Australia Council announces Tracey Moffatt’s 2017 Venice Biennale exhibition

The Australia Council for the Arts today announced the exhibition title for Tracey Moffatt’s solo exhibition in the Australian Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale. Moffatt will present MY HORIZON. The installation will comprise all new work, including large-scale photography and film. “MY HORIZON is very open and can be read in many ways,” said Moffatt. “The horizon line can represent the far and distant future or the unobtainable. There are times in life when we all can see what is ‘coming over the horizon’. This is when we make a move. Or we do nothing and just wait for whatever it is to arrive.” Through photography and film, Moffatt creates highly stylized narratives and montage to explore a range of themes including the complexities of interpersonal relationships, the curiousness of popular culture, and her own deeply felt childhood memories and fantasies. “This will be an insightful and deeply moving exhibition, one that extends Tracey’s acclaimed body of work and cements her position as one of Australia’s most successful artists - someone who consistently takes the tempo of our times,” said Naomi Milgrom AO, Australia’s Commissioner for the 2017 Venice Biennale. The exhibition, to be launched in May 2017, will be accompanied by a major new book, published and distributed by Thames & Hudson. This will be the first time an artist representing Australia at the Venice Biennale will have a globally distributed accompanying publication. Exhibition Curator and publication editor Natalie King said, “MY HORIZON will present a compendium of texts that reflect on Tracey’s highly political and deeply personal fictions, allowing readers to ponder what might be over the horizon.” Moffatt first received critical acclaim with the short film Night Cries which was selected for official competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. Her first feature film, bedevil was also selected for Cannes in 1993, and in 1997 she was invited to exhibit in the Aperto section of the Venice Biennale. An exhibition at the Dia Center for the Arts in New York followed, consolidating her international reputation. Since then Moffatt has exhibited extensively in museums and galleries across the globe, with more than 100 international exhibitions including a highly prestigious 2012 solo show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. She also received the 2007 Infinity Award for Art from New York’s esteemed International Center of Photography. Moffatt will be the second artist to exhibit in the award-winning Australia Pavilion in Venice’s Giardini. The Australia Council for the Arts is the Australian Government’s principal arts funding and advisory body. Australia’s participation at the Venice Biennale began in 1954, and has been managed by the Australia Council since 1978. #BiennaleArte2017