For lovers of photography - and in this day and age, who isn't - Ballarat is your Mecca with the stellar Ballarat International Foto Biennale.
Ballarat, like all of Victoria’s regional cities, never fails to surprise with the depth and wonder of its artistic offerings. But then we’re met with experiences like the 10th Ballarat International Foto Biennale, levelling up Ballarat’s offerings and guaranteeing to blow your visual senses away!
Running from August 26th to October 22nd, 2023, this year’s Biennale boasts over 2000 mind-bending photographic works that’ll have your eyes begging for more.
Stay up to date with what’s happening within the region’s art scene here.
With some of the most prominent names in the world of photography, the Foto Biennale turns the regional Victorian city into a temporary cultural archive, boasting an artefact repository of global significance that will have you questioning reality and exploring the realms of imagination.
So with enough photos to shake a selfie stick at, what should you be most excited for? We’re glad you asked.
People Power – Platon
Exclusive to the Ballarat International Foto Biennale is the world premiere of People Power – Platon where audiences are encouraged to get up close with portraits taken by New York’s renowned Platon of headline makers and shakers of today.
People Power – Platon is an exhibition of arresting portraits of some of the most significant people of our time. From the glare of Putin to the rebellion of Pussy Riot, the contortion of Gaddafi to Michelle Obama, Adele and the art and expression of Vivienne Westwood, Platon captures a soulfulness, a narrative in their eyes, their essence in a single frame.
Platon will captivate audiences in Ballarat with his keynote presentation The Power of Unity: Rekindling The Spirit of Optimism as part of the festival launch weekend in the luxurious comfort of Regent Cinemas Ballarat.
As for the exhibition, view this World Premiere at the Art Gallery of Ballarat included with your festival pass.
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here, there, everywhere – Vineet Vohra
The work of internationally celebrated Indian street photographer Vineet Vohra will be highlighted in an in-depth display of the popular documentary-style photographer’s most important works in an Australian premiere.
Vohra is self-taught with a talent for capturing the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life. Based in New Delhi, he believes that photography has the power to transform our perspectives and encourages everyone to take up the camera and start exploring the world around them.
Considered one of the most influential street photographers of his generation, Vohra will also be holding very limited intimate workshops studying the streets and style of Ballarat.
Explore this exhibition for free at 43 Lydiard Street North / 52 Lydiard Street North / Police Lane / 40 Armstrong Street North.
The Stephanie Collection – Yvonne Todd
Yvonne Todd’s photographs can make you look twice. There is something not quite right – a discomfort, an awkward experience.
This New Zealand-based photographer is known for her unique and unconventional approach to portraiture. Her work challenges photographic clichés by manipulating traditional photographic styles to create unexpected and provocative relationships. Her unsettling images feature objects or characters in striking costumes and unnatural poses. Their unfathomable glossy complexions can appear doll-like or with a hint of ghoulishness: wigs, fake teeth, and prosthetics are highly styled and manipulated.
Todd’s work is not a commentary on beauty, but rather an exploration of the irrelevant and obscure. Her distinctive approach to photography has earned her a reputation as a standout figure in the New Zealand art scene and a significant contributor to contemporary art.
See it at the Art Gallery of Ballarat included with your festival pass.
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Instant Warhol – Andy Warhol
Instant Warhol takes us straight to Andy Warhol’s point of view, famous, fleeting, commercialised, constructed, in a series of his Polaroid photographs of people in the spotlight in the ‘70s and ‘80s. This amazing collection from the Brant Foundation in New York shows us Warhol’s understanding of the superficial nature of celebrity in American society, his obsession with the people behind the personas, and the fleeting nature of fame.
Many of the 56 images show the line and expression of famous faces including Mick Jagger, Liza Minnelli, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton, many of which would later be translated into Warhol’s iconic screen prints.
Instant Warhol is a fascinating social document of a time when celebrity, art world grittiness, New York, the Factory, Studio 54 and an expanding media scape were reimagining art, music, and popular culture.
Instant Warhol is a Ballarat International Foto Biennale exclusive and can only be seen during the Festival in Australia so consider this one a must!!
See it at the Art Gallery of Ballarat with a festival pass.
Unveiling Instant Warhol: A regional journey into the genius mind of the legendary Andy Warhol
Business in the front, party in the back! – David Cossini
David Cossini is a documentary photographer and storyteller based in Newcastle, Australia and specialising in immersive, long-form projects and portraiture.
His images are evocative, featuring subjects that are extreme, raw and at times unapologetically brutal. Instinctively drawn to the outliers, he chooses to document those on the fringes of society.
His series Business in the Front, Party in the Back! makes up part of the Core Program Outdoor for its
Australian Premiere.
See it free outdoors Regent Cinemas Ballarat, top floor, 49 Lydiard Street / The Sporting Globe, 1st floor balcony 201 Mair Street.
Cruising for a Bruising – Kyle Archie Knight
Kyle Archie Knight’s Cruising for a Bruising is a camp love letter to the Australian Suburbs. Growing up queer in outer-metropolitan Naarm (Melbourne), Knight found themselves drawn to explore the streets of their family neighbourhood. Their search for moments that capture the essence of suburbia result in a celebration of the surreal and the mundane, the humorous and the humdrum.
The exhibition and Knight’s debut photobook delve into family archives, alongside memories of suburbia and growing pains he experienced over the years. As a flâneur, Knight reconnects with past memories of estrangement, finding humour in what was once cold while expressing a lighter side of suburban Australia.
See this exhibition as part of the BIFB’s core program at The Mining Exchange, 12 Lydiard Street North. Tickets here.
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UV Songlines: Illuminating ancestral roots – Colleen Raven Strangways
As a proud Arabana, Mudbura, Gurindji and Warlpiri woman, Colleen Raven Strangways’s photography is infused with a spirit of activism and acknowledgement, sparked by her relationship with courageous First Nations women and her trailblazing father.
Strangway has a strong drive to take photos of Aboriginal culture and tell the positive stories of the strength and beauty she sees in her community. Her portraits are an energising force and a counterpoint to the photos we are accustomed to seeing in magazines and newspapers, showing Aboriginal people in despair.
Her new series will illuminate and immerse visitors in the stories and songlines of First Nations elders as ‘knowledge holders’. By revealing a feeling of their connectedness, movement and spirituality, Strangways enhances the pivotal role of elders in our society.
Explore this World Premiere with a festival pass at 52 Lydiard Street North.
How to Fly – Erik Johansson
Experience the surreal landscapes of Swedish artist Erik Johansson, in this Australian exclusive exhibition across two locations, the Ballarat Mining Exchange and RACV Goldfields Resort at Creswick. How To Fly is a journey through the imaginary words he creates that seem almost real but are a composite of many images.
Johansson combines photographic elements to create images that seem real, but the logical inconsistencies make us question what we see. Influenced by his childhood memories of the Swedish countryside, Johansson’s work incorporates Nordic nature, wide open landscapes, and small red houses.
There are no computer-generated, illustrated or stock photos in Johannson’s artworks, just seamless combinations of his own photographs. It is a long process, and he only creates 6-8 new images per year. With a keen eye for detail and mastery of production, his optical illusions present inner worlds that defy reality.
See it at The Mining Exchange, 12 Lydiard Street North, with your festival pass.
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Recital – Christian Thompson
Following on from the success of his Sydney performance, acclaimed artist Dr Christian Thompson brings his awe-inspiring live reimagining of Recital to the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute
This is a rare performance and rendition of sound works informed by two decades of sound practice.
Re-imagining Thompson’s traditional language, Bidjara, now categorised as an extinct language, witness the live revival of the Bidjara language, motivated by the notion that just a single spoken word re-classifies it as a living one.
Recital takes place on Saturday 26 August at Ballarat Mechanics Institute. Get tickets here.
More highlights worth exploring:
The Ballarat International Foto Biennale will also feature world-first exhibitions from Stephen Dupont with Fucked Up Fotos, Michael Jalaru Torres with Vessel, and the Australian exclusive of the Michael Kantor Portrait Prize.
Emboldening the quirky corners and facade of Ballarat, Lisa Roet’s 9 metre-high Golden Monkey will encourage visitors to look up and around the stunning Goldfields city and Kate Ballis’ Portals to Atlantis will take commuters to new worlds at the Ballarat Railway Station.
Alongside the core program, there’s also the free open program which features the incredible A Wall of Women by Women which includes over 100 images made by international female street photographers; the compelling work of Slender O-Kenoshi, Memories of Childhood by Xiaolan Yao, Laurie Brackley’s Model Citizens featuring 25 portraits of models from modelling agencies in Sydney in the early 90’s; and Mark Davidson’s Life Was Good Here, an ongoing series which serves as a visual exploration of the withering state of the urban Australian environment, with a particular focus on Melbourne, and a changing relationship with the city.
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Ballarat’s beautiful galleries, historic buildings, laneways and iconic streetscapes are the core of this major event which encourages art lovers to explore the city and experience Ballarat through a new lens.
Ballarat International Foto Biennale is on from 26 August to 22 October 2023 in Ballarat, Victoria. Tickets are on sale now. For further information and to view the full program, head here.
