FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art
An American City: Eleven Cultural Exercises
July 14–September 30, 2018
FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art announces its first group of participating artists, artists-in-residence and presenting partners for its first edition, titled An American City: Eleven Cultural Exercises, running July 14, 2018 through September 30, 2018. Conceived of by FRONT’s Artistic Directors Michelle Grabner and Jens Hoffmann, this multipart presentation of interconnected “cultural exercises” will investigate the significance and meaning of staging a large-scale international triennial in the contemporary context. Bringing together more than 55 local, national and international artists across mediums and disciplines, FRONT will partner with sites throughout the city of Cleveland and beyond to explore artistic collaborations, intellectual exchanges and curatorial dialogues connecting the city and the Great Lakes region to broader global, political and economic networks. FRONT’s ambitious program will weave critical approaches to museum exhibitions, public and educational programs, residencies, publications and research strategies in a complex presentation.
FRONT will collaborate with cultural institutions and site-specific locations in Cleveland, foregrounding meaningful partnerships within the city’s cultural fabric and urban history to present focused projects, oscillating between large-scale commissions and exhibitions by recognized artists and emerging practitioners. Grabner and Hoffmann will develop these exhibitions in close collaboration with the institutions’ respective curators.
“As an experimental program of exhibitions, residencies and public events, FRONT investigates what it means to stage a large-scale international biennial or triennial today, looking carefully at the feasibility, necessity and structures of large art events, proposing alternatives and reprioritizing typical exhibition hierarchies,” says FRONT’s Executive Director, Fred Bidwell.
Describing the exhibition, FRONT Artistic Director Jens Hoffmann said, “Over the course of the year leading up to the opening, FRONT will work to examine the local, regional and global influences that have shaped a 21st century American city located outside the traditional centers of cultural power and production in the United States.”
“An American City considers the complex transformations that Cleveland, Ohio, a medium-size city in the center of the country, has undergone in recent decades,” says FRONT Artistic Director Michelle Grabner, “and examine how Cleveland’s particular history might parallel those of other cities in the United States and around the world.”
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS & ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE AS OF JULY 14, 2017
Asian Dope Boys (Beijing, China)
Nasser Al-Salem (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia)
Juan Araujo (Lisbon, Portugal)*
Dana Awartani (London, United Kingdom/Jeddah, Saudi Arabia)*
Eric Baudelaire (Paris, France)
Dawoud Bey (Chicago, USA)
Barbara Bloom (New York, USA)
Candice Breitz (Berlin, Germany)
Nicholas Buffon (New York, USA)
A.K. Burns (New York, USA)*
Gerard Byrne (Dublin, IRE)
Sean Connelly (Honolulu, USA)*
Sarah Crowner (Los Angeles, USA)
Abraham Cruzvillegas (Mexico City, Mexico)
Marlon de Azambuja (Madrid, Spain)
Casey Jane Ellison (Los Angeles, USA)
Harrell Fletcher (Portland, USA)*
Claire Fontaine (Paris, France)
Simon Fujiwara (Berlin, Germany)
Cyprien Gaillard (Berlin, Germany)
Dani Gal (Tel Aviv, Israel)
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (Paris, France)
Maryam Jafri (Copenhagen, Denmark/New York, USA)
Cui Jie (Beijing, China)
Hao Jing Ban (Beijing, China)
Li Jinghu (Dongguan, China)
William E. Jones (Los Angeles, USA)
Alex Jovanovich (New York, USA)
Lin Ke (Beijing, China)*
Mike Kelley [deceased]
Luisa Lambri (Milan, Italy)
Guillaume Leblon (Paris, France/New York, USA)*
Adriana Martínez (Bogotá, Colombia)*
Laura Huertes Millán (Bogotá, Colombia)
Adriana Minoliti (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Sarah Morris (New York, USA)
Naeem Mohaiemen (Dhaka, Bangladesh)
Kirsten Pieroth (Berlin, Germany)
Michael Rakowitz (Chicago, USA)
Cheng Ran (Beijing, China)
Jennifer Reeder (Chicago, USA)
John Riepenhoff (Milwaukee, USA)*
Kay Rosen (New York, USA)
Allen Ruppersberg (Los Angeles/New York, USA)
Tino Sehgal (Berlin, Germany)
Indre Šerpytytė (London, United Kingdom)*
Yinka Shonibare, MBE (RA) (London, United Kingdom)
Katrín Sigurdardóttir (New York, USA)
Cally Spooner (London, United Kingdom)*
Julian Stanczak [deceased]
Martine Syms (Los Angeles, USA)
Zhou Tao (Guangzhou, China)
Jim Trainor (New York, USA)
Philip Vanderhyden (New York, USA)
Jan Van der Ploeg (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Búrca (São Paolo, Brazil)
Carey Young (London, United Kingdom)