The curators of this edition, Jan-Erik Lundström and Johan Sjöström, have chosen a topic of significant relevance to the contemporary world: “Being Here. Mapping the Contemporary”.

The theme of BB3 integrates the city in its curatorial project, proposing both a spatial, temporal and itinerant trajectory to the visitor, leading to the discovery of hidden geographies. Romania is the ideal place for exploring new cartographies within the contemporary world, whose configuration has undergone a dramatic change during the last 18 years, ever since the fall of the Berlin wall). The era of globalisation restructures old borders and creates new ones; Romania finds itself in the centre of these processes. The cultural, political and social changes, which take place before our eyes call to be explored, analysed and rendered in an artistic and discursive fashion that is able to exceed reality, by proposing a different vision of our world.

Despite being in a rather introductory stage, the Bucharest Biennale has already positioned itself internationally, and the third edition is expected to express the growing potential of this type of artistic encounter. BB3 questions cartography and proposes a remapping of contemporary art, by extending the art concept towards discursive manifestos with a socio-political impact.

The traditional, spatiotemporal framework is dismantled into pieces of a puzzle, demanding an active role on behalf of the public. Hence, the third edition of the Bucharest Biennale will in, a physical sense, carry the visitors through a series of locations spread out over the city, immersing them in a number of juxtaposed sites throughout the city. An artistic map overlaps the urban map. BB3 transforms space into an artistic field of action. Parallel events (public debates, performance projects, interventions in public spaces, lectures) will unfold around the main frame.

The conception of BB3 is process based, reflecting and commenting on the processes that take place on a global scale. Exploring the intercultural exchange and the participation on a local level within the dynamics of globalisation.