Anxiety over nature and the environment, cultural traditions and beliefs being eroded, our psychological and spiritual health under threat... The 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Handle with Care explores artists’ responses to aspects of contemporary life that have the potential to generate disquiet, to divide communities and incite debate.

Curated by respected Sydney-base curator, Felicity Fenner, Handle with Care examines both in thematic content and in material form, the fragile nature of our relationships with the socio-cultural and natural environments in which we live, through a range of media from paintings to video art.

The Adelaide Biennial began in 1990 and is the flagship visual arts event of the Adelaide Festival of Arts. It is the nation's pre-eminent survey of contemporary Australian art showcasing up-to- the-minute works by established and emerging artists from around the country. All works in the display have been created since the previous Festival of Arts in March 2006. For the first time, none of the Biennial artists has been represented in past Adelaide Biennials. Curated by Felicity Fenner

FREE GUIDED TOURS
Wednesday 1pm, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays at 12 noon

MEMBERS’ TOUR with the Curator
Saturday 1 March 9am
Kick start your Festival of Arts with this exclusive viewing and tour, led by Felicity Fenner, curator of Handle with Care. The Adelaide Biennial presents some of Australia’s most outstanding contemporary artists and this year we celebrate the 10th Biennial. After the tour join us for morning tea and a chance to discuss your observations.
Tickets: $25, $15 Members. Limited numbers. Bookings essential: telephone 8207 7050

AUSLAN TOUR
Saturday 15 March 2pm
An Auslan sign language interpreted tour of the exhibition for deaf and hearing-impaired visitors.
Meet your Guide at the entry to the exhibition.

PERFORMANCE Triadic Memories
Sunday 9 March 4.30pm
Renowned composer and pianist, Stephen Whittington, performs the work Triadic Memories by American composer Morton Feldman (1926-1987). This piece for solo piano was inspired by Persian carpets, and is presented to complement an installation, Leave your shoes here, by Hossein Valamanesh, part of the 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art. Feldman's music had a strong following among artists of the 1950s and 1960s, notably Rothko, de Kooning and Guston. Quiet and contemplative, the music uses a grid-like structure with repetitive but subtly changing patterns that reflect Feldman's appreciation of the carpets’ aesthetics. The Wire (London) described Stephen Whittington’s performance of this work as ‘masterful’, and nominated the work as one of the ’60 concerts that shook the world’ in the past 40 years.
Tickets available to Art Gallery members at the very special price of $25 inclusive of refreshments.
Bookings through AGSA have now closed however tickets can still be purchased through FRINGETIX.

Presented in association with Recitals Australia. Radford Auditorium.

FREE ARTIST FLOOR TALKS
Join us for a series of free talks by artists whose work features in Handle with Care. These talks are held in the exhibition and will offer engaging and illuminating insights into contemporary art practice.

FREE LUNCHTIME TALKS
Held in the exhibition, Tuesdays at 12.45pm

Tuesday 4 March
Discover Handle with Care with the exhibition’s curator, Felicity Fenner

Friday 7 March
Adelaide artist, Hossein Valamanesh, speaks about his work Leave your shoes here on display in the exhibition

Tuesday 18 March
Explore Handle with Care with John Neylon, writer, curator and art critic

Tuesday 22 April
Melentie Pandilovski, Director, Experimental Art Foundation speaks about selected works in the exhibition

VOX POP
South Australian-based contemporary artists speak about works of art in the exhibition at 12.45pm

ARTISTS’ WEEK

FORUM
Monday 3 March 10.30am – 12noon
Felicity Fenner, Curator of the 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, joins convenor Georgina Downey and Biennial artists Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, and Janet Laurence, for a discussion of the themes and inspirations for Handle with Care. Elder Hall

IN CONVERSATION with Hossein Valamanesh
Wednesday 5 March 2.30 – 3.15pm
Hossein Valamanesh discusses his work and practice, including his work in Handle with Care, with curator and writer Sarah Thomas. Elder Hall

CONTEMPORARY COLLECTORS MASTERCLASS
Saturday 1 March 4 - 6pm
An initiative for Artists’ Week 2008, the Contemporary Collectors Masterclass is a special event for lovers and collectors of Australian and international contemporary art.

This Masterclass will feature exclusive presentations by two dynamic and prominent art collectors about the business of collecting, what to look for, when to buy and what to sell. John Kaldor AM has assembled one of the most important private collections of contemporary art in Australia. Dennis Scholl is a highly regarded and respected Miami-based collector of contemporary art. A unique opportunity to gain invaluable insights, not to be missed. Presented by Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts and the Contemporary Collectors of the Art Gallery of South Australia. Hawke Centre, University of SA. Light refreshments will follow.
$35 Book at BASS 131 246
Enquiries: Sonia 8207 7572 or online at www.adelaidefestival.com.au

NORTHERN LIGHTS
Celebrating one of the most beautiful cultural boulevards in the world for the duration of the Festival, the city’s cultural icons - the Art Gallery of South Australia, State Library of South Australia and South Australian Museum – will be painted with light and coloured with life. Every night during the Festival from dusk till 2am, artists from the internationally acclaimed The Electric Canvas, will transform their façades. Through a constantly changing array of perfect, jaw-dropping architectural projection, reflecting the heritage and function of these beautiful buildings, Colonel Light’s 19th-century vision will become a 21st-century vision in light.

PLANNING A SCHOOL VISIT?
To find out more about teacher briefing sessions and school group bookings for this exhibition, please contact our Education Officer on 8207 7033 Education Resource Kits available online at www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/education.html

EXHIBITION BOOK
The Bookshop is selling the Handle with Care catalogue for this wonderful exhibition at the special exhibition price of $29.95

SPONSORS
Adelaide Bank Festival of Arts  / Skyy Vodka  /  Australia Council

last modified 7 April 2008