Positively Unassertive: Dancing in the Art Gallery of NSW

Facilitating the Salon as part of the 20th Biennale of Sydney was my response to the impossibility, for those of us working in dance today, of ignoring the question of the gallery or museum. There was a collective desire to place local artists and commentators into public discussion with the international artists and curators of the 20th Biennale of Sydney, which had an unprecedented focus on dance and choreography under the artistic direction of Stephanie Rosenthal. The Salon focused on exploring the creative and discursive territory between ‘the choreographic’ and the institutions and practices of art: the gallery or museum as a destination and organisation; the circumstances, conditions and objects one is surrounded by in these places; and the work of artists. Participants included artists Thomson, Lasica, Brooke Stamp, Deanne Butterworth, Jo Lloyd, Justene Williams, Emma Saunders, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Phillip Adams and Helen Grogan, and curators Tang Fu Kuen, Anneke Jaspers, Bree Richards, Stephanie Rosenthal and Hannah Matthews