The theme of this year’s biennial is Pandemonium – Art in a Time of Creativity Fever. In John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost (1671), Pandemonium is the castle built by Lucifer and his band after they had been booted out of heaven. It is the base camp from which they plot against the »old order«. But it is also a platform from which they seek to launch the project of another creation, a new kind of world albeit a »devilish« one. Wary of »paradises lost«, of utopias that have turned sour or gone of the rails, the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art sounds today’s turbulent world for new possibilities and perspectives, alternative forms of life and living that are brewing up. What form of creativity, art and thoughts are emerging in the aftermath of the radical social changes taking place today? For the biennial, Pandemonium is a Lab, an experiment zone, bubbling with ideas.

The curator for the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Professor Sarat Maharaj, is working together with a team of co-curators: artist Dorothee Albrecht, curator Stina Edblom and Professor Gertrud Sandqvist. Together, they have turned this year’s biennial into a process, with space for in-depth reflection and knowledge production. The performance program City Excavations initiated the biennial process in June and served as a platform for artistic explorations of the city of Göteborg and its history. A number of Summer Academies on the Biennial theme have been established in collaboration with the School of Photography and the School of Design and Crafts, to further engage in the ideas and research connected to the biennial theme. This is the sixth biennial since the start in 2001, and it will be held between 10 September and 13 November, 2011. Around 40 artists from all over the world are participating. This guide will give you a preliminary introduction to their works. To experience the art, the tours and the events, we welcome you to the biennial venues: Röda Sten Art Center, Göteborgs Konsthall, The Gothenburg Museum of Art and Konsthallen – Bohusläns museum.