BONAVISTA, Newfoundland – While there are massive music concerts and arts festivals all over the world, usually in urban areas, that attract thousands of people, often those in remote and out-of-the-way places offer a more engaging and immersive experience.
The Bonavista Biennale is one of those.
As the name says, it’s located in and around Bonavista, Newfoundland. A small town three-hours drive from the capital of St John’s, Bonavista sits on the remote tip of a peninsula in Canada’s easternmost province, face up to the North Atlantic ocean.
This biennial exhibition of contemporary visual art attracts local, national, and international artists who create site-specific art installations. They are alternately sublime and overt, subtle and powerful. Simple and whimsical, immersive and sensory rich with contemporary and classic themes.
The Biennale runs from August 14 through September 12. This year’s theme is The Tonic of Wilderness. It channels Henry David Thoreau and the theme “We all need the tonic of wilderness.” (1854)
And indeed “wilderness” is what the art and locations evoke, sitting in small coves, ocean headlands and historic buildings representing a mostly-lost way of life on the rural and remote coast of Newfoundland. While travelling to the art installation sites, you know you are in a wild place – if not Thoreau’s forest.
There are also workshops and talks by artists at various locations.
Give yourself a few days to see all of the art in a rambling treasure hunt, and enjoy the wild place that is Newfoundland.
One of the most evocative pieces this year was Gerald Beaulieu’s, Extinction in Amherst Cove. Making the connection between oil, pump jacks, carbon and extinction.
2021 Artists:
Asinnajaq, Christina Battle, Gerald Beaulieu, Vessela Brakalova, Melanie Colosimo, Marlene Creates, Will Gill, Jonathan S. Green, Marcia Huyer, Philippa Jones, Robyn Love, Logan MacDonald, Caroline Monnet + Ludovic Boney, Graeme Patterson Michael Jonathon Pittman, Leslie Reid, Jerry Ropson and Janice Wright Cheney.
REGENERATION | Piguttaugiallavalliajuk | USSANITAUTEN:
By seven northern Labrador photographers; Eldred Allen, Gary Andersen, Holly Andersen, Wayne Broomfield, Samantha Jacque, Melissa Tremblett and Jennie Williams.
Links to all artists websites and social media account at https://bonavistabiennale.com/artists/
All photography by Greg Locke © 2021