Toronto Biennial Opens 12-Week Citywide Show, Things Fall Apart

Toronto has turned its galleries, public spaces and waterfront into one exhibition for the next 12 weeks.

The fourth Toronto Biennial of Art in Toronto, Canada, opened on 26 September and runs until 20 December under the title Things Fall Apart. It is curated by New York-based curator and writer Allison Glenn, according to The Art Newspaper.

The biennial, a large exhibition staged every two years, features more than 30 artists and collectives. Sixteen of the works are commissions, which means new pieces made specially for the show. Named participants include Coco Fusco, Kent Monkman, Nanibah Chacon, Raphaël Barontini, Cameron Harvey and Skawennati.

The guiding question asks what can be learned from artists who use rupture, or breakage, as a tool for understanding existence. The title points to two sources: William Butler Yeats's 1919 poem "The Second Coming" and Chinua Achebe's 1958 novel about British colonialism in Nigeria. The edition starts from the Great Lakes region to trace connections to more than 20 trade routes, waterways and journeys across five continents. It also considers syncopation and disruption through themes that emerged from the artists themselves.

This year adds a first. The Extended Footprint initiative allows partner organisations across North America to present portions of artists' biennial commissions at the same time. They include the Anchorage Museum in Anchorage, Alaska, the Counterpublic Triennial in St Louis, Missouri, Allana Clarke's "Amend" garden in Detroit, Michigan, the Medina Triennial in Medina, in upstate New York, and Times Square Arts in Manhattan, New York.

The Art Museum at the University of Toronto in Toronto is one of the presenting venues for Things Fall Apart, according to the Art Museum at the University of Toronto. The biennial states its mission is to make contemporary art accessible to everyone, as set out by the Toronto Biennial of Art. In practice, that includes a free digital guide through Bloomberg Connects with audio and video from artists and the curator, plus tours, walks, talks and storytelling around Glenn's vision. Founding executive director Patrizia Libralato continues to lead the organisation, which commissions new work in dialogue with Toronto's local contexts and runs year-round public and learning programmes for intergenerational audiences between editions.

For visitors, this means the show is not contained in one building. Works appear across the city. Parts of some commissions can also be seen in other North American cities at the same time.