This weekend's opening of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale (BIFB) with its coterie of nationally and internationally renowned artists has at its heart a local focus, says director Fiona Sweet.
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The first Biennale was held in Daylesford in 2005, and soon moved to Ballarat following the success it garnered with its mixture of well-known photographers and local efforts - a mix which continues today, Ms Sweet says, despite having come so far as to be opening a National Centre For Photography.
"This is the sixth festival in Ballarat and the eighth overall; it's my second Foto Biennale as director," Sweet says.
"I'm determined to leave the Biennale in a really good position for the next director. As a director one of your major jobs, aside from creating one of the most exciting and innovative programs with extraordinary artists, is also making sure the organisation is sustainable."
This year's Biennale has a strong international presence, with the headline exhibition of Chinese photgrapher Liu Bolin. Ms Sweet says watching Bolin perform as he was creating one of his works for camera was mesmerising. Over seven hours in front of the Exhibition Building in Melbourne, the artist was slowly painted while he held a position, until he was entirely camouflaged and disappeared into the backdrop of the heritage-listed icon.
"We watched for seven hours while he stood perfectly still. It was incredible; it brought back thoughts of Marina Abramovic."
The director says she's willing to tackle head-on criticisms made that BIFB doesn't feature enough local content.
"Look: there's an arts crew saying, 'there's not many locals' because there are actually a lot of photographers who are local who they don't know," Sweet says.
"You have Lynden Nicholls with The Fridge Project... she taking a series of photographs of the different suburbs of Ballarat. Some of them are beautiful and some are downright funny.
"We have Alastair Firkin and Helen Myall; David Bailey talking about old Ballaarat; Erin McCuskey is in the both the Core and Open programs; Marg Dobson is performing, as is Geoffrey Williams; Pitcha Makin Fellas; Ian Kemp of course; Robert Imhoff at Forge; Tamara Kuiler-Coffield is local; Oxygen College and Sovereign Hill are local; Rhonda Baum and Kim Percy; Ellen Eustice is local...
"This is the first year we've commissioned a local artist to do a project with us - that's Erin McCuskey. She's the first artist we've commissioned as far as I know, in my time."
The Ballarat International Foto Biennale opens on Saturday night, August 24, and continues until October 20. All exhibitions are free, except Liu Bolin. More at www.ballaratfoto.org