The 16th Lyon Biennale: manifesto of fragility positions fragility at the heart of a generative form of resistance that is emboldened by the past, responsive to the present and primed for the future. Conceived as a collective statement authored through word, image, sound and movement, it calls on a community of resilient voices to draft a manifesto for a world that is blamelessly fragile. The Biennale is structured around three distinct yet interconnected layers, where fragility and resistance are explored through the lens of the individual, the city and the world, respectively.

The Many Lives and Deaths of Louise Brunet departs from the obscure life of Louise Brunet, who was sent to prison for her role in the 1834 revolt of Lyon’s silk weavers, only to find herself a few years later on a perilous journey from Lyon to the silk factories of Mount Lebanon. Almost two hundred years later, there are countless Louise Brunets around the world who continue to be depleted by the skewed power structures that exploit them. Through blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction, and in amassing a wide plethora of artworks, objects and archival materials spanning two millennia, the exhibition brings to light the plights those who have been deemed far too insignificant for the grand annals of history, and whose stories have been swept to the far corners of oblivion.