Bonavista Peninsula plays 'host' to 23 contemporary art works for 2023 biennale

The Bonavista Biennale, a world-class public art event filled with immersive and sometimes challenging art, is back across the Bonavista Peninsula.

The event is held every second year and features contemporary art works displayed and performed over a 165 kilometre-long area.  

This year's theme is "host," and participating artists were invited to interpret that theme however they wished. 

Ryan Rice, one of the co-curators of the event, says it was inspired by the tourism industry in the region, but also the landscape itself.

"Visiting Bonavista and the peninsula, thinking about why people come here, what people do and how they interact. And reverting back to the original host, which is the land and water and building from there," he said.

Rice said one of the interesting features of the region is the interplay between history and hospitality, pointing out that many historic locations and structures are being maintained by the hospitality industry as bed and breakfasts or attractions.

"We're thinking about the resources, thinking about histories, thinking about our relations to land and water… and actually thinking about hospitality," he said.

Biennale executive director Sue Balint says there are 23 art projects that are part of this year's festival and there are different ways to experience it all. 

"Some people plan their trip, right? Their journey around the peninsula. Other people happen upon an individual work out in the natural landscape and say 'what's going on here?' and then they go, 'oh, there's a thing called the biennale and there are more projects underway."

Things kicked off Saturday with Sturgeon Woman Rising, an art piece in Elliston by Lindsay Katsitsakaste Delaronde, a Kanienke'haka artist and performer from Kahnawà:ke, near Montreal. 

Inuk artist Billy Gauthier is also featured at the event. He was commissioned by the biennale to produce a new sculpture. 

For Gauthier, the theme of host began as a broad one, so he had to narrow it down and decide what he wanted to represent, but he became inspired by his subject.

"The ultimate host is, of course, the Earth," says Gauthier. 

"She's the host for all of us, for every single bit of life on this planet. So she's what we need to take care of, you know? Mother Earth is incredibly, incredibly important. And there's nothing bigger, nothing more worth protecting."