The 2nd Athens Biennale 2009 HEAVEN is conceived as a multifaceted contemporary art festival that extends along the coastline of Athens, in the central areas of Palaio Faliro and Kallithea. XYZ (Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, Poka-Yio, Augoustinos Zenakos), the founders and artistic directors of the Athens Biennale have invited a select group of curators to contemplate Heaven, in a time that arguably is one of disappointment and conflict. The six exhibitions of the 2nd Athens Biennale 2009, designed by architect Andreas Angelidakis, take the form of autonomous approaches to this broad subject, that nevertheless communicate creatively and claim a degree of narrative cohesion. These six exhibitions are complemented by a series of performative events lasting all through the summer.

World Question Center curated by Chus Martinez

The departure point of Chus Martínez’s exhibition is to expand the limits of know through the development of working hypothesis; it will be entirely dedicated to the radical importance of questions. Heaven could be understood as a space for mere speculation. It seems easy but is not. Nothing is more difficult nowadays than to escape the logic of the ‘what for’. The logic of the show is simple: every one of the artists is requested to submit a work, a question, a thinking hypothesis in their own terms. Nonetheless, the show should be here conceived not from the artistic response to a topic, but as an assemblage of very different thinking logics. Logics that hopefully will help the viewer, but also the artists to develop further different interpretations of the near future.

Artists: Alexis Akrithakis, Michel Auder, Thomas Bayrle, Erick Beltran, The Callas, Jef Cornelis, Roberto Cuoghi, Marianna Castillo Deball, Luke Fowler, Dora García, Andrea Geyer, André Guedes, Dorothy Iannone, Ferdinand Kriwet, Maria Loboda, Babette Mangolte, Rosalind Nashashibi & Lucy Skaer, Maria Pask, Lisi Raskin, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Lasse Schmidt Hansen, Sue Tompkins, Kostis Velonis.

Live curated by Dimitris Papaioannou & Ζafos Xagoraris
For the Straight Way is Lost curated by Diana Baldon
Splendid Isolation, Athens curated by Cay Sophie Rabinowitz
Hotel Paradies curated by Nadja Argyropoulou
How many Angels can Dance on the Head of a Pin? curated by Christopher Marinos