Interview José Roca and Anna Davis

GISELLE AU-NHIEN NGUYEN

What is the significance of the Biennale’s theme rīvus?

JOSÉ ROCA

For many years, I’ve been interested in the relationships that art establishes with nature. As a curator, I’ve leaned towards that—for example, organising residencies in the Amazon jungle for the Sao Paulo Biennial back in 2006. When I was approached by the Sydney Biennale to do a proposal, I took this as a starting point. I proposed the idea of rivers and waterways and the communities that they sustain, and the project morphed into what, which suggests a relation to the river, it branches out into a delta of possibilities, including how we can collaborate with non-humans, the rights of nature and how they are enforced, and how a body of water can enter into productive dialogue with artists, designers, architects and so on.