Turncoats: Bored of Biennales
Bored of Biennales
Hundreds of biennales now swamp the global design, architecture and art worlds with a slew of under-funded industry jamborees. Often impenetrable and frequently more concerned with press than participants, these grandiose platforms staple-gun a veneer of glamor onto what are really badly paid and rather pretentious trade shows.
The most recent Venice biennale is a tech bro fever dream bristling with AI-generated text and exhibits sponsored by multinational corporates. Others are no better, dependent on contributors foregoing basic workers’ rights to string out detached lofty themes into mediocre curatorial spectacles with negligible wider impact.
Meanwhile a cacophony of galleries and museums compete for attention and dwindling funding, obsessing over the quantity rather than quality of their audiences’ experience. The curatorial models of the gallery world are dragging architecture and design into a discursive cul-de-sac, ruled by trends and over-intellectualisation, separating them from the realities of construction, engineering and ordinary people.
There is nothing to gain from private views at institutions propped up on oil and opioid money, just as there is nothing cool about “radical new ways” of showing off colonial plunder. The era of the international design festival, the jet-setting celebrity curator and architecture’s love affair with the trappings of gallery culture must end. Let Venice sink!
(All photos were taken at the most recent Venice Biennale)
Speakers TBA!
Event:
7pm (doors 6pm), Thursday 18 September, Set Social, 55a Nigel Rd, London SE15 4NP
Set Social has a (brilliantly affordable) bar serving cocktails and other drinks. Arrive early to avoid long queues for a negroni. Turncoats is a feisty mix of debate and ideas. Come armed with something to say and don’t be afraid to seize the mic.
Partners:
Turncoats is presented in partnership with the Future Architects Front and Architecture Foundation.
Tickets:
Solidarity £15 – Full time job? Working as a salaried curator? Recently landed that DYCP grant? Get this one and support those who are out of work to come.
Waged £12 – Regular price. If everyone buys these we break event. Tell your curator boss that it’s an important CPD opportunity.
Unwaged £8 – No work? Spending all your time contributing to biennales for zero fees. Get this one. (But remember they are limited so if you buy an unwaged ticket despite having a job you're preventing someone who needed it from coming at all)
Volunteer £0 – Get a free ticket by volunteering on the night. You’ll need to be available to arrive one hour before doors open and stay for half an hour after the show finishes to help pack down. Email Phin on phinharper@gmail.com to sign up.
(nb: if all ticket levels feel out of reach, please get in touch and we’ll work something out!)
No physical tickets, your name will be on the door. The site will show an error message until you enter an address in the checkout. Sold out? Sign up for alerts when new tickets are released.
Refunds:
100% — up to 10 days before event
50% — up to 5 days before event
30% — up to 48 hours before event
Bored of Biennales
Hundreds of biennales now swamp the global design, architecture and art worlds with a slew of under-funded industry jamborees. Often impenetrable and frequently more concerned with press than participants, these grandiose platforms staple-gun a veneer of glamor onto what are really badly paid and rather pretentious trade shows.
The most recent Venice biennale is a tech bro fever dream bristling with AI-generated text and exhibits sponsored by multinational corporates. Others are no better, dependent on contributors foregoing basic workers’ rights to string out detached lofty themes into mediocre curatorial spectacles with negligible wider impact.
Meanwhile a cacophony of galleries and museums compete for attention and dwindling funding, obsessing over the quantity rather than quality of their audiences’ experience. The curatorial models of the gallery world are dragging architecture and design into a discursive cul-de-sac, ruled by trends and over-intellectualisation, separating them from the realities of construction, engineering and ordinary people.
There is nothing to gain from private views at institutions propped up on oil and opioid money, just as there is nothing cool about “radical new ways” of showing off colonial plunder. The era of the international design festival, the jet-setting celebrity curator and architecture’s love affair with the trappings of gallery culture must end. Let Venice sink!
(All photos were taken at the most recent Venice Biennale)
Speakers TBA!
Event:
7pm (doors 6pm), Thursday 18 September, Set Social, 55a Nigel Rd, London SE15 4NP
Set Social has a (brilliantly affordable) bar serving cocktails and other drinks. Arrive early to avoid long queues for a negroni. Turncoats is a feisty mix of debate and ideas. Come armed with something to say and don’t be afraid to seize the mic.
Partners:
Turncoats is presented in partnership with the Future Architects Front and Architecture Foundation.
Tickets:
Solidarity £15 – Full time job? Working as a salaried curator? Recently landed that DYCP grant? Get this one and support those who are out of work to come.
Waged £12 – Regular price. If everyone buys these we break event. Tell your curator boss that it’s an important CPD opportunity.
Unwaged £8 – No work? Spending all your time contributing to biennales for zero fees. Get this one. (But remember they are limited so if you buy an unwaged ticket despite having a job you're preventing someone who needed it from coming at all)
Volunteer £0 – Get a free ticket by volunteering on the night. You’ll need to be available to arrive one hour before doors open and stay for half an hour after the show finishes to help pack down. Email Phin on phinharper@gmail.com to sign up.
(nb: if all ticket levels feel out of reach, please get in touch and we’ll work something out!)
No physical tickets, your name will be on the door. The site will show an error message until you enter an address in the checkout. Sold out? Sign up for alerts when new tickets are released.
Refunds:
100% — up to 10 days before event
50% — up to 5 days before event
30% — up to 48 hours before event
Bored of Biennales
Hundreds of biennales now swamp the global design, architecture and art worlds with a slew of under-funded industry jamborees. Often impenetrable and frequently more concerned with press than participants, these grandiose platforms staple-gun a veneer of glamor onto what are really badly paid and rather pretentious trade shows.
The most recent Venice biennale is a tech bro fever dream bristling with AI-generated text and exhibits sponsored by multinational corporates. Others are no better, dependent on contributors foregoing basic workers’ rights to string out detached lofty themes into mediocre curatorial spectacles with negligible wider impact.
Meanwhile a cacophony of galleries and museums compete for attention and dwindling funding, obsessing over the quantity rather than quality of their audiences’ experience. The curatorial models of the gallery world are dragging architecture and design into a discursive cul-de-sac, ruled by trends and over-intellectualisation, separating them from the realities of construction, engineering and ordinary people.
There is nothing to gain from private views at institutions propped up on oil and opioid money, just as there is nothing cool about “radical new ways” of showing off colonial plunder. The era of the international design festival, the jet-setting celebrity curator and architecture’s love affair with the trappings of gallery culture must end. Let Venice sink!
(All photos were taken at the most recent Venice Biennale)
Speakers TBA!
Event:
7pm (doors 6pm), Thursday 18 September, Set Social, 55a Nigel Rd, London SE15 4NP
Set Social has a (brilliantly affordable) bar serving cocktails and other drinks. Arrive early to avoid long queues for a negroni. Turncoats is a feisty mix of debate and ideas. Come armed with something to say and don’t be afraid to seize the mic.
Partners:
Turncoats is presented in partnership with the Future Architects Front and Architecture Foundation.
Tickets:
Solidarity £15 – Full time job? Working as a salaried curator? Recently landed that DYCP grant? Get this one and support those who are out of work to come.
Waged £12 – Regular price. If everyone buys these we break event. Tell your curator boss that it’s an important CPD opportunity.
Unwaged £8 – No work? Spending all your time contributing to biennales for zero fees. Get this one. (But remember they are limited so if you buy an unwaged ticket despite having a job you're preventing someone who needed it from coming at all)
Volunteer £0 – Get a free ticket by volunteering on the night. You’ll need to be available to arrive one hour before doors open and stay for half an hour after the show finishes to help pack down. Email Phin on phinharper@gmail.com to sign up.
(nb: if all ticket levels feel out of reach, please get in touch and we’ll work something out!)
No physical tickets, your name will be on the door. The site will show an error message until you enter an address in the checkout. Sold out? Sign up for alerts when new tickets are released.
Refunds:
100% — up to 10 days before event
50% — up to 5 days before event
30% — up to 48 hours before event