Magiciens de la Terre

A less-known fact about the infamous exhibition Magiciens de la Terre (Paris, 1989) is that it was conceived as the XIVth edition of the Paris Biennial, which did not occur due to bankruptcy. The solution was found in what we might call the privatization of the biennial. In the year when France celebrated 200 years of the French Revolution, political changes in Europe opened doors to the establishment of a new globalized economy and, as it turns out, new modes of representation as well. The chapter focuses on the participation of a group of Australia’s First Nations artists. Through the analysis of the archive, we gain insight into the innovations in exhibition making that forever changed the world of contemporary art at the intersection of politics, economy, and identity politics. This history further sheds light on our globalized present: being one of the early victims of multinational corporations focused on land exploitation, their resistance through art practice also offers a proposition for a different mode of economy and a different relation to the world.