Biennale of Sydney Announces David Elliott as Artistic Director for 2010

EDINBURGH.-The Biennale of Sydney has today announced the appointment of eminent curator David Elliott as the Artistic Director of the 2010 Biennale of Sydney. “We are extremely pleased that David Elliott has accepted our invitation to become the Artistic Director of the 17th Biennale of Sydney,” Marah Braye says. “He is a dynamic curator with a very unique approach to contemporary art. Whilst being a truly international figure, he is also very familiar with Australia and Australian artists and we look forward to working with him on an exciting, multi-faceted event for the 2010 Biennale of Sydney.”

UK-born, David Elliott is a renowned and innovative curator. He has held several influential directorships with major international art museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford (UK); Moderna Museet [The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art] in Stockholm; and was founding Director of Mori Art Museum in Tokyo; and Istanbul Museum of Modern Art [Istanbul Modern]. He was also, for six years, President of CIMAM (International Committee of ICOM for Museums of Modern and Contemporary Art).

Currently based in London, Berlin and Istanbul, David Elliott is considered one of the most charismatic and insightful curators of today, respected for his curatorial interest in connections between the visual arts and other arts genres, and for ground-breaking exhibitions such as: ‘Wounds: between democracy and redemption in contemporary art’ (1998); ‘Happiness: a survival guide for art and life’ (2003); ‘Follow me! Chinese art at the turn of the millennium’ (2005); ‘Hatsu-yume [First Dream]: the video art of Bill Viola’ (2006); and ‘From Ottoman Empire to Turkish Republic: modernity at a time of change’ (2007).