Angola Pavilion

The 56th edition of the most important International Biennale of contemporary art takes place this year in Venice, a leading forum for the introduction and recognition of artists from the participating countries.

Since 2013, the Ministry of Culture of Angola has ensured the country’s representation at the Biennale, which is characterised by the high quality of its submissions, taking into account the practices developed within the contemporary art scene. This approach has resulted in excellent feedback from the audience and art critics, both national and international, and culminated in the Golden Lion Award in 2013.

The next Art Biennale, All the World’s Futures, will be divided into sections/filters and will be based on the strengths listed by the curator, Okwui Enwezor (Calabar, Nigeria, 1963):

“Rather than one overarching theme, All the World’s Futures is informed by a layer of intersecting Filters, these Filters are a constellation of parameters that circumscribe multiple ideas, which will be touched upon to both imagine and realize a diversity of practices. The 56th International Art Exhibition will employ as a Filter the historical trajectory that the Biennale itself, over the course of its one hundred and twenty years existence has run over, a Filter through which to reflect on both the current ‘state of things’ and the ‘appearance of things.’”

  

Artists António Ole (b. 1951, Luanda), Binelde Hyrcan (b. 1983, Luanda), Délio Jasse (b. 1980, Luanda), Francisco Vidal (b. 1978, Lisbon) and Nelo Teixeira (b. 1975, Luanda) will be in charge of Angola’s official representation, which will take place at the Palazzo Pisani, in Campo Santo Stefano, from 9 May to 22 November, under the curatorship of António Ole. From artist António Ole’s central installation, which marks the front and back of the exhibition, Francisco Vidal presents installations made up of a metallic skin of machetes. A symbol of the Angolan resistance, the machete is the support for a remarkable pictorial representation; Délio Jasse showcases a study, in photographic form, of memory, its sedimentation and the reasons for forgetting; Nelo Teixeira follows with a work in which wood forms the basic structure and where the incorporation of the object trouvé accentuates parallel narratives; and finally Binelde Hyrcan, a very eclectic artist in his aesthetic choices, presents video and installation of his most recent research.

This choice allows this younger, yet already proven, generation, following in the footsteps of António Ole, to access the circuit of the Biennale di Venezia whilst, at the same time, promoting the country. Moreover, it gives them the chance to cement their international presence, in order to ensure the success of a project that meets the demands of this presentation and the contemporary profile of the next representation.

Exhibitors: António Ole, Binelde Hyrcan,

Délio Jasse, Francisco Vidal, Nelo Teixeira

Curator: António Ole

Deputy Curator: Antonia Gaeta