Biennale de Lyon - History

2011
15 September - 31 December 2011

A Terrible Beauty is Born
Guest curator: Victoria Noorthoorn. Aprox. 60 artists and groups at four venues. More information in Universes in Universe.

2009
16 September 2009 - 3 January 2010

The Spectacle of the Everyday
Guest curator: Hou Hanru. Aprox. 50 artists and groups at four venues. More information in Universes in Universe.

2007
19 September 2007 - 6 January 2008

The 00s: The History of a Decade That Has Not Yet Been Named
Stéphanie Moisdon and Hans Ulrich Obrist invited 50 curators from around the world to chose a work embodying the decade. 111 artists in 4 venues.
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2005
14 September - 31 December 2005

Experiencing Duration
Conducted by Nicolas Bourriaud and Jérôme Sans. 63 artists from 19 countries showed 290 works.
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2003
17 September 2003 - 4 January 2004

It Happened Tomorrow
Curated by Le Consortium, starting a trilogy dedicated to the question of temporality; 75 artists. For the first time in several locations.
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2001
23 June - 23 September 2001

Connivence
Thierry Raspail and Thierry Prat invited 7 guest curators to consider the convergence of different forms of art.
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2000
27 June - 24 September 2000

Sharing Exoticisms
Guest curator: Jean-Hubert Martin. Works by 140 artists. A committee of anthropologists, including Marc Augé and Alban Bensa, was made part of the artistic project. The Biennale was exceptionally held in an even year, to celebrate the new millennium.
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1997
9 July - 24 September 1997

The Other
Curator: Harald Szeemann; works by 88 artists. This 4th edition marked a new step because Szeemann proved that Lyon, compared with other Biennials, could play its game well by asserting its will to think globally - at a time when the word wasn't commonplace yet - and in terms of multiculturalism.
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1995
20 December 1995 - 8 February 1996

Interactivity, Moving Pictures, Video
Curator: Georges Rey; works by 64 artists. The 3rd Biennale inaugurated the new Museum of Contemporary Art, which co-produced with the Biennial a collection of lost historical pieces, together with new works.
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1993
3 September - 13 October 1993

Together They Are Changing the World
The 2nd Biennial intended, 7 years before the end of the century, to reconsider 20th century art in the light of the "Dada and Fluxus" pair. The presence of painters, poets, writers and philosophers highlighted the interaction between this century's plastic-art and verbal transformations. Works by aprox. 50 artists.

1991
3 September - 13 October 1991

The Love of Art
69 artists were each given a space equivalent to 120 square meters closed by a door, in which they were to produce 69 original works.