Biennial of the Americas 2019 fills Denver with art and empathy

“Jaguara” takes over Civic Center at ... — Sonic Design, provided by Biennial of the Americas
“Jaguara” takes over Civic Center at the end of the 2019 Biennial of the Americas.

PUBLISHED: September 22, 2019 at 12:20 p.m. | UPDATED: September 22, 2019 at 12:25 p.m.

From a marketing perspective, the Biennial of the Americas pretty much starts from scratch every two years.

Denver’s celebration of the hemisphere’s best art and ideas follows a similar pattern each time it comes around: a couple of large-scale art exhibits and a festival-like concert, a few confabs on hot social topics, one or two famous faces appearing in public roundtables. And still, people fail to grasp its concept.

When it comes to the biennial, the most common question everyone asks is not when is it, but what is it.

If you go

The Biennial of the Americas takes place Sept. 25-28 at various locations around the city. Some events are free, others cost money or require tickets. There’s info on the website: biennialoftheamericas.org.

The biennial’s new director, FloraJane DiRienzo, a veteran of the city’s cultural nonprofit scene, knew that going into the event’s latest edition, and so she faced it head-on. The upcoming biennial, she decided, would shape itself with a lot of input from people and organizations in the community. Folks would know what it is because many of them helped develop the programming, and they’d bring their own audiences to its offerings, making the marketing push a little less necessary at the outset.

So she interviewed, surveyed and convened, canvassing more than 100 interested parties — artists and presenters, educators, entrepreneurs and others — asking them, “How can the biennial be with everybody and for everybody,” as she put it during an interview last week.

And what did she come up with for 2019? Basically the same concept as before, only more interesting, and with a few different opportunities for locals who want to join the happenings, set for Sept. 25-28.

There’s still a celeb in the mix, airline and music magnate Richard Branson, who will talk about himself at a forum, and things still culminate with a big, outdoor fest in Civic Center, this time featuring Colombian multi-media performers Sonic Design Studio, who grew a following after swell reviews at a recent Burning Man fest.

There’s plenty of big art, too, including the very fun and already-in-progess “A Mile in My Shoes,” a giant, interactive shoe box set up downtown where visitors literally walk around in someone else’s shoes while listening to their personal story through a portable audio player.

But it gets good in the smaller details.

In the past, the biennial’s “clinicas” have been mostly a mystery to Denverites. The public wasn’t invited to sit in on this series of roundtable discussions that took place in small conference rooms as the other, higher-profile activities went on, bringing together dozens of progressive activists and social workers from places like Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Nicaragua.

This time, the most serious, and the most relevant, part of the biennial’s schedule opens up to spectators. It’ll be pared down to a more reasonable number of speakers and moved to audience-friendly venues.

So — if you sign up on the biennial’s website — you can listen in on various subjects. Like a Wednesday roundtable titled “Bringing Empathy Home: Housing Innovations from Abroad,” which will feature international experts who have successfully tackled a problem that is very close to home in housing-crunched Denver.

Or a Thursday morning talk titled “The Future Is Feeling: Empathy in the World of Artificial Intelligence,” where more experts will talk about how robots are taking over the planet and how we can keep them from being bad actors.

Or another Thursday chat, titled “Slow Down Your Fashion: Trends in Sustainable Clothing,” which is destined to make you feel guilty about having two dozen pairs of jeans, but might just provide advice on how to be a more responsible, and still good-looking, global citizen.

Of course, if all that sounds a little serious (and I get it), there’s still plenty of art to take in, and it’s promising.

In addition to the shoe box show, which is powered by all-local stories, two Colorado artists with something to say are exhibiting. Suchitra Mattai will set up her recently developed installation, “Imperfect Isometry,” described as “massive tapestries woven with vintage saris and video footage of international borders and barriers.”

Joining her is Brandon Bullard, with “#28 Rubric,” which uses sight and sound to create “a visual representation of textile waste produced each year.”

Because this is an international happening, the biennial is importing another Colombian artist, Adriana Ramirez, whose “I Am Going to ______” invites interactors to play with bright orange circles and consider the consequences of all the big and small choices they make in their lives.

Of course, if all that sounds just as serious (and I get that, too; the biennial is kind of thinky, in general), there’s some exciting performances in store.

Most interesting — as in, get your tickets now — is Cuban performance artist Carlos Martiel, whose adventurous works challenge perception and take on the political and social ethics of the world, though through a super intimate lens. Martiel is the biennial’s get; he’s brave, and it’s brave to have him.

On the other side, the most entertaining and accessible event will likely be “Cósmico Americas” at Civic Center, featuring Sonic Design Studio, consisting of the duo Leonardo Vilar and Catalina Pulido. Their piece, “Jaguara,” uses high-tech tricks to take audiences on a trip through the Amazon jungle to witness the plight of endangered plants and animals. This is a big thing, and not just because it’s free and there will be food, art and themed cocktails, but also because there will be humungous projections of tropical imagery on the front of the City and County Building.

Lightening up the happy stuff about deforestation (yes, please), are appearances by local band Kiltro and Colombian band Systema Solar; both are a lot of fun and, if it doesn’t rain, the night could be memorable.

There are a lot of ways to have your Biennial of the Americas next week, and it’s worth checking out the schedule online. There are some quirky things hiding in the lineup: a meditation session at the Clyfford Still Museum; film screenings; a dinner featuring “Soul Food Scholar” Adrian Miller; and an entire panel discussion on how Topo Chico bottled drinking water is taking over the planet.

“In some ways, it’ll feel like the usual, but in other ways, it will feel like a whole other biennial,” said DiRienzo.

It’s good to support this organization, despite its identity crisis, which will never be resolved in the short-attention-span world we live in. So, maybe just go with it. Denver wants to be an international city, and this fest helps to get us there. The more Colombians and Cubans and Chileans here, the better, I say.

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