Grisha Bruskin, Sasha Pirogov e Georgy Kuznetsov e Andrei Blokhin per la Russia

Il sito Tass ha comunicato che sono gli artisti Grisha Bruskin, Sasha Pirogov e Georgy Kuznetsov e Andrei Blokhin del gruppo artistico Recycle a rappresentere la Russia alla Biennale di Arte Contemporanea di 57 °, che si terrà a Venezia dal 13 Maggio al 26 novembre, 2017, curatore della mostra Semyon Mikhailovsky.

(Traduzione Google)

"Quest'anno, il padiglione sarà un rappresentante della vecchia generazione, uno dei più famosi artisti russi oggi - Grisha Bruskin, e giovani artisti - pittori da riciclare e Sasha Pirogov", - ha detto l'agenzia. Secondo lui, dall'idea iniziale per mostrare al progetto padiglione russo che coinvolge solo i giovani artisti, alla fine, ha deciso di non presentare più pienamente l'arte russa.

E Bruskin e riciclare partecipato come parte del programma parallelo nell'ultima Biennale di Venezia - un progetto di "Raccolta archeologo" nella chiesa di ex Santa Caterina e di conversione nella Chiesa di S. Antonino rispettivamente. Pirogova per la partecipazione alla mostra dalla Russia farà il suo debutto in questo sito prestigiosa.

Il tema principale della Biennale suo curatore, capo curatore degli oli Centre Pompidou Christine offerti Viva Arte Viva, che possono essere interpretate come "Viva l'arte di vivere." "Abbiamo a lungo concettualizzato questo argomento Considerando il tempo in cui viviamo, non possiamo rispondere alle sue chiamate Pertanto, questa mostra sarà un certo dramma ..", - ha detto S. Michele.

Dettagli sulla mostra russo alla Biennale di Venezia, tra cui il suo nome, saranno annunciati in una conferenza stampa, che si terrà nella Tass ha riferito il 27 gennaio. Mentre è noto che l'installazione Bruskin sarà il centro di esposizione, ei diversi livelli del padiglione, che è stato costruito nel 1914 dall'architetto Alexei Shchusev, concettualmente essere spostato verso il basso.

Per tradizione, il più antico e rispettato nel mondo della Biennale di arte contemporanea in Architettura Biennale di Venezia alternativamente. curatore invitato imposta un argomento e preparare una grande mostra che dimostra l'Arsenale ei giardini Giardini, dove si trovano anche i padiglioni in diversi paesi, tra cui la Russia. Come il Festival di Venezia, la Biennale di distribuendo "Leoni d'Oro": la giuria sceglie la migliore esposizione nazionale, il miglior lavoro del progetto principale, fuori dalla competizione assegnato il premio per il suo contributo all'architettura, e un giovane architetto promettente ottiene il "Leone d'Argento".

Geta Bratescu per la Romania

Sarà la novantenne artista Geta Bratescu, ha rappresentare la Romania alla prossima Biennale, il progetto si intitola "Apariţii" (Presenze), avrà la curatela di  Magda Radu.

Era già stata selezionata nel 2013 per la Biennale di Gioni, oltre ad essere stata proposta nei principali musei internazionali. 

Mark Bradford a Venezia

Sul sito di Artforum viene segnalato il progetto di Mark Bradford per supportare, in collaborazione con la cooperativa Rio Terà dei Pensieri nel periodo della Biennale di reintegrare uomini e donne incarcerati.

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Mark Bradford Partners with Nonprofit to Help Prisoners Re-Enter Society for 2017 Venice Biennale

American abstract painter Mark Bradford will embark on a six-year collaboration with Rio Terà dei Pensieri—a Venice-based social cooperative and nonprofit—to reintegrate incarcerated men and women in Venice into society by providing them with employment opportunities. Titled “Process Collettivo,” the initiative will establish a sustainable longterm program that aims to spread awareness about the limitations of the penal system. Bradford will help develop a storefront located in the Frari district into a venue where artisanal goods made by inmates will be sold.

The project will coincide with the artist’s US pavilion at the Fifty-Seventh Venice Biennale. Opening in May, the exhibition “Tomorrow is Another Day” will feature a multilayered narrative exposing contradictory histories. Cocurated by Christopher Bedford and Katy Siegel, the director and the senior programming and research curator at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the show will present new and existing works.

“Mark’s approach to the US pavilion project—encompassing both his exhibition and ‘Process Collettivo’—exemplifies his distinctly material approach to contending with social issues, particularly those impacting the margins of society,” Bedford said. “Just as Mark will actualize social change beyond the walls of the pavilion, the BMA aims to bring contemporary art beyond our walls and into our local community.”

Polys Peslikas per Cipro

 Polys Peslikas sarà l'artista che allestirà lo spazio del Padiglione di Cipro, con lui parteciperanno anche il collettivo Neoterismoi Toumazou, la scrittrice Mirene Arsanios e il ceramista Valentinos Charalambous, in un progetto corale che vuole essere ampio e condiviso. 

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The Culture Department of the Ministry of Education and Culture announce that the artist Polys Peslikas will be representing Cyprus at the 57th Venice Biennale of Art. The exhibition of the Cyprus Pavilion, coming to life through the medium of painting, will also act as host to a number of contributions and exchanges by these guests: artist group Neoterismoi Toumazou, artist writer Mirene Arsanios and ceramist Valentinos Charalambous.

#JanVerwoert, curator for Cyprus in the upcoming edition of the Biennial, writes:

“In response to the open call, Peslikas proposed a series of ideas that most strongly resonated with the spirit of the curatorial concept:

On the basis of his practice, Peslikas made a strong case for the power of painting to convey the intensity of elementary experiences. He jokes: "A painting remembers you sneezed in front of it and it will sneeze back at you one day". Yet, Peslikas equally emphasized that this experiential potential may be most strongly felt when painting veils itself, chiaroscuro lets the eyes wander, colours become atmospherical, spectral even. So the peculiar appearance of painting in the envisioned exhibition space may be akin to the ghost of a theatre curtain, which stays present before your eyes, even when the play is already in progress. Thereby, Peslikas projected a vivid image of how the exhibition at the Cyprus pavilion can take shape: The presence of his work will create the atmosphere, define the key and set the stage for the exchanges to happen in the show. His paintings will act as hosts towards the viewers and designated guests of the exhibition.

Equally well versed in the arts of painting and socially collaborative practice, Peslikas is uniquely prepared to interpret the role of a painter as that of a host to guest artists and writers. Parallel to painting, he worked jointly with choreographers in the field of dance, and he opened up to the art community the exhibition space Volks, which he runs in Nicosia. He knows what it means to pursue your own practice while setting the scene for others to appear.

As an integral part of the scenario laid out in the curatorial concept, the exhibition will become a site for hosting exchanges of poetic knowledge; it will trade in the colours of life. A series of publications and events provide the framework for these transactions. Three parties have been invited as guests of honour to raise their voices and share their experience:

Few would embody the local intelligence of international transaction better than artist group Neoterismoi Toumazou (Maria Toumazou, Marina Xenofontos, Orestis Lazouras). Named after a store trading in miscellaneous goods and novelities run by one of the member's grandfather in Nicosia, this group is fluent in many languages — poetry, performance, music, fashion and object-art. The Neoterismoi speak of experiences gathered in lives lived in transit between places, and of love lost and found, styles adapted and transformed, on the way. The Neoterismoi Toumazou set up shop on the crossroads between languages and material influences. On this crossing they meet Peslikas and the two further guests:

Mirene Arsanios is an artist writer from Beirut, based in New York, who tells the story of moments where biography meets history. As everyday lives continue while historical events occur, memories come to be embodied in particular ways. Beirut summers come into focus around a moist black bathing costume. After a bomb went off the neighbour's dog won't bark anymore. Cairo comes to visit in the guise of an ancient grand-aunt who knows about goddesses and feeds pidgeons in Venice. In her stories, Arsanios renders the experiences in colour which shape seasons, cities and people.

Legendary ceramic artist Valentinos Charalambous joins the conversation. By virtue of his long life lived, as an artist, in places including Baghdad, he has many stories to tell. Gathering an unique body of knowledge in the process of creating his art, he has become a teacher and inspiration to many who visited him in his studio. He knows how Cypriot earths act when turned into pigment, what Peggy Guggenheim's perfume smelled like, and how to most contagiously share a deep love for the ancient arts of Mesopotamia. Indeed, such love may be louder than bombs. And there is a lot to learn from how Charalambous teaches the possible depth of influences

Appearing on the atmospheric scene set by Peslikas' paintings, these guests will converse with him and the audience. In terms of the images evoked, stories told, material influences and stylistic inspirations shared — yet also in terms of the very form in which this exchange will take place — the exhibition invokes a particular spirit: It speaks of the Eastern Mediteranean as a zone where travellers meet as routes cross. Passages open up between Nicosia, Berlin, London, Famagusta, Baghad, Limasol, New York, Cairo and Beirut, as a poetic knowledge is created that may deepen the understanding of the past and render the future in a different colour.“

Polys Peslikas (b. 1973, Limassol) lives and works in Berlin. His practice centres on painting, proposing a meticulous relationship with the medium. Peslikas views the canvas as a space to negotiate the concept of time and often works with fragments of images and pre-existing elements within the realm of human activity and the history of art. In this context, he invents new relationships with existing narratives and incorporates these in his painting through references to other visual means. To understand painting, he often turns to other disciplines: he has collaborated with dance performers, taught in public schools, and formed part of the creative core of an art and culture publication, Ysterografo magazine, while curating solo and group shows of other artists. For the past three years he has been artistic director at VOLKS, a newly established art space in Nicosia. His most recent solo exhibitions have been held at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, and VOLKS, Nicosia. He has participated in numerous group shows, among others at Halle 14, Leipzig, NiMAC and Point Center for Contemporary Art, Nicosia.

For the upcoming edition, the Cyprus pavilion will be housed at Associazione Culturale Spiazzi, Castello 3865, 30124 Venezia, close to the Arsenale, one of the two main exhibition venues of the Venice Biennale. Complete exhibition programme to follow.

The 57th edition of the event, directed by Christine Macel, opens on 10 May 2017 for the Media and accredited professionals and on 13 May for the general public.

Contact: info@cyprusinvenice.com

(Photo by Javier Folkeborn)

Leviathan

 A Venezia nei giorni della Biennale ci sarà anche l’artista Shezad Dawood col progetto Leviathan. Si tratta di una serie di video, in forma di storia narrativa, realizzato in dieci episodi. Un viaggio epico fra culture e forme naturali estreme. 

The Boat is Leaking. The Captain Lied alla Fondazione Prada

FONDAZIONE PRADA PRESENTA A VENEZIA “THE BOAT IS LEAKING. THE CAPTAIN LIED.”, UN PROGETTO ESPOSITIVO CON ALEXANDER KLUGE, THOMAS DEMAND E ANNA VIEBROK, CURATO DA UDO KITTELMANN, DAL 13 MAGGIO AL 26 NOVEMBRE 2017

Venezia, 25 gennaio 2017 - Fondazione Prada presenterà nella sede veneziana di Ca’ Corner della Regina “The Boat is Leaking. The Captain Lied.” dal 13 maggio al 26 novembre 2017.

Questo progetto espositivo transmediale è il risultato di un approfondito confronto tra lo scrittore e regista Alexander Kluge, l’artista Thomas Demand, la scenografa e costumista Anna Viebrock e il curatore Udo Kittelmann. La mostra si svilupperà al piano terra e nei due piani nobili del palazzo settecentesco e includerà opere filmiche e fotografiche, ambientazioni spaziali e prestiti da collezioni pubbliche e private.

Riferendosi a una citazione dalla tragedia Giulio Cesare di William Shakespeare “Soffia ora, vento; gonfiatevi, onde; sta bene a galla, barca: scatenata è ormai la gran tempesta, e tutto adesso è rischio”, Udo Kittelmann osserva come questa collaborazione sia originata “dalla comune consapevolezza, a livello emotivo e teorico, delle criticità del nostro presente e della complessità del mondo in cui viviamo”.

In un dialogo di costellazioni e riferimenti polifonici tra i contributi di ciascun artista, la mostra attraversa diversi linguaggi come il cinema, l’arte e il teatro. La convergenza di spazi visivi e scenografie in grado di creare una varietà di atmosfere trasforma lo storico palazzo di Ca’ Corner della Regina in un luogo metaforico nel quale scoprire i mondi in cui viviamo e le nostre attitudini personali sviluppate nei loro confronti. 

La mostra intende fornire una visione completa delle produzioni di Alexander Kluge, Thomas Demand e Anna Viebrock. I loro sforzi artistici si sono sempre estesi oltre ai campi dell’estetica e dell’immaginativo in quanto concepiti con chiare intenzioni storico-politiche. I tre autori si rivelano così pionieri e investigatori, testimoni e cronisti dei tempi passati e presenti.

Grazie a questo approccio la mostra è concepita come uno spazio in cui vivere esperienze e incontri. Questo ambiente stratificato e visivamente potente conferisce un’analisi e un significato al quotidiano e ai mondi di ieri e oggi sospesi tra apparente normalità e catastrofe, in una società divisa tra slancio vitale e perdita di fiducia, tra estrema angoscia e speranza senza limiti.

Come sostiene Kittelmann, “è una fortunata coincidenza che la produzione filmica di Alexander Kluge, l’opera fotografica di Thomas Demand e le scenografie di Anna Viebrock siano riunite in questo progetto collettivo, combinando forme di espressione artistica solitamente distinte. Finora l’impegno nei loro diversi ambiti creativi non ha consentito loro di creare una collaborazione così simbiotica, nonostante si conoscano personalmente e abbiano spesso messo a confronto le loro idee”. 

La mostra “The Boat is Leaking. The Captain Lied.” sarà accompagnata da una pubblicazione illustrata curata da Udo Kittelmann ed edita dalla Fondazione Prada.

Tina Gverović e Marko Tadić per la Croazia

Col titolo “Horizon Expectations” gli artisti Tina Gverović e Marko Tadić saranno nel padiglione croato alla Biennale di Venezia, ne ha dato notizia il sito di Artforum

Rock, Paper, Scissors: Positions in Play per UAE

Un gioco per il padiglione degli Emirati Arabi Uniti.

Col titolo “Rock, Paper, Scissors: Positions in Play” il padiglione dell’UAE allestirò una mostra con cinque artisti: Nujoom Alghanem, Sara Al Haddad, Vikram Divecha, Lantian Xie e Mohamed Yousi.

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FIVE ARTISTS ANNOUNCED FOR 'ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS: POSITIONS IN PLAY', THE UAE'S EXHIBITION FOR THE 2017 VENICE BIENNALE 

Titled 'Rock, Paper, Scissors: Positions in Play' and curated by Hammad Nasar, a curator and writer, and most recently served as Head of Research and Programmes at Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong (2012-2016), this exhibition will explore a strand of artistic practice in the UAE through the analogy of play. Featuring existing works, re-fabrication of "lost" works and new commissions, the exhibition will stage a set of nested questions: where does "playfulness" in artistic practice come from? How and where is "play" nurtured? What does "play" do?

Artists 

The exhibition will present works by five artists who are nationals and long-term residents who call the UAE home: Nujoom Alghanem, Sara Al Haddad, Vikram Divecha, Lantian Xie and Dr. Mohamed Yousif.

Publication

The accompanying publication will serve both as an additional site of the exhibition, and as its speculative expansion, with newly commissioned texts by contributors including: Aisha Bilkhair; Uzma Rizvi; and Murtaza Vali; with further contributors to be announced shortly. Artists, architects and creative writers have also been invited to intervene, and respond to the themes of the exhibition, with new commissions by: Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh & Hesam Rahmanian; Deepak Unikrishnan; and, WTD magazine.

Series of Programs

In line with the curatorial premise, several cultural institutions across the UAE have been invited to act as interlocutors in exploring the themes of the exhibition. Some of the confirmed institutions include Sharjah Art Foundation, The Art Gallery at NYU Abu Dhabi, Alserkal Programming, Tashkeel, Maraya Art Centre and Warehouse421. By developing these themes in ways they deem relevant, this will serve to extend, expand, critique, reflect and respond to the myriad issues that the exhibition may catalyze. More information on the institutions’ programs will be announced soon; you can also follow the story using the hashtags #positionsinplay, #uaeinvenice and #nationalpavilionuae.

Commissioned by the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation and supported by the UAE Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development, the exhibition will run from May 13 to November 26, 2017 at the 57th International Art Exhibtion of la Biennale di Venezia, with a preview from May 10 to 12, 2017.

To join the conversation follow National Pavilion UAE on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter and use the hashtags #uaeinvenice, #positionsinplay and #nationalpavilionuae

#positionsinplay, #uaeinvenice and #nationalpavilionuae.

nationalpavilionuae.org

Boris Mikhailov per l'Ucraina

Sarà  Boris Mikhailov a intervenire nel Padiglione Ucraino alla prossima Biennale di Venezia, con un progetto dal titolo "Parlamento" in cui la sua attività fotografica guarderà alla comunicazione e al suo uso. 

J. F. Huang per il Tuvalu

Sarà Vincent J. F. Huang ha rappresentare il Tuvalu, unica isola del Pacifico a partecipare alla prossima  Biennale di Venezia. 

Il progetto che verrà realizzato sarà multimediale e cercherà di costituire una comunità di relazioni umane. 

Info al sito http://www.tuvalupavilion.com/

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Tuvalu announces Curator and Artist at the 2017 Venice Biennale

Artist and climate activist Vincent J. F. Huang (Taiwan) will represent the Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu at the 2017 Venice Biennale. Aida Yuen Wong (United States/Canada/Hong Kong) has been appointed the Tuvalu Pavilion Curator. Responding to the biennale theme, “Viva Arte Viva,” the Tuvalu Pavilion will serve as the physical heart of a worldwide “social sculpture” called the Global Interactive Program to be realized through on- and off-line projects designed to rouse the global community to tackle the climate crisis that currently threatens to destroy the biennale’s smallest participating country.

                                                             

The only small Pacific Island Nation to participate in the Venice Biennale, Tuvalu is best known for its low elevation and its designation, according to the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change, as the likely first victim to the rising sea level. Though it has thrived for thousands of years as a self-sufficient fishing community now numbering just under 10,000, it is paying the price of global industrialization and indifference. As Huang points out,  this tiny island country and Venice share a common troubling future.

Huang divides his creative life between Venice and Taipei and has focused his art and 

activism on a single question: “When extreme weather rages around the world, how 

could art take a stand, and furthermore, play a role in social reform?” Huang creates 

art as a catalyst capable of turning the experience of global warming into personal and 

public action, while at the same time being transcendent aesthetic events that awaken 

passion for global ecology.

                                                                                              

Huang has been visiting Tuvalu since 2010. In 2012  he represented Tuvalu at the 

United Nations Climate Summit UNFCCC COP, and in 2013 and 2015 he exhibited 

at the Venice Biennale. It was his 2015 contribution, “Crossing the Tide,” which came 

to be known as “the flooded national pavilion” that made Tuvalu’s fate of interest to 

journalists from the mainstream as well as the art press all over the world. In 2017, 

he will be turning to a range of cultural forms, from myths and story-telling to the 

immersive poetry of installation in order to keep our eyes on the catastrophic future 

of a tiny island nation.

From the front lines of climate change in the South Pacific island and the Arctic Circle, Vincent J.F. Huang has enlisted remarkable creativity to look deeply at global climate crisis and challenge us to answer the question: “Are contemporary cultural developments leading to a beautiful new tomorrow or hurrying us towards a disastrous and crashing end?”

Artist

Vincent Huang was born in Nantou, Taiwan, in 1971 and received his MFA from 

Gray’s School of Art in Scotland in 2001. He taught at the Department of Visual 

Communication Design at Shu-te University in Kaohsiung from 2001 to 2006. 

He has been artist-in-residence at the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, 

Chiyoda Art Center in Tokyo, ARTSPACE in Australia, and the Arctic Circle Project. 

In 2013, in acknowledgment of his sustained art activism in support of global 

environmental issues, he was honored with Taiwan’s most prestigious cultural 

award—the Presidential Cultural Award.

Curator

Aida Yuen Wong, Nathan Cummings and Robert B. and Beatrice C. Mayer Chair in Fine Arts is the Chair of the Department of Fine Arts at Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts (U.S.A.). She specializes in transcultural exchanges in modern/contemporary East Asia and is currently writing on the recent history of ink painting in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Dr. Wong was awarded the Taiwan Fellowship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (ROC) (2015–2016) and the American Council of Learned Societies (and NEH) American Research in the Humanities in China Fellowship (2012–2013; 2002–2003). Among her publications are Parting the Mists: Discovering Japan and the Rise of National-style Painting in Modern China (2006); Visualizing Beauty: Gender and Ideology in Modern East Asia (2012); The Other Kang Youwei: Calligrapher, Art Activist, and Aesthetic Reformer in Modern China (2016); and the forthcoming Fashion, Identity, and Power in Modern Asia.

Vajiko Chachkhiani per il Padiglione della Georgia

L'artista Vajiko Chachkhiani è stato selezionato dal Ministero della Cultura della Georgia, fra una rosa di venti progetti proposti a seguito di un bando, per il padiglione della Georgia.

Dirk Braeckman per il Belgio

Dirk Braeckman occuperà gli spazi del padiglione belga alla prossima biennale. 

Dal sito 

Flemish Minister Sven Gatz has commissioned Dirk Braeckman to represent Belgium at the 57th international art exhibition La Biennale di Venezia. For his solo exhibition in the Belgian pavilion, Dirk Braeckman will present exclusively new works. The exhibition will be curated by Eva Wittocx, and it will be organized by M - Museum Leuven. The 57th Venice Biennale runs from 13 May until 26 November 2017.

In his enigmatic photographs, Dirk Braeckman (1958) creates a closed, isolated world in which combines tactility and texture, distance and intimacy. His monumental works tell us nothing; yet they suggest entire stories. Braeckman reflects on the photographic image and challenges the illusions of the medium. In his creative process, the artist experiments with textures and materials. He examines effects such as over- and under-exposure through a variety of printing techniques. His images exceed the moment of capturing and reach beyond their frame. Braeckman finds the subjects for his photographic work in his immediate environment. They are often undefined places or spaces, preferably interior views. For the Biennale, Dirk Braeckman will create a new set of monumental photos and present them tailored to the architecture of the pavilion.

Dirk Braeckman is one of the most prominent Belgian artists of the moment. He has presented his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions both at nationally and internationally.

Mohau Modisakeng e Candice Breitz per il Sud Africa

Saranno gli artisti Mohau Modisakeng e Candice Breitz a rappresentare il  South Africa

Dal sito 

The South African Department of Arts and Culture has appointed Connect Channel to implement the South African pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. It is a pleasure to announce that Candice Breitz and Mohau Modisakeng will represent South Africa at the world’s most prestigious contemporary art event. Breitz and Modisakeng will present a major, two-person exhibition in the South African Pavilion, running from 13 May to 26 November 2017 in Venice, Italy.

This exhibition will be the first Venice Biennale project presented by Connect Channel Pty (Ltd) (‘Connect’). “The team we have assembled brings together Connect as an experienced local production company, accomplished curators and a proven project management company with first-hand experience of the Biennale. Our collective goal is to spearhead a new approach to the South African Pavilion in 2017 by presenting the work of two leading South African artists and to leverage social and popular media to enhance local, public engagement with the South African Pavilion. We thank the Department of Arts and Culture for their support” – Connect CEO, Basetsana Kumalo

Christine Macel, Artistic Director of the 57th International Art Biennale, has outlined a curatorial framework emphasising the important role artists play in inventing their own universes and injecting generous vitality into the world we live in. In response to the Biennale’s theme, the South African Pavilion exhibition will invite viewers to explore the artist’s role in visualising and articulating the notion of selfhood within a context of global marginalisation. What is it to be visible in everyday life, yet invisible and disregarded at the level of cultural, political or economic representation? Placing new works by Breitz and Modisakeng in dialogue, the exhibition will reflect on experiences of exclusion, displacement, transience, migration and xenophobia, exploring the complex socio-political forces that shape the performance of selfhood under such conditions.

“We are truly thrilled that Breitz and Modisakeng will be representing South Africa. Breitz’s photographs and multi-channel video installations offer nuanced studies of the structure of identity under global capitalism, while Modisakeng employs a highly personal language to express ideas about his own identity and the body. This marks the first time that Modisakeng and Breitz will be shown alongside each other in the context of a significant exhibition.” – Curator, Lucy MacGarry.

Mohau Modisakeng is based in South Africa. His award-winning and internationally exhibited photography, film, performance and installation work forms a personal and idiosyncratic exploration of a local narrative. Informed by a coming of age during our country’s violent political transition, his practice grapples with black male identity, body and place within a post-apartheid context. Modisakeng presents critical responses to ideas of nationhood, leadership, inequality and migrant labour that manifest visually as poignant moments of grieving and catharsis central to the current lived experience of contemporary South Africans.

Candice Breitz is an internationally acclaimed artist best known for her moving image installations. Throughout her career, she has explored the dynamics by means of which an individual becomes him or herself in relation to a larger community, be that community the immediate community that one encounters in family, or the real and imagined communities that are shaped not only by questions of national belonging, race, gender and religion, but also by the increasingly undeniable influence of mainstream media such as television, cinema and popular culture. Most recently, Breitz’s work has focused on the conditions under which empathy is produced, reflecting on a media-saturated global culture in which strong identification with fictional characters and celebrity figures runs parallel to widespread indifference to the plight of those facing real world adversities.

As a company, Connect is engaged in improving access and exposure to the creative industries and reflecting local realities in the content they produce. Connect is confident that our country’s Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale will be the best articulation and reflection of contemporary thought and visual art produced in South Africa today.

ABOUT THE CURATORS

Lucy MacGarry served as Curator of the FNB Joburg Art Fair from 2014–2016. In 2015, she spearheaded the first dedicated programme of experimental film and live performance at the Fair. In 2016, MacGarry initiated and curated an inaugural East Africa Focus. The focus spotlighted artistic practice from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda to Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan. From 2009–2014 she was Art Director of Yellowwoods Art overseeing the corporate art collections of Spier Wine Estate, Hollard Insurance and Nando’s Global.

Musha Neluheni is currently Acting Chief Curator at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) and Curator for Contemporary Collections. Neluheni originates and oversees contemporary exhibitions at JAG as well as external exhibitions. She serves on the Standard Bank Visual Arts Committee and the University of Johannesburg Art Advisory Board. She worked as the assistant curator for the Sasol Art Collection from 2006–2009 and was awarded Young Curator of the Year for the 2008 Aardklop Arts Festival. She was the Educations Officer at the Johannesburg Art Gallery from 2010–2013.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Candice Breitz was born in Johannesburg in 1972. She is currently based in Berlin. Breitz holds degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Chicago and Columbia University. She has been a tenured professor at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Braunschweig since 2007. Breitz has participated in biennales in Johannesburg (1997), São Paulo (1998), Istanbul (1999), Taipei (2000), Kwangju (2000), Tirana (2001), Venice (2005), New Orleans (2008), Singapore (2011) and Dakar (2014). Solo exhibitions of her work have been hosted by the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Humlebæk), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), Kunsthaus Bregenz (Austria), The Power Plant (Toronto), Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (Newcastle), Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Modern Art Oxford, City Gallery Wellington (New Zealand), De Appel (Amsterdam), Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (Luxembourg), Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Castello di Rivoli (Turin), Bawag Foundation (Vienna), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (Spain), Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Melbourne), Standard Bank Gallery (Johannesburg) and the South African National Gallery (Cape Town). Her work has been featured at the Sundance Film Festival (2009) and the Toronto International Film Festival (2013).

Mohau Modisakeng was born in Johannesburg in 1986 and grew up in Soweto. He currently lives and works between Johannesburg and Cape Town. Modisakeng completed his undergraduate degree at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town in 2009. His work has been exhibited at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), MOCADA, Brooklyn New York (2015), Kunstraum Innsbruck, Austria (2015), the Museum of Fine Art, Boston (2014), 21C Museum, Kentucky, Massachusetts (2014), IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town (2014), Saatchi Gallery, London (2012) and the Dak’Art Biennale, Dakar (2012). His work has been placed in numerous private collections both locally and internationally. His work is held by the following public collections: Johannesburg Art Gallery, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Saatchi Gallery and Zeitz MOCAA.

ABOUT CONNECT CHANNEL

Connect Channel (Pty) Ltd is a digital content and television production company managed by Basetsana Kumalo, one of South Africa’s most recognised personal brands and production veteran of over 20 years. Over the last three years the company has acquired a great deal of experience in producing television shows of cultural relevance to South African audiences. These shows have developed a loyal and dedicated viewership. Connect’s objective is to leverage off its production resources and know-how to engage with broader creative fields.

ABOUT PARTS & LABOUR

Parts & Labour is a multidisciplinary project management studio. They advise on large-scale sculptural projects, public art commissions, museum and art installations and specialist exhibitions to assist clients, artists, architects and designers in the development and realisation of their concepts. The projects Parts & Labour embarks on are by and large, out of the ordinary and defined by new techniques and structural experimentation such as ‘Release’ at the Nelson Mandela Capture Site. Parts & Labour managed the South African Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale.

ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF ARTS AND CULTURE

The South African Department of Arts and Culture’s vision is to create a dynamic, vibrant and transformed Arts, Culture and Heritage sector, leading nation building through social cohesion and socio-economic inclusion. The South African Pavilion at the Venice Biennale is of strategic importance in establishing this goal locally within the sector and promoting South African Arts, Culture and Heritage on an international level.

ABOUT THE VENICE BIENNALE

The Venice Biennale dates back to 1895, when the first International Art Exhibition was organised. It is one of the pre-eminent international bienniales and cultural institutions in the world, introducing hundreds of thousands of visitors to exciting new art every two years. The 57th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (13 May – 26 November 2017) is directed by Christine Macel, Chief Curator at the Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Pompidou in Paris

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