16e biennale de Lyon, My Big Geneva

More than 200 artists and creators of emotions focused on the universal theme of fragility for this 16th edition of the Lyon Biennale. Spread over 13 different locations, the Fagor Factory is the BIG epicenter: 29,000m2 of digital works, installations, objects, paintings, etc. 

Former industrial jewels, the Fagor-Brandt factories employed 1,800 workers in the early 1980s. In the year 2000, there were only 400 of them before production was partially relocated; the factories were then sold to manufacture electric cars before shutting down in 2015.

The main venue of the Lyon Biennale sets the tone.

 

Fragility…

In Latin, fragilitas means “what can break” whereas in Greek, it is a weakness – astheneia – a lack of strength – sthenos – physical or moral.

For Kant, fragility is neither a flaw nor a burden but the condition of what is most noble in the human being.

Camille Riquier wrote: “The weak and the fragile in us when they bend under the weight of the unexpected, are what put us in the presence of what is truly great outside of us, and which is its strength”.

Through objects created over nearly two millennia, works from the past and the present, “Manifesto of Fragility” explores the link between fragility and our capacity for resistance.

 

Beyrouth & the Golden Sixties 

Through 230 works of art by 34 artists and 300 archival documents, Beirut and the Golden Sixties is a stop with images, sounds, and movements on a transitional period of the Lebanese capital and reminds us that poetry is a power in the face of chaos.

 

We Were The Last To Stay

In Hall 4 of the Fagor Factory, the 1900m2 work We Were The Last To Stay by Hans Op de Beeck was specially created for the 16th Lyon Biennale. You will enter a world in monochrome gray where once lived a community withdrawn into itself, sharing the same idealistic dream of living in peace… it is an after-party… where the only movement is the flow of water.

 

At the exit of the factory transformed into a center of contemporary art, the biennale pays tribute to the gastronomic city of Lyon with its café, restaurant, and snack bar Ravigote. I particularly recommend the squash focaccia. If you prefer a city lunch break, then head to the bistro Chez Abel

 

From September 14 to December 31, 2022
Tuesday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
On weekends, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.