SEVILLE, SPAIN.-Peter Weibel, general director of the ZKM Karlsruhe Centre for Art and Media (Germany), will be the artistic director of the biennial’s next edition in 2008 at the head of a multidisciplinary team.

In this modern age of information and communication technologies, where our worldview is increasingly more dominated by media influence, a contemporary look at the ties between art, science, technology and architecture will be the focus of the third edition of the International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Seville (Biacs3) in autumn 2008. The Biacs Foundation has chosen Peter Weibel (Odessa, Ukraine, 1944), general director of the ZKM- Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (Centre for Art and Media) of Karlsruhe (Germany) to supervise work on this project, which is already underway, and lead the team that will define the artistic content of the upcoming edition. The project will include several different sections, emphasising an interdisciplinary approach to the theme that is ultimately selected.

The premise of the project harkens back to the age of European imperialism, when Spain played a crucial role with its knowledge of navigation, astronomy and engineering that helped it to become a dominant world power and maintain its influence for several centuries. Since that time and up to the present day, the tendency has been to democratise the use of technology; “from personal computers and mobile phones to faucets and light switches, new technologies allow the user to adapt the environment to his needs, anytime, anywhere… Can we conclude that technology is artificial nature created by man? Is it coherent to ask if technology helps man to master nature and technology humanises nature…?” Using these and other questions as a conceptual starting point, the Biacs3 will attempt to address how and to what degree contemporary art is affected by this approach. “In the global sphere of Internet, there are countless places for storage where each user can put his own creativity to the test. In the age of Youtube.com, Flickr.com, MySpace.com and Second Life, the artist no longer has a monopoly on creativity. With today’s resources, everyone can become a creator,” Peter Weibel points out.

The Biacs Foundation will officially present the Biacs3 in Seville at the end of October, and the artistic team in charge of this third edition, led by Peter Weibel, will offer a detailed summary of the exhibition’s contents.