SITE Santa Fe, an exhibition space known for its innovation and cutting edge curators, has named the two people who will shape the Eighth International Biennial exhibition scheduled to open in June of 2010. Sarah Lewis and Daniel Belasco will act as co-curators.

SITE’s Biennial will examine the emergence of a new quality in video art: its all-embracing integration of other media. Video’s ability to serve as a transitional platform where a single work may move from drawing through video into installation, for example, strongly relates to the filmic concept of the “dissolve,” in which one shot fades into another. Lewis and Belasco’s exhibition, The Dissolve, will offer insight into this fast-moving development and its historical precedents. Far more than a survey of recent video art with experimental forms, the Biennial will include paintings, installations and other works that meld into or slip out of video. It will also feature new commissions from innovators of the medium. To address the spatial demands of the constantly shifting nature of video, the curators have commissioned renowned architect David Adjaye to reinterpret the iconic environments through which the moving image is experienced – from the nickelodeon to the arena-like interior of contemporary movie theaters to the Internet.

SITE Santa Fe Phillips Director, Laura Steward, said, “In 14 short years, SITE has established an enviable reputation for providing an enthusiastic public with access to the best contemporary art in the world. Now with the selection of Sarah and Daniel, who assisted Robert Storr on our Fifth Biennial, I see the birth of a second generation, the legacy of SITE’s bright trajectory of curatorial talent. Working with the brilliant David Adjaye, this team is on track to create the quintessential video show of our time.”

Since its opening in 1995, SITE’s mission has been to bring the global contemporary art dialogue to the Southwest region of the U.S. SITE’s Biennial always attempts a paradigm shift in the field of visual arts and is well known for the innovation of its curators, and for showcasing great curators ahead of the rest of the art world. In fact, three of SITE’s curators have subsequently served as Directors of the Venice Biennale, and a fourth won a MacArthur “Genius” Award. The opening weekend for this year’s events will take place on June 18-20 and the exhibition will run through January 2, 2011.