In the art world, a Biennale, Italian for "biennial" or "every other year", is a large-scale international contemporary art exhibition. The term was popularised by the Venice Biennale, which was first held in 1895, but the concept of such a large scale, and intentionally international event goes back to at least the 1851 Great Exhibition in London.
Wim Delvoye is a Belgian neo-conceptual artist widely recognized for combining in his inventive and often shocking projects philosophical ideas, innovative use of materials, and a passion for craftsmanship. He blurs the boundaries between traditional art and the digital realm of contemporary artistic practices, creating aerodynamic, mathematically precise, and intricate sculptures that take the art and design to new levels of invention, while offering a perceptive and playful commentary on contemporary society. As the critic Robert Enright wrote in the art magazine Border Crossings, "Delvoye is involved in a way of making art that reorients our understanding of how beauty can be created". Wim Delvoye has an eclectic oeuvre, exposing his interest in a range of themes, from bodily function, and scatology to the function of art in the current market economy, and numerous subjects in between. He lives and works in Ghent (Belgium).
The Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst is a relatively new museum located in Ghent, Belgium, and is renowned both for its permanent collection and for its provocative exhibitions.
Knight Jan Hoet was the Belgian founder of SMAK in Ghent, Belgium.
Sislej Xhafa is a Kosovar contemporary artist, based in New York.
Michaël Borremans is a Belgian painter and filmmaker who lives and works in Ghent. His painting technique draws on 18th-century art, as well as the works of Édouard Manet and Degas. The artist also cites the Spanish court painter Diego Velázquez as an important influence. In recent years, he has been using photographs he has made himself or made-to-order sculptures as the basis for his paintings.
Guillaume Bijl is a Belgian conceptual and an installation artist. He lives and works in Antwerp.
Mark Manders is a Dutch artist, currently living and working in Ronse, Belgium. His work consists mainly of installations, drawings and sculptures. He is probably best known for his large bronze figures that look like rough-hewn, wet or peeling clay. Typical of his work is also the arrangement of random objects, such as tables, chairs, light bulbs, blankets and dead animals.
The Melbourne International Biennial 1999 was a cultural initiative of the City of Melbourne in partnership with Arts Victoria, the Victoria Department of Premier and Cabinet, the Ian Potter Museum of Art, and The University of Melbourne. Originally called "Melbourne Arts International", the event later changed name once the University of Melbourne was able to confirm the involvement of Frances Lindsay and Juliana Enberg, which resulted in a successful fund-raising campaign that increased the initial budget of $1 million. The first edition, curated by Engberg and organized by Bala Starr was titled "Signs of Life", and ran from 14 May through 27 June 1999. Despite having promising figures and the confirmation of Enberg as artistic director, the institutions attached to the project eventually pulled out and the Melbourne Biennial was discontinued after only one edition.
Hugo Debaere (1958–1994) was a Belgian contemporary artist. His practice spanned a broad range of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, installation art, mixed media and performance.
Danny Matthys is a Flemish - Belgian visual artist, which was originally known as conceptual artist of international reputation. In the beginning of his career in the 1960s, he was a pioneer in Polaroid art and Video art.
Louis Van Lint was a Belgian painter, major figure of the Belgian post-war abstraction.
Koen Vanmechelen is a Belgian artist who began his career in the early 1990s. Central to his work is the concept of bio-cultural diversity, which he investigates through the domestic chicken and its ancestral species, the red junglefowl or Gallus gallus.
Catherine de Zegher is a Belgian curator and a modern and contemporary art historian. She has a degree in art history and archaeology from the University of Ghent.
Kris Martin is a Belgian conceptual visual artist. His work consists of monumental and small-scale sculptures, drawings and interventions.
Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi is a Nigerian artist, art historian, and curator, currently curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He was raised in Enugu and studied under sculptor El Anatsui at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, before traveling as an artist and curator. In the United States, he completed his doctorate at Emory University in 2013 and became the curator of African art at Dartmouth College's Hood Museum of Art. In 2017, he moved to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Nzewi has curated the Nigerian Afrika Heritage Biennial three times, the Dak'Art biennial in 2014, and independent exhibitions at Atlanta's High Museum of Art and New York's Richard Taittinger Gallery. Nzewi also exhibited internationally as an artist and artist-in-resident.
Wim Goes Architectuur is an architecture practice founded by Wim Goes in 1999. Next to his architecture practice, Wim Goes has published drawings and texts on architecture and is teaching at the KU Leuven Faculty of Architecture since 2005. He received his master's degree from Sint-Lucas School of Science & Arts in 1993 and attended the 2006 Glenn Murcutt International Master Class in Australia and the 2008 Master Class in New Zealand with Ian Athfield. He worked on construction sites and in workshops before establishing Wim Goes Architectuur.
Yang Jiechang is a contemporary artist of Chinese origin. He is known for his proficiency in traditional Chinese media.
Ricardo Rodríguez Brey is a Cuban conceptual artist, sculptor, installation artist and draftsman.
The Belgian pavilion houses Belgium's national representation during the Venice Biennale arts festivals.
