The Middelheim Biennale was a series of 20 international sculpture exhibitions held between 1953 and 1989 at the Middelheim Museum in Antwerp, Belgium. During these years, artists from various parts of the world gathered in the large sculpture park, which gradually developed into one of Europe's significant venues for modern and contemporary sculpture.
Collection Development: After each concluded biennale, selected works were acquired for the park's permanent collection. Final Edition: The last and 20th biennale was held in 1989, after which the museum transitioned to other forms of temporary exhibitions and presentations.
"From its inception until 1979, each biennale had a specific national or regional focus. The exhibitions were dedicated, among other things, to sculpture from Italy, France, Great Britain, and the USA. This gave the biennale an international breadth and made Middelheim a place where different artistic traditions could meet.
An important part of the biennale's history was that the exhibitions were not merely temporary. After each biennale, selected works were acquired and incorporated into the museum's permanent collection. In this way, the sculpture park grew over time, layer by layer, and many of the works initially shown as temporary installations gained continued life in the park.
The twentieth and final biennale took place in 1989. Subsequently, the Middelheim Museum transitioned to other forms of temporary exhibitions and presentations, but the long series of biennales had already left its mark on the site.
For a sculptor like Sivert, Middelheim was particularly interesting. Here, sculpture does not encounter the confined spaces of a traditional art gallery, but rather park, nature, architecture, and sky. The work gains its own space and is simultaneously transformed by its surroundings – a relationship between sculpture and place that is very close to Sivert's recurring explorations of form, space, and architecture." /JÖ