Divinations: a collective enquiry

Metroland Cultures is led by, prioritises, and celebrates the artistic and cultural communities at the heart of its work. At Metroland Cultures, we are committed to changing the way biennials impact the community that hosts and inspires them. We believe that the Brent Biennial should have a positive impact and leave a lasting legacy for the people who live and work in Brent. So we’re doing things a little differently.

How can a community transform a biennial?And how can a biennial be for and with the community?

Biennials are large-scale exhibitions of art and culture that happen every two years. They normally happen in places like Venice, Istanbul or Shanghai, and are celebrated on a global scale by the art world.

Brent Biennial 2025’s Curator is Annie Jael Kwan. Since 2012, her curatorial and research practice has evolved through collaborative and collective practice with migrant and diaspora artists. She was Director of curatorial initiative, Something Human, a founding member of the grassroots intergenerational research network Asia-Art-Activism, and the founding council member of Asia Forum. Annie was drawn to the role by Brent’s ancient and ongoing cultural histories of movement and community cooperation.

“I was drawn to the opportunity of the Brent Biennial because of the rich diversity of Brent’s cultural communities. During my research I was intrigued to discover that Brent was named for its river (Brent means “sacred waters”), the stories of its ancient and cultural histories of movement and relations, and its rich spiritual histories. I spent a lot of time exploring different sites in Brent. I found inspiration from the land, waters, structures and flows in Brent.

The collective approach to creating and sharing knowledge has been core to my practice, especially in relation to challenging existing infrastructures of the art world. Working together with the artists and communities, we will think, feel and move with the media, metaphors and methodologies of water, earth, fire and air, to co-imagine the Biennial as a cultural form that is meaningful and reciprocal to its communities.“

Ahead of the biennial itself, which will take place in 2025, we’re announcing a season of collective enquiry.

Drawing on our most precious assets – local sites rich with migrant and spiritual history, and the diverse, creative, energetic, and change-making communities all around us – we are inviting artists and members of the different local communities in Brent to join us for a series of one-day workshops that engage with the four elements of water, earth, fire and air, to explore the following questions: 

How can a community transform a biennial?

And how can a biennial be for and with the community?

Four one-day programmes will take place this Autumn.

At four sites linked to the four elements, we will call on old and existing wisdoms to imagine new ways of being. In September, we will explore water and earth. In December, fire and air.

We hope you will join us for this radical, creative, collaborative process to build a new biennial, together.

Image: courtesy of the artist Youngsook Choi

Discover the programme

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Announcing Annie Jael Kwan as Curator of Brent Biennial 2025

The curator for the 3rd edition of the Brent Biennial is announced.

Water Divinations: Collective Enquiry

Part of a series of “divinations” that will inform the creation of the Brent Biennial 2025. A one-day programme structured around water, featuring workshops and collective imagining.

Earth Divinations: Collective Enquiry

Part of a series of “divinations” that will inform the creation of the Brent Biennial 2025. A one-day programme structured around earth, featuring talks, walks, workshops and collective imagining.

Air Divinations: Collective Enquiry

The final of four “divinations” that will inform the creation of the Brent Biennial 2025. A one-day programme structured around air, featuring workshops and collective imagining.

Fire Divinations: Collective Enquiry

The third of four “divinations” that will inform the creation of the Brent Biennial 2025. A one-day programme structured around fire, featuring workshops and collective imagining.