Collettiva omaggerà Dalì al Padiglione spagnolo

opera di Pepo Salazar

Ispirata a Salvador Dalì il padiglione Spagna vedrà una mostra collettiva con artisti quali Francesc Ruiz, Pepo Salazar, e il collettivo Cabello/Carceller. Said Manen curata da Martí Manen. Titolo dell'evento "Il soggetto". 

Mostra alla Galleria Joan Prats di Cabello /Carceller 

Info dal sito Biennale Foundation 

Spanish Pavilion “Los Sujetos” (The subjects)

Artists: Helena Cabello & Ana Carceller (París 1963/Madrid, 1964), Francesco Ruiz (Barcelona, 1971) and Pepo Salazar (Vitoria, 1972)

Martí Manen’s project triumphed over the proposals of Juan de Nieves and Gerardo Mosquera, two fellow Spanish independent curators whom the governmental institution AECID (Agencia Española de Cooperación para el desarrollo) also asked to submit ideas last Spring.

Entitled “Los Sujetos” (the subjects), Manen’s exhibition is a group show that takes the figure of Salvador Dalí as starting point. The artists Francesc Ruiz, Pepo Salazar, and the collective Cabello/Carceller will explore the ghost of the iconic artist.

“The project starts like a breath from Dalí,”Manen told El Cultural . “He will be present, not with any of his works, but as subject.”

The choice of curating a group exhibition, rather than a traditional solo presentation, is, for Manen, dictated by the recession. “During periods of crisis, such as the one we are going through now, it’s very important to think in terms of group exhibitions,” he told ABC . “The budget of the Venice Biennale pavilion allows me to present three artists internationally, and it gives them the opportunity to produce new works and build networks.”

Philippe Van Cauteren curatore per l'Iraq

Annunciato il curatore per l'Iraq, Philippe Van Cauteren, per l'evento che avrà sede presso Ca’ Dandolo.  Supporta l'evento la  Fondazione Ruya .

Info da sito http://www.theiraqpavilion.com/

Ruya Foundation for Contemporary Culture in Iraq (RUYA) is delighted to announce the appointment of Philippe Van Cauteren as curator of the National Pavilion of Iraq for the 56th Venice Biennale in May 2015. The appointment follows the great success of Welcome to Iraq, which RUYA commissioned for the 55th edition of the Biennale in 2013.

Philippe Van Cauteren, artistic director of S.M.A.K. Museum for Contemporary Art in Ghent and who co-curated the Belgian Pavilion in 2013, has been appointed by RUYA to curate a pavilion that resonates with the rich scope of Iraqi identity extending beyond the country’s fragile borders. Van Cauteren is currently in conversation with a range of artists from various disciplines and he will finalise his vision for the exhibition after a trip to Iraq, organised and facilitated by RUYA.

Van Cauteren’s commitment to nurturing and empowering Iraqi artists also extends beyond the Biennale. He said, ‘the Pavilion exhibition will constitute the beginning of a continued relationship with RUYA, working to enable a new generation of Iraqi artists to transcend their geography and prosper on a global scale.’

Chairman of RUYA Tamara Chalabi said, ‘Philippe Van Cauteren is suitably positioned to explore Iraq’s complicated terrain, having worked in diverse international contexts, as well as further enlarging S.M.A.K.’s artistic focus. At this very critical juncture in Iraq’s existence, RUYA believes that the presence of a National Pavilion of Iraq at Venice will act as a crucial ambassador for the endurance of Iraqi contemporary culture.’

The Commissioning Body

Ruya Foundation for Contemporary Culture in Iraq (RUYA) is an Iraqi registered non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 2012 by Iraq art and culture enthusiasts with the aim of aiding and enriching culture in Iraq, and building bridges with the world.

The foundation’s initial goal is to promote culture in Iraq at a time when priorities are focused elsewhere, and to build a platform that will enable Iraqis in the arts, the young in particular, to benefit from, and participate in international events.

RUYA’s intention is to foster culture in Iraq. In addition to supporting local projects, its aim is to create a network of intercultural events that can contribute to the development of civil society in Iraq. It is also committed to nurturing a multicultural dialogue through the arts.

Following its mission to support and promote culture within Iraq, RUYA has a unique network of artists working within and outside of Iraq, from all disciplines in the visual, performing and literary arts.

RUYA collaborates with a number of cultural organisations to create regular residency and exhibition opportunities for Iraqi artists. The foundation has also co-produced films by young and emerging Iraqi filmmakers. Our current and past projects are listed on our website.

The local commissioner in Venice is Nuova Icona, a non-profit cultural association for the patronage of contemporary visual and performing arts.

The Venue

Ca’ Dandolo was built in the 16^th century, overlooking the Grand Canal from the San Tomasso District. Once owned by the influential Dandolo family, the building formed one sixth of an estate whose properties included the Palazzo Farsetto-Dandolo and the residence now known as the Hotel Danieli. Today, these large and opulent structures continue to be amongst Venice’s most prominent: the Farsetti-Dandolo serves as the headquarters of the Venetian municipal government, and the Hotel Danieli is widely regarded as the city’s foremost luxury hotel.

João Louro per il Portogallo

L’artista João Louro è stato scelto dalla curatrice María de Corral per rappresentare il Portogallo alla prossima edizione della Biennale di Venezia

A DGArtes anunciou hoje a escolha do artista plástico João Louro e da crítica de arte e comissária independente María de Corral, na qualidade de responsáveis pela representação oficial de Portugal na 56ª Exposição Internacional de Arte, La Biennale di Venezia, a decorrer entre 9 de maio e 22 de novembro de 2015 sob o tema geral “All the World’s Futures”.

Para Samuel Rego, Diretor-Geral das Artes: «Portugal estará representado ao seu melhor nível por um artista plástico com o reconhecimento internacional e o currículo de João Louro. Alguém que de forma consistente alcançou a sua reputação atual como figura destacada da arte contemporânea, não apenas em Portugal como a nível internacional».

No que respeita à Comissária María de Corral, o Diretor-Geral das Artes considera que a reputada crítica de arte terá «No projeto de curadoria e comissariado da representação oficial de Portugal na próxima edição da Bienal de Veneza/Artes, um papel fundamental pela sua imensa e profundíssima experiência, enquanto curadora e crítica de arte».

Recorde-se que María de Corral é detentora de um percurso internacional devido ao qual foi chamada a assumir a direção da 51ª Bienal de Arte de Veneza em 2005, tendo na ocasião João Louro participado na exposição intitulada “The Experience of Art” no Pavilhão de Itália.

A representação oficial na edição portuguesa de 2015 da Bienal de Arte de Veneza contará ainda com um forte envolvimento da Fundação EDP.

João Louro nasceu em 1963, Lisboa, cidade onde vive e trabalha. Estudou arquitetura na Universidade de Arquitetura de Lisboa e pintura na Escola Ar.Co.

O seu trabalho engloba pintura, escultura, fotografia e vídeo. Descendente da arte minimal e conceptual, com uma atenção especial às vanguardas, a obra de João Louro exprime, enquanto registo do tempo, a sua visão da arte e da cultura como sistema auto-referencial. A plataforma de leitura das suas obras é indissociável do horizonte cultural da modernidade e da sociedade pós-industrial. Traçando uma topografia de referências que são tanto pessoais como geracionais, utiliza como fonte recorrente a linguagem, a palavra escrita e a revisão da imagem na cultura contemporânea, a partir de um conjunto de representações e símbolos do universo visual coletivo. O minimalismo, o conceptualismo, a cultura pop, o estruturalismo e pós-estruturalismo, autores como Walter Benjamin, Guy Debord, Georges Bataille, Blanchot ou artistas como Donald Judd ou o sempre presente Duchamp, formam o léxico através do qual João Louro se exprime. João Louro já participou na 51ª Edição da Bienal de Veneza, na exposição “The Experience of Art” no Pavilhão de Itália, comissariada por María de Corral. A sua obra está presente em diversas coleções particulares portuguesas e estrangeiras e em coleções públicas, tais como: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa; Colecção António Cachola, Elvas; Fundación ARCO, Madrid; Margulies Collection, Miami; Jumex Foundation, Mexico; Fundação de Serralves (MACS), Porto; Coleção BES, Lisboa; MACRO Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Roma. Museu do Caramulo, Caramulo; Coleccion Helga de Alvear, Madrid; Coleccion Purificacion Garcia, Madrid. Em Portugal o seu trabalho é representado pela Galeria Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art, em Lisboa; e nos EUA pela Christopher Grimes Gallery, em Los Angeles.

Padiglione Guatemala

Daniele Radini Tedeschi è stato nominato, su delibera del Ministero della Cultura del Guatemala, Commissario del Padiglione Nazionale nella 56°Biennale di Venezia, sezione Arte, edizione 2015.

L’importante carica, affidata al critico d’arte romano consiste, da un lato, nella soprintendenza del Padiglione guatemaltese che, secondo le intenzioni del Commissario dovrà ospitare artisti italiani e guatemaltechi; dall’altro riguarderà la selezione degli artisti scelti venendo egli, a tal proposito, assistito da Elsie Wunderlich per gli espositori guatemaltechi e da Carlo Marraffa e Stefania Pieralice per gli espositori italiani.

Il Prof. Radini Tedeschi -tra l’altro già direttore della Triennale di Roma nonché riconosciuto a livello internazionale come esperto di arte rinascimentale e barocca- ha dichiarato di voler realizzare una mostra capace di evidenziare le affinità tra gli artisti delle diverse nazioni dando spazio solo al linguaggio universale dell’arte, conformemente al tema della Biennale. Ancora non è dato sapere informazioni più approfondite che certamente verranno annunciate nei giorni a venire.

Daniel Radini Tedeschi was appointed by resolution of the Ministry of Culture of Guatemala, Guatemala Pavilion commissioner, the 56 Venice Biennale, Art section, edition 2015.

The important office, headed by Roman art critic, is on the one hand in the supervision of the Pavilion guatemaltese, that the intentions of the Commissioner will host Italian artists and Guatemalans; the other will regard the selection of the artists chosen, he being, in this regard, assisted by Elsie Wunderlich for exhibitors Guatemalans and Carlo Marraffa and Stefania Pieralice for Italian artists.

The Professors Daniel Radini Tedeschi, among other things former director of the Triennale di Roma, as well as internationally recognized as an expert in Renaissance and Baroque art, said he wanted to create an exhibition that highlights the similarities between artists of different nations, giving space only to the universal language, in accordance with the theme of the Biennale.

Camille Norment per la Norvergia

Come ci informa il sito OCA sarà Camille Norment a rappresentare la Norvegia, al Padiglione Nordico,  alla prossima Biennale 

Press release 

Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA) is proud to announce that Norway´s contribution to the 56th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia in 2015, will be developed by the artist Camille Norment. The project, which will take place in the Nordic Pavilion, will be inspired by states of dissonance – sonic, cultural and individual. The artist will explore the socio-political encoding of sound historically and in the present from a critical perspective as well as reflect upon dissonance as a space for the creation of new and affirmative thinking. As Norment comments: 'Sound, like experience is fleeting, but it leaves traces in the mind and in the body. As such it is historical and a viable tool for anticipating what is to come.' The project is curated by OCA´s Director Katya García-Antón, with the collaboration of Antonio Cataldo, Senior Programmer at OCA. It is commissioned and organised by Office for Contemporary Art Norway.

Camille Norment´s practice includes sound, installation, light sculptures, drawing, performance and video and draws from the artist´s experience in music, dance and the arts. Her research often crosses disciplines and is currently exploring the interconnections between sound, myth, taboo and science within the framework of art and history. Norment creates couplings of conceptual and formal inquiries in response to selected socio-cultural phenomena. Her work is largely concerned with creating experience through the relationship between the object/space and the body of the viewer, and with the way the body is inscribed with meaning through its negotiation with its surroundings. It seeks to engage the viewer as a physical and psychological participant in the work, and as such, is interested in creating experiences that are both somatic and cognitive.

While also highly concerned with aesthetic experience, Norment´s practice simultaneously spans the thresholds of the social and the political. Raising questions around race and gender, the artist excavates aspects of our history that have either been forgotten or repressed, as well as looks towards new forms of suppression that may be germinating in the near future. 

The official Norwegian contribution to the 56th International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia is funded by OCA. Details about additional sponsorships and funding is forthcoming. 

For more information, please contact OCA's Tara Ishizuka Hassel.

About Camille Norment and the Camille Norment Trio 

Camille Norment (b.1970, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA lives and works in Oslo, Norway) works as an artist, musician, composer, and writer. She performs as a solo artist, with other musicians in selected projects, and with her ensemble, the Camille Norment Trio consisting of electric guitar, Norwegian hardingfele, and the rare glass armonica. She has exhibited and performed extensively in cultural events and institutions, including MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), New York, NY, USA (2013); The Kitchen, New York (2013), Transformer Station (The Cleveland Museum of Art), Cleveland, OH, USA (2013), The Museum of Contemporary Art (The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design), Oslo (2012, the museum commissioned a new performance to accompany the exhibition tour in Norway including the cities Skien, Mandal, Eidsborg, Ås, Stamsund, Bodø, Hamar and Frøde); The Thessaloniki Biennale, Thessaloniki, Greece (2007); Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland (2009); UKS, Oslo (2004); Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden (2004); the Charlottenborg Fonden, Copenhagen, Denmark (2003); Radioartemobile, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2003); The Santa Monica Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA (2001); and The Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, NY (2001). Amongst several permanent public artwork commissions, a permanent outdoor multi-channel sound installation was produced for the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (HOK), Høvikodden, Norway, in 2011. 

Camille Norment Trio, composed of Vegar Vårdal (Norwegian hardanger fiddle), Håvard Skaset (electric guitar), and Camille Norment (Glass armonica), is a unique trio of voices who investigates the visceral qualities of resonance, noise, and overtone, creating music that enacts and deconstructs cultural and historical positions relevant to each of the instruments. Their performances are an organic movement between the composed and the improvised, creating a dynamic soundscape that defies a fixed genre reference. The Camille Norment Trio’s performance credits include The Kitchen, New York, NY; USA; Cleveland Museum of Art; Ultima New Music Festival, Oslo; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo; and the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (HOK). Their first release, Toll, is available on Prisma Records. Reviews of their work have appeared in The Wire, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Aftenposten and KuNordische Musik.

About the Nordic Pavilion 

In 1958 Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn won the competition to design the Nordic Pavilion for the Venice Biennial. The building was completed in 1962 and has since been a space for collaboration between three nations – Norway, Sweden and Finland. Built on a plot between the pavilions of the United States and Denmark, it is centrally situated on one of the main arteries of the Giardini. Fehn was later awarded the prestigious Prizker Prize for architecture in 1997. In 2015 Norway will be in sole charge of the pavilion for the first time in history.

Vincent Meessen al Padiglione Belga

Il sito Normal ci informa sul prossimo progetto di Vincent Meessen l'artista belga che porterà un progetto fra situazionismo e architettura. 

Press release

Personne et les autres - Vincent Meessen and guests

The Belgian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale will present the work of the Belgian artist Vincent Meessen, together with international guest artists. The title of the exhibition, Personne et les autres, is borrowed from a lost play by André Frankin, a Belgian art critic affiliated with the Lettrist and Situationist Internationals. The exhibition takes the history of the Belgian Pavilion and the international context of the Biennale (both derived from the colonial exhibitions and world expositions) as its points of departure. The Belgian Pavilion itself was the first foreign Pavilion to be built in the Giardini in Venice, during the reign of King Leopold II. Meessen’s work and artistic research have consistently explored the history and afterlife of colonial modernity.

The artist’s project, selected to represent Belgium at the Biennale, moves away from the traditional format of a solo show and opens up to include multiple positions and voices. Working in close collaboration, Meessen and Brussels-based curator Katerina Gregos have developed a thematic exhibition and invited a dozen international artists to participate. Bringing together artists from the Americas, Africa, and Asia as well as Europe, whose practice is research-based, Personne et les autres challenges traditional notions of national representation at the Venice Biennale. The exhibition aims to reflect upon the legacy of internationalism—understood as the labour-movement theory inspired by Marxism and libertarian socialism, grounded in revolutionary processes, and advocating international solidarity—as a global emancipatory project. 

Personne et Les Autres challenges the Eurocentric idea of modernity by examining a shared avant-garde heritage, marked by an artistic and intellectual cross-pollination between Europe and Africa. The exhibition probes the unknown micro-histories and revisits a range of hybrid cultural and intellectual forms produced as a result of colonial encounters.
Central to the exhibition concept is a new work by Vincent Meessen filmed in Kinshasa. This piece will explore the largely unknown participation of Congolese intellectuals within the last international vanguard of modernity: the Situationist International, whose final conference took place in Venice in 1969. Belgium’s colonial history and its strategic role in the Situationist International—through key figures such as Raoul Vaneigem—form a crucial backdrop in understanding 20th-century political and artistic avant-gardes in Europe. In exploring this aspect of the Situationist International, Meessen’s work will uncover hidden episodes in the interrelated histories of art, popular music and activism.

Personne et les autres focuses not on the colonial history of Congo and Belgium as such, but on colonial modernity and its ongoing relation to artistic and intellectual radicalism. Exploring both adverse and positive cultural outcomes of colonial history, the exhibition reveals artistic and intellectual dialogues under colonization, during liberation struggles and especially in the aftermath of independence

Participating artists, include, among others:

Mathieu K. Abonnenc (b. 1977, French Guyana; lives and works in Metz)

Sammy Baloji (b. 1978, Democratic Republic of Congo; lives and works in Lumumbashi and Brussels)

James Beckett (b. 1977, Zimbabwe; lives and works in Amsterdam)

Elisabetta Benassi (b. 1966, Italy; lives and works in Rome)

Patrick Bernier & Olive Martin (b. 1971, France; b. 1972, Belgium; live and work in Nantes)

Tamar Guimarães and Kasper Akhøj (b. 1967, Brazil; b. 1976, Denmark; live and work in Copenhagen)

Maryam Jafri (b. 1972, Pakistan; lives and works in Copenhagen and New York)

Adam Pendleton (b. 1984, USA; lives and works in New York)

The official representation of Belgium at the 56th International Art Exhibition – Biennale di Venezia is commissioned by Wallonia-Brussels Federation and Wallonia-Brussels International,with additional support from Eeckman Art Insurance. It is organized by the non-profit association Normal asbl. Curator: Katerina Gregos. Exhibition design: Lhoas & Lhoas. Graphic identity: Speculoos. Catalogue design & distribution: Mousse. Exhibition manager: Monique Verhulst. Co-ordinator of Karawane, project research seminar at ERG - école de recherche graphique, Brussels: Lotte Arndt. 

 

Finalmente nominato il curatore italiano

Quasi per ultimi ma giusto prima di non poter più far nulla è stato nominato il curatore del Padiglione Italia, sarà  Vincenzo Trione che con appena 400 mila euro curerà l'evento.

Le polemiche sono in corso, come sempre tutti che avevano miglior consigli, ma così è ora speriamo che si riesca a fare un bel progetto, un in bocca al lupo al curatore!

Comunicato del Ministero

"Sarà Vincenzo Trione il curatore del Padiglione Italia alla 56esima Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte organizzata dalla Fondazione la Biennale di Venezia". Lo rende noto il ministro dei Beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo, Dario Franceschini che fa sapere che "la scelta è avvenuta a seguito di una procedura di selezione a cui sono state invitate a presentare un progetto espositivo dieci personalità di elevata competenza e professionalità. Sono pervenute otto proposte, avanzate da: Mauro Codognato (capo curatore dello Österreichische Galerie Belvedere Vienna), Cristiana Collu (Direttore del Museo d’arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto), Lorenzo Giusti (Direttore Man, Nuoro), Gianfranco Maraniello (Direttore Mambo - Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna), Letizia Ragaglia (Direttore Museion, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Bolzano), Francesco Stocchi (Capo curatore del Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen di Rotterdam), Vincenzio Trione (Docente di storia dell’arte contemporanea e nuovi media all’università IULM di Milano)e Andrea Viliani (Direttore Madre – Fondazione Donnaregina, Napoli).

Si tratta di giovani profili curatoriali, tutti sotto i 50 anni, con ruoli di primo piano nel mondo europeo delle arti visive e molto attenti alle più recenti ricerche creative".

Il Ministro dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo, Dario Franceschini, dopo aver esaminato in modo dettagliato tutte le proposte, ha scelto di designare Vincenzo Trione quale curatore del prossimo Padiglione Italia alla 56esima Biennale di Venezia. Il titolo della sua proposta curatoriale è 'Codice Italia'.

Vincenzo Trione (Napoli, 1972) è professore di Arte e nuovi media e di Storia dell'arte contemporanea presso l'Università IULM di Milano, dove è Vicepreside della Facoltà di Arti, turismo e mercati e Coordinatore della Laurea triennale in Arti, design e spettacolo e della Laurea magistrale in Arti, patrimoni e mercati. È stato Commissario della XIV edizione della Quadriennale di Roma (2003) e Direttore generale di "Valencia 09-Confines. Passajes de lasartescontemporaneas". Ha curato mostre in musei italiani e stranieri (tra le altre, "El siglo de Giorgio de Chirico" presso l'IVAM di Valencia nel 2007, "Salvador Dalí" nel 2010 e "Alberto Savinio" nel 2011 entrambe a Palazzo Reale di Milano, e "Post-classici" al Foro romano e al Palatino di Roma nel 2013). Ha pubblicato numerosi saggi su momenti e figure delle avanguardie e monografie su protagonisti dell’arte del Novecento (Apollinaire, Soffici, de Chirico).

Chi è ?

Ecco cosa c'è scritto nel sito della IULM dove lavoro 

Vincenzo Trione è professore straordinario di Arte e nuovi media (L-Art 06). È Vicepreside della Facoltà di Arti, turismo e mercati e Coordinatore della Laurea triennale in Arti, design e spettacolo e della Laurea magistrale in Arti, patrimoni e mercati. E' Direttore del Dipartimento/Istituto di ricerca in Arti e media. Collabora al “Corriere della Sera” ed è titolare della rubrica d’arte di “Io Donna” (magazine del “Corriere della Sera”). È stato Commissario della XIV edizione della Quadriennale di Roma (2003) e Direttore generale di Valencia 09-Confines. Passajes de las artes contemporaneas. Dirige il Dipartimento di ricerca del Museo d’arte contemporanea Madre di Napoli. Ha curato mostre in musei italiani e stranieri (tra le altre, El siglo de Giorgio de Chirico presso l’IVAM di Valencia nel 2007, Salvador Dalí nel 2010 e Alberto Savinio nel 2011 entrambe a Palazzo Reale di Milano, e Post-classici al Foro romano e al Palatino di Roma nel 2013). Ha pubblicato numerosi saggi su momenti e figure delle avanguardie e monografie su protagonisti dell’arte del Novecento (Apollinaire, Soffici, de Chirico).

Principali aree di interesse scientifico

La sua ricerca, situata nell'ambito dei visual studies, si sofferma in particolare sulla stagione delle  avanguardie novecentesche ed è rivolta a disegnare un sistema di linguaggi artistici in cui pittura, architettura e cinema siano in costante dialogo.

Global Myopia II - Progetto di Marco Maggi per l'Uruguay

foto Josee Bienvenu Gallery

E' stato reso pubblico il progetto di Marco Maggi per il Padiglione dell'Uruguay, titolo Global Myopia II, una installazione specifica tutta realizzata col materiale tipico dei lavori dell'artista, l'impalpabile carta. 

foto Josee Bienvenu Gallery

Press release 

Marco Maggi will represent Uruguay at the upcoming Venice Biennale, opening to the public on May 9 and on view through November 22, 2015. The Uruguayan pavilion is one of the 29 national pavilions located in the Giardini della Biennale. Marco Maggi’s drawings, sculptures and installations encode the world. Composed of linear patterns that suggest circuit boards, aerial views of impossible cities, genetic engineering or nervous systems, his drawings are a thesaurus of the infinitesimal and the undecipherable. Marco Maggi’s abstract language refers to the way information is processed in a global era, and his work challenges the notion of drawing itself. For the 56th Venice Biennale he will present Global Myopia II, a site-specific installation of paper, stickers and pencils on the inside of the pavilion, and a large floating sculpture on the outside.

Saying that the world is myopic sounds depreciative: a planet without perspective, moving forward without any clear sense of direction. Marco Maggi, on the contrary, claims and prescribes myopia as the extraordinary ability to see from very close. Nearsightedness allows one to focus carefully on invisible details, it challenges the acceleration and the abuse of long-distance relationships characteristic of our era. After a farsighted 20th century with solutions for everyone and forever, it is time to stimulate our empathy for the immediate and the insignificant.

In Global Myopia II, paper and pencil, the two basic elements of drawing, get separated and the act of drawing is split into two stages. A portable kit composed of 10,000 elements cut out of self-adhesive paper becomes an insignificant alphabet that the artist will fold and paste onto the walls during the three months preceding the biennale. The diminutive papers are disseminated or connected following the specific traffic rules and syntax dictated by any accumulation of sediments. The colonies of paper sticker on the walls enter in dialogue with a custom lighting track provided by Erco. Myriads of high-definition shadows and infinitesimal incandescent projections will aim to slow down the viewer. The only ambition of the project is to promote pauses and closeness.

Born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1957, Marco Maggi lives and works in New Paltz, NY and Montevideo, Uruguay. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Latin America in galleries, museums, and biennials. He is represented by Josée Bienvenu in New York. In 2013, he received the Premio Figari (Career Award). Selected exhibitions include Functional Desinformation, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2012); Optimismo Radical, NC-arte, Bogota, Colombia (2011); New Perspectives in Latin American Art, 1930–2006, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2008); Poetics of the Handmade, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA (2007); Fifth Gwangju Biennial, Korea (2004); VIII Havana Biennial, Cuba (2003); 25th Sao Paulo Biennial, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2002); and Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2001). Public collections include The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; The Drawing Center, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis; Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach; El Museo del Barrio, New York; Cisneros Collection, New York; and Daros Foundation, Zurich.

The 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia is directed by Okwui Enwezor, curator, art critic and writer, and the Director of the Haus der Kunst, Munich. The Uruguayan Commissioner is artist Ricardo Pascale and the project is curated by Patricia Bentancur, Senior Curator and New Media Director at the Centro Cultural de España in Montevideo (CCE), a leading space for Iberoamerican art.

Chus Martinez e Albert Serra selezionati per la Catalonia

Chus Martinez e  Albert Serra sono stati selezionati per lo spazio collaterale della Catalonia alla prossima Biennale di Venezia 


Press release

Chus Martinez and Albert Serra win the competition for Catalonia's proposal for the Eventi Collaterali at the Venice Biennale 2015

If Raymond Williams were to decide on another entry for his celebrated text of Keywords today he surely would have included SINGULARITY. 

The term refers to the moment when artificial intelligences will surpass human capacity and human control. In mathematics, singularity describes a point at which a given mathematical object is not defined or not "well-behaved", for example infinite or not differentiable. Filmmaker Albert Serra will take this notion as a point of departure to produce a new film. Interested in how images act in a given diversity of contexts, the project presents the audience with a filmic space investigating the range of “applications“the notion of singularity has. It designates a turning point in the way we relate to information, to “matter“, to images produced by machines, to representation, to the interplay between culture and nature. It actually names a new era where these dualisms no longer exist. A machine-made cosmology, a capital of knowledge capable of altering our dreams, the image we have and will have about the world. 

The exhibition is a site that gives both the artist and the curator an opportunity to address the question: how does the cinema-machine create a mind?

Chus Martínez, who boasts an important professional trajectory of international prestige, has proposed a large-scale film installation directed by the Catalan artist, Albert Serra. Serra will present SINGULARITY, a piece divided into episodes that proposes a conciliation between the 20th century and the 21st, between that which is well-known and that which is singular. It is an audiovisual creation narrated from six different angles using six screens installed simply but effectively in the space, with one single sound. Each screen will reconstruct an odd story of images generated by machines: a subjective review of the history of art and cinema; the graphic images produced as a result of numerical translation; images constructed (theatrical) that move away from the machine of cinema and approach ritual; expressive images that reflect a word, etc. The study of an image's nature, its cinematographic treatment (both narrative and mechanic) offers us an experience, through the different screens, of the life of a concept in emergence, the images alone, which regenerate themselves, without a cause, without a destiny. 

Serra states that like "the writers of the 20th century who wrote with different words, the filmmakers of the 21st century can work with different screens. The creator of moving images from the 21st century works with many different types of images and therefore he must do so with a narrative objective".

Albert Serra (Banyoles, 1975) is a film director and producer. His first film, Crespià, the film not the village (2003) was never commercially distributed. Later, he made Honor de cavalleria and El cant dels ocells (Gaudí Award for the best film of 2009). In 2009 he was selected to be the icon of new avant-garde cinema by the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs del Festival de Cannes. In the year 2012 he was one of the artists chosen to participate in dOCUMENTA in Kassel where he presented his movie, Els tres porquets. Last year he won the award for best movie at the Locarno Festival with his production, Història de la meva mort (2013). Most recently he was invited by two prestigious centers, Pompidou, in Paris, (2013) and Bozar, in Brussels (2014), to present a project carte blanche.  

Chus Martínez (La Coruña, 1972) is currently the director of the Art Institut  at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design in Basilea, Switzerland. Her professional trajectory has led her to be the artistic director of the Sala Rekalde in Bilbao (2002-2005), the director of the Frankfurter Kuntstverein Museum (2005-2008), and the chief curator of the MACBA (2008-2011). Most recently she worked as chief curator at El Museo del Barrio in New York City and was part of the curating team of dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany. In 2005 Martínez was the curator of the National Pavilion of Cyprus for the 51st edition of the Biennale di Venezia with a project by Panayiotis Michael and Konstantia Sofokleou. She also formed part of the advisory committee for the Carnegie International Exposition 2008, and she participated as the invited curator for the 29th Biennial of São Paulo in 2010. 

In March 2015 Tate Modern will present the first major survey in the UK of maverick filmmaker Albert Serra. His acclaimed feature films will be screened alongside British premiere of parts of the monumental "The Three Little Pigs" project, commissioned by dOCUMENTA (13). Chus Martinez and Albert Serra will also present an anticipation of the new work commissioned for the Catalan Pavilion at next Venice Biennale. 

Catalonia (at) Venice: Singularity is an initiative of the Institut Ramon Llull, the public body from the Government of Catalonia and the City Council of Barcelona created to promote Catalan Culture Abroad.