ts latest edition, delayed until 2022 for public-health reasons, enjoys must-see status this year among contemporary-art fans, alongside the Venice Biennale and the Documenta in Kassel. It is also hotly awaited by its regional audience, which makes up a sizable share of the total, with particularly keen interest among the younger generations – more than half the 280 000 visitors to the 2019 edition were aged under 26. With its deep local roots and cutting-edge interpretative methods, the Lyon Biennale sti- mulates dialogue and interaction, reaching out to an ever-wider audience.

Whereas the previous edition, entitled “Where Water Comes Together With Other Water”, took Lyon’s distinctive geography as its starting-point to reflect on contemporary ecosystems, the thread of History runs through this 16th edition. It reveals past events that made local headlines but also caused unforeseen international repercussions in the political,economic and social but also artis- tic fields – thus proving, if still necessary, how richly art reflects its time.

After in-depth research in public and private archives, and drawing on the collections of many regional and national museums, as well as leading internationally-recognised institutions, the curators of the 2022 Lyon Biennale, Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, have drawn up a “manifesto of fragility” that invites their guest artists to articulate, in turn, their sensitivity to the world around them and their desire to resist, amid the pandemic and its crippling consequences.