International Chilliwack Biennial

2010
Chilliwack, CA
Type: Spatial Design

Commissioned by: www.chilliwackbiennial.org

Credits
  • Spatial Design by Markus Miessen
  • Photography by Marianne Bos, Jonathan Middleton, Eli Bornowsky, and Melanie O’Brian

The International Chilliwack Biennial took place July 28 and 29, 2010, at the Delta Grove campsite of Cultus Lake Provincial Park near Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. The event was an open question on large-scale exhibitions and took a consciously precarious approach. This is the DIY, near-zero budget biennial – the bodged biennial. Shoe-horned amidst other campers in a state-run camping area, the International Chilliwack Biennial quietly goes about its business. This was the biennial that doesn’t sit up quite right, that wobbles, that is, perhaps, rained-out. Offsite, contingent, last-minute favours: borrow your dad’s sleeping bag and your neighbour’s tent. The International Chilliwack Biennial hoped to make participants feel different about camping.

Understood as a prototype, the event considered the biennial as studio or performance. Works were created, rearranged, consumed, found and dusted off. Tents, trailers, and other portable or temporary structures form pavilions for international projects.

Camp Delta

For the International Chilliwack Biennial Markus Miessen provided six of his texts from his new book for distribution and discussion in relation to the collective and offsite activities of the ICB. He also designed the ICB’s camp headquarters, titled Camp Delta.

Park: Cultus Lake Provincial Park, Delta Grove