In 1999, Rosa Martínez extended the earlier biennials’ meditations on place by bringing 29 artists from 23 countries together in Looking for a Place. Understanding her role as editor/agitator, Martínez wanted a “fluid alternative to the inviolable solidity of museums,” where white cubes display beautiful objects. Her artists both punctured SITE SANTA FE’s walls and reached beyond them into public, commercial, and sacred spaces like the old dancehall at Galisteo, the Los Alamos airport, and a municipal parking garage. Nobody objected to Diller + Scofidio’s multimedia installation in Room 120 of the Budget Inn, but even after permissions were granted, two installations—the cemetery for a Hispanic Catholic parish church and a lake on a nearby Indian Pueblo—were dismantled in the opening days, speeding up the Biennial’s ephemeral quality.

Exhibited Artists:
Helena Almeida
Ghada Amer
Janine Antoni
Monica Bonvicini
Louise Bourgeois
Tania Bruguera
Cai Guo-Qiang
Lygia Clark
Diller + Scofidio
Dr. Galentin Gatev
Greenpeace
Yolanda Guitiérrez
Mona Hatoum
Carl Michael von Hausswolff
Carsten Höller
Simone Aaberg Kærn
Zwelethu Mthethwa
Nikos Navridis
Shirin Neshat
Rivane Neuenschwander
Gabriel Orozco
Pipilotti Rist
Francisco Ruiz de Infante
Bülent Şangar
Arsen Savadov
Georgy Senchenko
Charlene Teters
Sergio Vega
Miwa Yanagi

Curator:
Rosa Martínez