The Historical Exhibition: Sites Under Construction brings together selected contemporary and historical positions to explore how work can be the subject of investigation and artistic reflection. The exhibition is being located in the institutional venues –the Löwenbräukunst and the Helmhaus– and it is divided into eleven theme chambers, showing works by more than 100 artists. In this section, and under selected topics, we spotlight: Portraits of Professions, with works from Chris Hadfield; Working Worlds, with works from Simon Denny, Harun Farocki, Coco Fusco or Andreas Gursky; Break Hour, with works from Oscar Bony, Thomas Demand, Pierre Huyghe or Jeremy Shaw; and Professions Performing in Art, with works from Karmelo Bermejo, Sophie Calle or Fernando Sánchez Castillo.
The M11 parallel events reflect on the artistic activities in the city of Zurich and the surrounding region, and offer a window into local and regional cultural life with projects from the visual arts, performance, video, photography, dance, theatre, music and design, distributed in 38 locations.
Zurich’s famous birthplace of Dada art movement in the early 20th century, the Cabaret Voltaire –now Cabaret der Künstler–Zunfthaus Voltaire–, will host the performance program, where artists and people from other professions will perform together on the stage during the 100 days of the Biennale. Anyone going on stage and performing will automatically become a member of the new founded guild of artists. It's worth to mention that the budget needed for the M11 performance program has been raised by a crowdfunding campaign.
The organization also trained some mediators with diverse professional backgrounds who will show the Biennial to visitors and engage them in lively conversations and exchange – there is no better way of enjoying art than participating in it.