Brook Andrew

"One of the most important things NIRIN is doing, by turning what a Biennale can be on its head, is challenging the legacy of a Eurocentric view of art and practice. The 22nd Biennale of Sydney approach is very much about collaboration and many different communities have come together to create these spaces. NIRIN is a platform where diverse and often marginalised voices of the world converge and discuss issues that resonate today."

- Brook Andrew

"The 22nd Biennale of Sydney, titled NIRIN, is an expansive international exhibition reaching across Sydney, accompanied by a public program, titled NIRIN WIR. 

NIRIN (meaning ‘edge’) and NIRIN WIR (meaning ‘edge of the sky’) are Wiradjuri words. First Nations languages are used throughout the Biennale to highlight the urgency of reviving and sustaining the future of language diversity.

NIRIN brings seeming opposites together, like the everyday experience of throw-away contradictions and changing emotions colliding to reveal hidden histories, or self-representation that may both confront and empower something unimaginable. 

In urgent times of shifting boundaries and conflicts between humanity, nature and spirituality, we desperately need to alter our actions to catch up with expedient change and show respect for ancient cultures. Now is a potent time to heal and feel the rush and tension of new futuristic possibilities.

NIRIN proposes that creativity is an important means of truth-telling, of directly addressing unresolved anxieties that stalk our times and ourselves.  

Most importantly, NIRIN is a place from which to see the world through different eyes, to embrace our many edges and imagine pride in ecologically harmonious and self-defined futures. It provides an opportunity to explore both ancient ties and new kinships borne of sensitivity, desire and multiplicity." 

The following text is an excerpt from Artistic Director Brook Andrew's entry in the 22nd Biennale of Sydney: NIRIN catalogue.

Artistic Director
22nd Biennale of Sydney

Associate Researcher, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, UK; DPhil candidate, Ruskin School of Art, Oxford, UK; Associate Professor, MADA, Monash University; Honorary Senior Fellow, Indigenous Studies Unit and the School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne; Enterprise Professor in Interdisciplinary Practice, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne.

When I was first invited to consider being Artistic Director of the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, as an artist all I could think was 'yes! I want an artist-led, First Nations-led storm.' To support artists and creatives today, at a time when their voices need to be loud and visible – to support their vision, to drive their voice and to bring along their communities and ideas.   

First Nations languages are used throughout the Biennale to highlight the urgency of reviving and sustaining the future of language diversity. NIRIN, meaning ‘edge’ in my mother’s Wiradjuri tongue, is inspired by these themes: 

DHAAGUN Earth: Sovereignty and Working Together 
BAGARAY-BANG Healing 
YIRAWY–DHURAY Yam-Connection: Food
GURRAY Transformation 
MURIGUWAL GIILAND Different Stories 
NGAWAAL-GUYUNGAN Powerful-Ideas: The Power of Objects 
BILA River: Environment 

NIRIN brings seeming opposites together; like the everyday experience of throw-away contradictions and changing emotions colliding to reveal hidden histories, or self-representation that may both confront and empower something unimaginable. In urgent times of shifting boundaries and conflicts between humanity, nature and spirituality, we desperately need to alter our actions to catch up with expedient change and show respect for ancient cultures. Now is a potent time to heal and feel the rush and tension of new futuristic possibilities."