Pigeon poo and rat droppings have been replaced with tapestries and other artworks as a long-disused Sydney power station is repurposed as an exhibition space.
The heritage-listed and recently restored White Bay Power Station, in the city's inner west, will host the work of 19 artists and collectives as part of the 24th Biennale of Sydney.
The site is one of seven spaces that will house about 400 artworks in the latest edition of the event, titled Ten Thousand Suns and opening on Saturday.
Artistic co-directors Cosmin Costinas and Inti Guerrero chose the concept to celebrate the diversity of voices to be found in the various works, which include paintings, sculptures, digital media and music.
The power station, which was completed in 1917, will be open to the public for the first time in more than four decades and Placemaking NSW chief executive Anita Mitchell said the site's history needed to be preserved while encouraging people to use the space.
"Every single piece of structural steel that touched the ground was pretty much rusted,” she said on Tuesday.
“The entire building was filled with pigeon poop and rat droppings.
"It needed new roofing, new sheeting on the foot of the windows - and that was just the repair. It was filled with lead dust and lead paint."
One of the biennale's participating artists, Dine-weaver Eric-Paul Riege, said he felt a responsibility to interlace the stories of generations of Navajo people who came before him into the fibres of his work.
"I come with a history of people, so getting to show just a little bit of my home in a new place is such an honour," he told AAP.
The native American artist is showcasing installations at the Rozelle power station and the Artspace centre in inner-city Woolloomooloo as part of the edition.
"Your work is no longer yours when other people get to interact with it and other people's interpretations of your work become just as true as your own," he said.
Peruvian native artist Cristina Flores Pescoran’s work will also be showcased at the power station, featuring a mixture of textiles weaved together as a self-portrait inspired by a diagnosis of skin cancer.
“I like the contrast with the space and at the same time the dialogue,” she said.
“This large, dimensional fabric converses with the walls, with the sunlight, with the people … it allows me to reconcile with fear that I used to have of the sun.”
The Biennale will go from Saturday until June 10.
Most events will be free, while some will be ticketed.
