Biennale returns to Lorne after four-year absence

STANDOUT works by Australian and international sculpture artists took up residency on Lorne’s foreshore throughout March and April, drawing more than 25,000 visitors.

Lorne’s first Sculpture Biennale in four years returned with a bang, exceeding organiser expectations and bringing together the artistic community from March 12 to April 3.

“Overall, it was a great event with initial survey numbers returning overwhelmingly positive results,” program manager Stacie Bobele said.

 

 

 

This year’s Lorne Sculpture Biennale trail featured 16 public art projects created in “precincts” along the town’s foreshore, with each precinct becoming a transformed space allowing artists to create new experiences for viewers.

Artists were encouraged to highlight the diverse influences that make Lorne unique using themes such as the changing face of tourism, first peoples, early settlement, shipwrecks, surfing, beach culture, timber and fishing industries to name a few.

“The overwhelming appreciation for the new blueprint for the Lorne Sculpture Biennale ‘Spirit of Place’ exceeded all expectations,” curator of the event Graeme Wilkie said.

“Using Lorne as their inspiration, the works featured in this year’s exhibition have been embraced by more than 25,000 visitors.”

Winner of People’s Choice award was Gunther Kopietz, creator of the ‘By the Sea’ multi-work installation featuring seaside visitors like surfers, dogs, couples, and individual bathers.

 

 

 

“All of Lorne, the community of Lorne, really appreciates the Biennale,” Ms Bobele said.

“You could definitely sense a change in the air down there, locals were really excited to have it back on.

“People have really been looking forward to having the event back for years and it showed from the feedback we received and the conversations we had.”

Surveys conducted by the Biennale committee stated 40 per cent of visitors were first timers to the event, while 85 per cent of respondents rated the exhibition highly.

For more information and the history of Lorne Sculpture Biennale, head to lornesculpture.com.