BIP2012, the Liege International Biennale of Photography and the Visual Arts
http://www.bip-liege.org/
celebrating its 8th birthday in 2012, will explore the multi-faceted theme of “IMAGES OF LOVE, LOVE OF THE IMAGE” on display at seven exhibitions, two of which will be in the public space.
The main exhibition at BIP2012 "ONLY YOU ONLY ME" will occupy the whole of Mamac – the city’s Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art – including the basement areas that were originally intended and used for preserving paintings and sculptures and now totally given over to art-themed installations and videos. Nan Goldin will have pride of place at Mamac with a monumental projection of her major work, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, surrounded by Erwin Olaf, Sylvie Blocher, Jason Lazarus, J.H. Engström, Eric Rondepierre, Elina Brotherus, Thomas Chable and very many others.

Several other exhibitions are on offer, including "FROM HOLLAND WITH LOVE", in Hangar B9 (Institut Saint-Luc), featuring a panorama of contemporary photography in the Netherlands (with, amongst others, Useful Photography and Koos Breukel), around the mentoring figure of Ed van der Elsken, being shown for the first time in Belgium. This exhibition, organised under the supervision of Frits Gierstberg, Principal Curator at the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam, is the result of the invitation sent out by BIP2012 in the Netherlands, host country of this 8th edition of the Biennale.

Something else to be discovered, at the MADmusée, is the "RUMEURS / RUMOURS" exhibition, built around the irrepressible works of four very intriguing personalities: Miroslav Tichy, Morton Bartlett, Lee Goodie and Loulou.

Les Brasseurs Art contemporain/L'Annexe is the venue for an exhibition dedicated to close ties , the heart and the skin. "NEXT OF (S)KIN / A FLEUR DE PEAU" will be a real opportunity to discover, amongst other things, a panorama of the work of the young photographer, Lara Gasparotto,(just as her first monograph is appearing) as well as a selection of photographs by Hervé Guibert.

The final section of the exhibition features the exhibition "AMOUR AU PLURIEL / LOVE IN PLURAL & ADORATION" presented by La Châtaigneraie – the Walloon Centre of Contemporary Art - at Flémalle where the Out of Focus group will present, on the one hand, a selection of its works on the subject of adoration as well as those produced at several workshops held in parallel between Liège and Haiti, in collaboration with the Fédération des Maisons de Jeunes in French-speaking Belgium.

As you make your way from one exhibition to another, you will also be able to see as you walk along the portraits which Liège’s own Georges Thiry (1904-1994) produced featuring the ladies of the night who were his confidantes and friends. And you will also discover a selection of the finest photos of love sent into BIP2012 by those great experts on the subject - the local citizens themselves!

Something not to be missed is the public dialogue bteween the French video director Sylvie Blocher and the Swedish photographer JH Engström, organised at l'ESAL - The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Liège. Over 15 OFF exhibitions will complete the programme.

A richly illustrated catalogue complete with texts by the curators as well as a brand-new article from Daniel van der Gucht (Faculty of Sociology, Université Libre de Bruxelles; founder and chairman of Les Ed. de La Lettre Volée), will be published for the occasion.