Alavi, Eric Michaels, Greg Dvorak, Hina Puamohala Kneubuhl, Hinatea Colombani, Inti Guerrero, John Puhiatau Pule, Karlie Noon, Kesaia Biuvanua, Krystal De Napoli, Laleen Jayamanne, Lillian Crombie, Margaret Cavendish, Michael Leslie, Muhammadu Bello Kagara, Nevil Shute, Nikau Hindin, Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Rongomai Grbic-Hoskins, Roslyn Watson, Samia Khatun, Te Kuru O Te Marama Dewes, Thenmozhi Sounrarajan, Tony Albert, Vivian Ziherl, and VNS Matrix. Design by: Wkshps
Cosmin Costinaş is co-Artistic Director of Ten Thousand Suns: the 24th Biennale of Sydney, and Senior Curator of Exhibition Practices at HKW, Berlin. He was the Executive Director/Curator of Para Site, Hong Kong (2011-2022)
Inti Guerrero is a Berlin-based Colombian curator and educator, he is the co-Artistic Director of Ten Thousand Suns: the 24th Biennale of Sydney, and PhD supervisor at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. He also was the artistic director of TEOR/éTica, San Jose (2011-2014).
You may order the book here.
