Lina Selander per la Svezia

Il sito Kunstkritikk segnala la selezione di  Lina Selander per la Svezia 

Dal sito  Kunstkritikk 

Today, Moderna Museet officially announced that a solo exhibition by Lina Selander (b.1973) will constitute Sweden’s contribution to the Venice Biennale 2015. The exhibition will take place in the Arsenale, following an invitation from the Biennale curator Okwui Enwezor. The Nordic Pavilion is shared between Norway, Finland and Sweden, and this year it will be organised by Norway.

Congratulations on the exhibition! What are you going to show in Venice, and where will the exhibition take place?

– I will show a number of installations from 2014 and earlier, and a new film that is a collaboration with Oscar Mangione. The exhibition will take place in the Arsenale, in a 300-square meter room following directly after Enwezor’s exhibition. Thereafter, other national participants follow, Lina Selander tellsKunskritikk.

Selander’s film installations often draw upon historic events, and she uses both essayistic and archaeological approaches to uncover the way private as well as public images define memory or history. «Selander’s artistic practice is about finding traces, as much as about leaving traces», wrote Kunstkritikk’s criticMagnus Bremmer about her exhibition at Index in Stockholm 2011, whileMartin Grennberger described the piece Silphium (2014), shown at Kunsthall Trondheim earlier this year, as a film where the traces of nature and history are «aligned with the instruments for surveillance, control, regulation of and production of knowledge in the modern era».

Lina Selander. Photo: Cecilia Grönberg/OEI Editör.

You and Oscar Mangione recently collaborated on the film Silphium. Mangione is known mainly as a writer and editor of the magazineGeist. What is his role in the collaboration?

– I have been having an ongoing discussion with Oscar about my work since 1999. The last couple of years the conversations have become more and more practical in scope, extending into the actual work. We are very close and the films have ultimately become embodiments, projections or manifestations of our conversations on the problems and possibilities of the image. The film-work is, so to speak, a continuation of the conversation by other means.

Can you say something about the film you are making for Venice?

– Right now we are thinking and reading, and then the task of finding images, rhythms, and lines that continue what our thoughts have started is a delicate matter. I am not ready to discuss it yet. The films find their form in the editing process. But the new film will pick up the thread from recent work like Model of Continuation and Silphium, investigating the image as a both exterior and interior object.

Last year Hilma af Klint was included in the main show of the Venice Biennale, and last time Sweden organised the Nordic Pavilion, in 2011, the exhibiting artists were Fia Backström and Andreas Eriksson. Moderna Museet’s director Daniel Birnbaum, who was head curator of the Venice Biennale 2009, thinks that Selander’s work deserves a larger audience.

– We have discussed this decision together at Moderna, and we all agree that Lina Selander is one of the most exciting artists in Sweden today. She has exhibited internationally, but not participated in the really big events, Daniel Birnbaum says to Kunstkritikk.

Lina Selander and Oscar Mangione,Silphium (still), 2014.

How will Selander’s work do at the Venice Biennale?

– She can seem intellectually challenging, but I do not think we should underestimate the audience in Venice. It is big and mixed, but it is also sophisticated and used to complex artworks. I have been following Selander’s work for some years now and have been looking for an opportunity to exhibit her. We will do an exhibition here at the museum in Stockholm as well.

Selander’s exhibition at Moderna Museet opens in October 2015, and will partly overlap with the Venice Biennale, which runs from May 9 to November 22. Lena Essling, curator at Moderna, will organise both exhibitions.

– Lina Selander’s works operate on their own wavelength, I feel, and they have a strong visual presence and an inner density that captures you, regardless of whether you as a spectator immediately comprehend all layers and references, Lena Essling tells Kunstkritikk.

– Lina and I just came back from Venice where we examined the exhibition space, which is fantastic and has a great location in the Arsenale. At the moment we are thinking about the space, as well as the selection of works. A publication will be made for the exhibition, but it is not yet decided what form it will take.

Lina Selander, Model of Continuation(still), 2013.

Daniel Birnbaum also talks about the significance of the exhibition space, and emphasises the importance of establishing a dialogue with the adjacent international exhibition.

– When I was curator of the Biennale, I thought that it was the most beautiful room, Birnbaum says of the location inside the Arsenale.

– I know Okwui quite well and remember shows such as Archive Fever at ICP in New York 2008, which had a tone similar to Lina’s work. I hope and think that this will be good for her and the Biennale as a whole.

Selander has previously exhibited at Manifesta in Genk 2012 and at the Bucharest Biennale 2010. This weekend the first large-scale presentation of Selander’s work in Sweden will open at Kalmar Konstmuseum. The exhibition is called A Series of Images About You, and is curated by the director of Kunsthall Trondheim, Helena Holmberg. Later this year she will exhibit at INIVA – the Institute of International Visual Art in London.

Call for South Africa

Il Sito http://mediasourceafrica.com/articles/83 segnala il bando del Sud Africa per un curatore. 

Call for Curators for the Venice Biennale 2015 by National Arts Council of South Africa (NAC)

Tender documents are obtainable from the Department’s website: www.dac.gov.za  or can be collected at the Department of Arts and Culture, 8th Floor, Kingsley Centre, corner Steve Biko and Stanza Bopape Streets, Arcadia. 

Closing Date and Time: 13 October 2014 at 11h00 

Bids must be submitted to: The Department of Arts and Culture, 481 Kingsley Centre, 8th Floor, corner Steve Biko (Beatrix) and Stanza Bopape (Church) Streets, Arcadia. 

Technical Enquiries: 

Mr A. Oberholzer, tel. (012) 441 3611 / email: andrieso@dac.gov.za 

Bid-Related Enquiries: Ms R. Zulu, tel. (012) 441 3089 / email: refilwez@dac.gov.za or Mr T. Thubisi, tel. (011) 441 3504 / email: tuelot@dac.gov.za 

Prossimamente Leni Sinclair

L’organizzazione “West of rome”, coordinata da Emi Fontana, presenterà nell’estate 2015 una mostra fotografica di Leni Sinclair 

Applications for the 2015 Venice internship program are now open

A unique opportunity for young Emiratis and long-term residents to be part of the National Pavilion United Arab Emirates la Biennale di Venezia during the 56th International Art Exhibition (May 9 - November 22, 2015)

We are pleased to announce that applications for the 2015 Venice Internship program are now open. The Venice Internship is a specialized internship program offering a unique opportunity for young Emiratis and long-term residents of the UAE to be part of the National Pavilion United Arab Emirates la Biennale di Venezia during the 56th International Art Exhibition, through a month-long internship in Venice where they act as custodians and docents of the National Pavilion UAE.

This exciting opportunity provides interns a platform to get hands-on experience working alongside curators, artists and exhibition managers to put together and manage a large-scale exhibition at one of the most-acclaimed, non-commercial art events in the world. Not to mention access to a strong network of regional and international industry practitioners.

The National Pavilion UAE is commissioned by the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, and supported by the UAE Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development. Sheikha Hoor bint Sultan Al-Qasimi, President and Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, has been appointed as the curator for the National Pavilion UAE at the 56th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia

For more information and to apply, visit  nationalpavilionuae.org. Applications close November 15, 2014.

More information: internship@nationalpavilionuae.org 
Media requests: press@nationalpavilionuae.org

Connect with us 
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Twitter: @pavilionuae / @veniceinterns
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Heimo Zobernig per l'Austria

Oggi, il ministro della cultura austriaco J.Ostermayer ha annunciato l'artista che rappresenterà l'Austria, sarà Heimo Zobernig.

Press release

The minister of cultural affairs of Austria, Josef Ostermayer, and the commissioner of the Austrian Pavilion, Yilmaz Dziewior, are pleased to announce HEIMO ZOBERNIG as the artist of the Austrian Pavilion - La Biennale di Venezia 2015 at Venice Biennial 2015.

Commissioner: Yilmaz Dziewior

The Austrian Federal Minister of Arts and Culture, Josef Ostermayer, and the commissioner of the Austrian Pavilion, Yilmaz Dziewior, are delighted to announce Heimo Zobernig as the artist of the Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2015.  

The Venice Biennale counts among the most important art exhibitions and is celebrating its 120th anniversary in the summer of 2015. A look back at the history of artists presented in the Austrian Pavilion so far makes clear the extraordinary breadth and range of the positions displayed there. However, despite the great diversity, the list of participants reads like a retrospective “Who is Who” of the Austrian art scene from the end of the 19th century into the 21st: including, for example, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Arnulf Rainer, VALIE EXPORT, Maria Lassnig, and Franz West.

In recent years, through the choice of positions such as those of Hans Schabus, Dorit Margreiter, Markus Schinwald, and Mathias Poledna, conscious emphasis has been placed on positions which have highly differentiated relationships with the media they use, which range from installations through painting to performance and film. In addition to individual presentations, there were a number of group exhibitions of three or more positions and even the usual restriction to Austrian nationality was occasionally abandoned.

For the Austrian Pavilion in 2015, commissioner Yilmaz Dziewior selected Heimo Zobernig, an artist who has not only influenced the art scene in his own country like almost no other, but is also among the most successful positions in international art discourse and exhibitions. Through his professorship at the Academy for Fine Arts in Vienna, where he has taught for the last 14 years, Zobernig continues to influence subsequent generations. His exhibition activities range from repeated participation in major events such as the Venice Biennale (1988 & 2001), documenta in Kassel (1992 & 1997), and Skulptur Projekte Münster (1997) to extensive individual exhibitions in renowned institutions like the Palacio de Velázquez/Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid (2012), Kunsthaus Graz (2013), Mudam Luxembourg, and the Kestnergesellschaft in Hannover (both 2014)—to name just a selection from the last three years.

Heimo Zobernig’s work is marked by its high level of precision in terms of both form and content. He often succeeds in involving the observer both intellectually and sensually at the same time. His spectrum ranges from drawing and painting through installation and sculpture to video and spatial settings of a practical nature. Already in his early years, Heimo Zobernig had a firm grasp of how to question the basic premises of art both critically and playfully, by using the exhibition and/or the catalog or book in itself as a medium of his analytical reflection. In this sense, the individual core elements of art became his actual oeuvre. Hence, he exposes the mechanisms of the art system, addresses hierarchies and examines concepts both for their concrete and metaphorical meanings. All the more impressive is how he succeeds in negotiating these issues in the form of what might almost be called classical, apparently autonomous canvases and sculptures, or by means of concrete architectural interventions and installations.

Heimo Zobernig will combine both approaches for the Austrian Pavilion, which is based on a spatial concept by Robert Kramreiter and was built in 1934 by Josef Hoffmann. Both spatial intervention and independent work of art will enter into a combination as equal, reciprocally commentating elements of his Venice contribution. No less than the concrete room, the situation of the Biennale itself is a starting point for Heimo Zobernig’s deliberations. How can a meaningful contribution be made in an environment based on nation-state representations and in which each voice competes for the most attention? What effects make sense in such a context? These questions also play a role in Heimo Zobernig’s concept for Venice. And the Austrian Pavilion, with its equally classical and modern language of form, offers an ideal space for this purpose.

Commissioner Yilmaz Dziewior was born in Bonn and studied art history there and in London. He received his doctorate from Humboldt University of Berlin in 2005 with a thesis on the Bauhaus architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Since 2009, Yilmaz Dziewior has been director of the Kunsthaus Bregenz. Before that, he was director of the Kunstverein in Hamburg and, at the same time, held a professorship of art theory at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg. He has also worked as a freelance curator on exhibitions and projects at numerous other locations, including Beirut, Hong Kong, Cairo, Cologne, Limerick and Rovereto. Dziewior has also been active as an art critic and writer since 1991. His articles have appeared regularly in Artforum (New York), Camera Austria (Graz) and Texte zur Kunst (Berlin). He has published more than 50 books and catalogs on 20th- and 21st-century art. In February 2015, Yilmaz Dziewior takes over as director of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne.

Heimo Zobernig

born in 1958 in Mauthen, lives in Vienna.

He studied from 1977–80 at the Academy for Fine Arts Vienna and from 1980–83 at the University for Applied Arts Vienna.

From 1994–95 he was guest professor at the University for Fine Arts in Hamburg.

From 1999–2000, he was professor of sculpture at the Academy for Fine Arts – Städelschule, Frankfurt/Main.

Since 2000, he has been professor of sculpture at the Academy for Fine Arts Vienna.

Since the early 1980s, his work has been shown at numerous exhibitions, including, among others: Villa Arson, Nice (1991); Kunsthalle Bern (1994); Wiener Secession (1995);  Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago (1996); Portikus, Frankfurt/Main (1999); Biennale di Venezia (1988/2001); documenta, Kassel (1992/1997); Skulptur Projekte Münster (1997); mumok, Vienna (2002); Kunsthalle Basel and K21, Düsseldorf (2003); Yearning for Beauty, MAK, Vienna (2003); Biennale of Sydney (2004); Kunstverein Braun­schweig (2005); Artspace, Sydney (2006), Biennale Busan (2006); Galleria Civica, Modena (2008); Heimo Zobernig and the Tate Collection, Tate St. Ives, Cornwall (2008); Heimo Zobernig. Total Design, MAK, Vienna (2008);Stellproben, deSingel International Arts Centre, Antwerp (2008); Heimo Zobernig and the Collection of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Centre of Modern Art, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2009); CAPC, Bordeaux (2009); Le Festival, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2009); Austrian Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and Art 2010, Vienna; ohne Titel (in red), Kunsthalle Zürich (2011); Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg / Vienna (2011); Palacio de Velázquez, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid (2012); Kunsthaus Graz (2013); Mudam Luxembourg (2014); Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover (2014).

www.heimozobernig.com

Contact

Austrian Pavilion

La Biennale di Venezia 2015

c/o section.a

art.design.consulting gmbh

Praterstrasse 66/7a

A-1020 Vienna

info@austrianpavilion.at

Team

Commissioner: Yilmaz Dziewior

Curatorial Assistance/Project Coordination: Leonie Radine

Public Relations: Kathrin Luz

Production: Katharina Boesch, Christine Haupt-Stummer (section.a)

Team Heimo Zobernig: Maria Huber, Eric Kläring, Georg Petermichl, Michaela Rapp Zobernig

Architecture/Technical Coordination: Troels Bruun, Luca Ugolini (M+B studio)

Garden: Auböck + Kárász Landscape Architects

Graphic Design: Dorothea Brunialti

Website: Leopold Šikoronja

Editing Publication: Katrin Sauerländer

Tax Consultant: Georg Geyer / Kanzlei Geyer & Geyer, Vienna 

Patrick Flore curatore del Padiglione delle Filippine

Il sito del Manila Times  annuncia che sarà Patrick Flores il curatore del Padiglione delle Filippine con una mostra dal titolo “Tie A String Around the World”

Press release

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), in partnership with the Office of Sen. Loren Legarda, announced the selection of Patrick Flores’s curatorial proposal titled “Tie A String Around the World” as the official Philippine participation at the 56th Venice Art Biennale in 2015.

The esteemed panel of jurors, noted names in the field of modern and contemporary art and culture, was composed of Mami Kataoka, chief curator, Mori Art Museum in Tokyo; Paul Pfeiffer, New York-based multi-media artist; Renaud Proch, executive director, Independent Curators International; Cid Reyes, respected critic, artist and writer; Felipe de Leon Jr. NCCA chairman; and Sen. Loren Legarda, principal advocate and visionary behind the Philippine participation at the Venice Biennale.

The panel deliberated on 16 proposals for two days on September 4 and 5 at the NCCA Boardroom in Intramuros, Manila.

Flores’s curatorial concept is a poetic and political reflection on the history of world making, the links between geography and politics, and the notions of nation, territory, and archipelago. It foregrounds the extensities of the Philippines, a foil perhaps to the more aggressive instincts of expansion around us—in the past and in “present passing.”

“Tie A String Around the World” revolves around Manuel Conde’s 1950 film Genghis Khan, co-written and designed by National Artist Carlos Francisco, screened at the Museum of Modern Art and at the Venice Film Festival in 1952, where it competed with the films of Chaplin, Clement, Fellini, Bergman, and Mizoguchi.

The said film tells the story of the young Genghis Khan, his passage into the life of a warrior. It ends with the conqueror, perched on a mountain, casting his magisterial gaze over his dominion and promising his woman to “tie a string around the world” and lay it at her feet.

This is a tale of the “king of kings” and the formation of empires that have strung the islands of the world. Genghis Khan’s empire stretched from the Pacific to Europe, the largest contiguous realm ever.

The newly restored film Genghis Khan will be exhibited at the Pavilion and will be positioned in conversation with the contemporary art projects of intermedia artist Jose Tence Ruiz and filmmaker Mariano Montelibano 3rd.

The Pavilion seeks to initiate discussion on the history of the sea and its relationship with the current world, claims to patrimony, and the struggle of nation-states over vast and intensely contested nature.

It locates the Philippines in the world through its deep ties to ancient cultures, its precocious modern art, and the critical responses of contemporary art to present predicaments. Through the work of artists across generations, this history is told as a history of art and a history of the world.

The panel of jurors was impressed with the quality of most of the 16 submissions. They thought that most of the proposals were intellectually remarkable. After a two-day deliberation, the discussions came down to three strong proposals. Ultimately, the jury deemed Flores’s proposal the most fitting for the country’s return to contemporary art world’s first and oldest biennale after a 50-year hiatus.

Flores is professor at the University of the Philippines Department of Art Studies and curator of the Vargas Museum. He is adjunct curator of the National Art Gallery, Singapore; a member of the Guggenheim Museum’s Asian Art Council; and a guest scholar of the Getty Research Institute in 2014.

The Venice Art Biennale will open on May 9 and will run until November 22, 2015.

Under the Surface con Jordan Bennett e Anne Troake

“Under the Surface,” è il titolo della mostra che l’organizzazione not-for-profit Terra Nova Art Foundation di Venezia organiza alla Galleria di Ca’Rezzonico con gli artisti Jordan Bennett e Anne Troake durante la prossima Biennale di Venezia della Arti Visive nel 2015.

Terra Nova Art Foundation announces the selection of two Newfoundland & Labrador artists for their project as part of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art event - the 56th Venice Biennale. The exhibition, titled Under the Surface, will present recent work by Jordan Bennett (Stephenville Crossing, NL) and Anne Troake (Twillingate, NL). Under the Surface is curated by Chris Clarke (born in St. John’s, NL; Senior Curator at Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork, Ireland). The exhibition will be housed within Galleria Ca’ Rezzonico, a Gothic palazzo on Venice's historic Grand Canal, and will run from May 9 - November 22, 2015.  

This year’s artists were selected by Clarke from submitted proposals, in consultation with the Selections Advisory Committee: Sarah Fillmore (Chief Curator, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia); Mary MacDonald (Director, Eastern Edge Gallery);  and Jonathan Shaughnessy (Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, National Gallery of Canada).

Katerina Gregos curatrice del Padiglione Belga

Art Brussels ha annunciato il  direttore artistico del padiglione belga per la prossima Biennale di Venezia (maggio-novembre 2015), che sarà Katerina Gregos,

Il progetto si intitolerà "Personne et les autres" ed è stato concepito insieme all'artista belga Vincent Meessen, a cui si affiancheranno altri artisti internazionali. 

La mostra sarà sulla storia del Padiglione belga e sul contesto internazionale della Biennale. 

Press release 

Art Brussels is delighted to announce that its artistic director, Katerina Gregos, will be curating the Belgian Pavilion at the next Venice Biennial (May – November 2015) . The project is entitled Personne et les autres and it was conceived by Gregos together with the Belgian artist Vincent Meessen, whose work will feature in the pavilion, together with a dozen international artists.

The exhibition will take the history of the Belgian Pavilion and the international context of the Biennale (both derived from the colonial exhibitions and world expositions) as the points of departure. This will be Gregos' second time in Venice; in 2011 she curated the Danish Pavilion with the critically acclaimed group exhibition Speech Matters. We are also very pleased to announce the Gregos will also be curating the 5th Thessaloniki Biennial (May – September 2015), which bears the title "Between the Pessimism of the Intellect and the Optimism of the Spirit".

Since joining Art Brussels in 2012 Gregos has worked to develop a strong curatorial identity within the fair, and has contributed to raise both the profile and the quality of Art Brussels. Gregos’ artistic vision is translated on different levels in the fair: from her involvement in the selection of the galleries to the implementation of the artistic programming through platforms like #thestage, for debates, talks, and performances, #thecinema, for short films and artists’ video projects, the selection of the artist-run and not-for-profit spaces, as well as the artistic and architectural interventions in the fair.

Simon Denny per la Nuova Zelanda

Intervento alla Friedrich Petzel Gallery

Dopo la stupenda location della Biblioteca Marciana la Nuova Zelanda conferma anche l'artista, si tratta di Simon Denny, scultore. Come avevamo già annunciato l'ottobre scorso.

Installazione al New Museum di New York 

Press release 

Aotearoa New Zealand is a relative newcomer to the Venice Biennale, with 2015 marking the seventh official participation. Sculptor and installation artist Simon Denny has been selected to represent New Zealand in 2015.

For all of the New Zealand artists whose work has been shown significant national and international opportunities have transpired, and a broadened awareness of and engagement with their work have resulted.

New Zealand's presence at the Biennale, in tandem with the profiling of New Zealand contemporary art within international art fairs and curated exhibitions, is crucial to engaging audiences, curators, writers and collectors with the quality and breadth of the contemporary New Zealand art scene.

The Arts Council of Creative New Zealand is pleased to announce sculptor and installation artist Simon Denny as New Zealand’s artist for the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015.

“Simon Denny is one of the most high-profile New Zealand artists working in the international contemporary art world today. His work is rich, intelligent, challenging and political. We are confident it will be very compelling within the context of the Venice Biennale,” says New Zealand Commissioner for the 2015 Venice Biennale, Heather Galbraith.

Denny's work has explored the culture of internet-technology firms, the obsolescence of analogue technology, corporate culture and contemporary constructions of national identity. 

He is interested in information technology, for instance the ‘familiar-yet-strange’ conventions used in computer programs and interfaces. He plays with these conventions, in installations that combine sculptures, graphics, and moving images. Referring to new and obsolete digital technologies, he questions how information is controlled and shared.

In 2012, Denny was nominated for the Walters Prize and won the Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel. He was the only New Zealand artist invited to exhibit in the curated show at the 2013 Venice Biennale.  

The Arts Council is also pleased to announce Robert Leonard as the curator for New Zealand’s presentation at the 2015 Venice Biennale. Leonard is one of New Zealand’s most experienced contemporary art curators and writers.  

Leonard has held curatorial positions at the National Art Gallery, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery and Auckland Art Gallery and was Director of Artspace, Auckland for five years. Since 2005 he has been Director of the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane and, in January 2014, will return to New Zealand as senior curator for the City Gallery, Wellington.

Denny and Leonard will present the exhibition Five Eyes. The title refers to the “five eyes” of the USAUK Security Agreement, which finds New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada sharing “signals intelligence”.

“Simon and Robert’s partnership is very exciting,’’ says Galbraith. “Their presentation in the New Zealand pavilion will continue to build on our reputation as a country that has a potent, relevant and perceptive visual arts community.”

Eighteen high-calibre proposals were received for New Zealand’s presentation at the 2015 Venice Biennale. They were assessed by a Selection Advisory Panel, chaired by Arts Council Chairman, Dr Dick Grant. The panel was unanimous in its selection of Simon Denny and Robert Leonard.

“The Venice Biennale represents an incomparable opportunity for New Zealand artists to show their work on the world stage,” says Dr Grant. “It is the world’s largest and most prestigious international contemporary art exhibition, attended by key curators, writers and collectors, not to mention attracting enormous public interest.”

The Selection Advisory Panel for the 2015 Venice Biennale comprised: Heather Galbraith, New Zealand Commissioner, 2015 Venice Biennale and Head of Whiti o Rehua School of Art, Massey University, Wellington; Alastair Carruthers, patron; Anne Rush, Arts Council member; Blair French, Assistant Director, Curatorial and Digital, Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia; Brett Graham, artist; Caterina Riva, Director, Artspace; Dayle Mace, patron; Helen Kedgley, Arts Council member and Judy Millar, artist.

Creative New Zealand’s financial commitment will be $700,000 over two financial years.

Notes to editors:

The 2015 Venice Biennale opens in June and runs for six months. It involves more than 80 countries and attracts over 30,000 key international curators, critics, collectors and artists to the three-day Vernissage (preview) period alone.

The 2015 announcement follows New Zealand’s highly successful 2013 exhibition by installation artist, photographer and sculptor Bill Culbert: Front Door Out Back, which attracted widespread national and international acclaim, and has attracted 140,000 visitors to date. 

New Zealand has exhibited at the Venice Biennale since 2001.  New Zealand artists who have exhibited are: Peter Robinson and Jacqueline Fraser (2001); Michael Stevenson (2003) et al. (2005); Judy Millar and Francis Upritchard (2009); Michael Parekowhai (2011) and Bill Culbert (2013).

Simon Denny: biography

Simon Denny studied at the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts and at Frankfurt’s Städelschule, graduating in 2009. Born in Auckland, he is currently based in Berlin. 

Denny was a founding member of the Auckland artist-run space Gambia Castle. His work is regularly exhibited in New Zealand and it is held in major public and private collections in New Zealand, including Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, and Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

In Germany, Denny started to explore the implications of recent changes in communications technology that saw bulky tube televisions replaced by flatscreens - the ‘box’ replaced by the ‘picture’.

His works punned on similarities and differences between televisions; flatscreens; vitrines; aquariums; paintings and minimalist boxes. He went on to address other themes, such as the culture surrounding internet technology firms, the obsolescence of analogue broadcast technology, neoliberal corporate culture, the demise of ‘welfarism’ and contemporary constructions of national identity.

In 2012 he was nominated for the Walters Prize (for Introductory Logic Video Tutorial, which premiered at Artspace, Sydney, in 2011) and also won the Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel for hisChannel Document project on the design of the New Zealand passport. He was the only New Zealand artist invited to exhibit in the curated show at the 2013 Venice Biennale. 

Denny’s work has been included in shows at major European arts institutions, such as the ICA, London; Kunsthaus Bregenz and the KW Center for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Fridericianum, Kassel and the Centre Pompidou, Paris.

This year he exhibited The Personal Effects of Kim Dotcom, at MUMOK, Vienna and presented All You Need Is Data: The DLD 2012 Conference Redux at Kunstverein Munich, Petzel Gallery, New York and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. The shows received positive reviews in various publications including the New York Times, Focus, Frieze, and Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Denny is represented by Galerie Buchholz, Cologne/Berlin; Petzel Gallery, New York; T293, Naples/Rome and Michael Lett, Auckland.

Portrait of Simon Denny in front of Kim Dotcom's Mansion, Auckland (2012). Courtesy of the artist and Michael Lett, Auckland.

La Nuova Zelanda alla Marciana

La Nuova Zelanda annuncia che per la prossima edizione occuperà i fantastici spazi della Biblioteca Marciana, una location veramente stupenda!

Press Release:

New Zealand’s exhibition for the 56th Venice Biennale 2015 will be housed in the grand salon of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, one of the finest buildings in Venice and home to priceless works of cartography, art and literature.

New Zealand sculptor and installation artist Simon Denny, who will be exhibiting at next year’s Biennale, says the Marciana Library will provide a rich context for his work.  “The exhibition will address the intersection of geography and power, and the ownership of knowledge, so this pioneering library will provide an enriching and highly relevant context for the work.”

New Zealand Commissioner for the 2015 Venice Biennale, Heather Galbraith says securing the Marciana Library is a coup for New Zealand. “It is located in the Piazzetta San Marco, in the heart of Venice. Designed by Jacopo Sansovino, the building is exquisite—a significant visitor destination in its own right. The Marciana Library holds many treasures including an exemplary early map of the world by fra Mauro (1448–53), which Simon’s project takes into consideration as it offers a parallel mapping of world power.”

Creative New Zealand has also announced additional team members to assist with New Zealand’s Biennale presentation.

One of New Zealand’s most experienced contemporary-art curators and writers, Robert Leonard will be the curator. Leonard has held curatorial positions at the National Art Gallery, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, and Auckland Art Gallery, and was Director of Artspace, Auckland. Having been Director of the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, since 2005, he recently returned to New Zealand to take up the role of Chief Curator at City Gallery Wellington. 

He will be joined by Assistant Curator Alex Davidson. A graduate of the University of Auckland, she was Curatorial Assistant at Artspace in 2012. Her role is generously supported by Dame Jenny Gibbs.

Joining the team as a specialist adviser will be investigative journalist and author Nicky Hager. He has extensively researched and written on the intelligence industry.

The project takes its title from Hager’s 1996 book Secret Power, an account of the role and international standing of New Zealand’s intelligence work.

Amsterdam-based designer David Bennewith will work with Denny on the project’s branding and will design the website and exhibition catalogue. The catalogue will be edited by Robert Leonard and art writer, editor and commentator Mary Barr.  

Heather Galbraith says, “We expect a high level of interest in New Zealand’s exhibition and finalising a team of this calibre along with a spectacular venue has been very exciting. These are significant milestones towards New Zealand at Venice 2015.”  

Venice Art Biennale

The Venice Biennale is the leading international event for contemporary art. More than 80 countries participate in the seven-month exhibition, which last year attracted more than 470,000 visitors.   New Zealand has an official exhibition at the Venice Biennale since 2001. The artists have been Peter Robinson and Jacqueline Fraser (2001), Michael Stevenson (2003), et al. (2005), Judy Millar and Francis Upritchard (2009), Michael Parekowhai (2011), and Bill Culbert (2013).

Simon Denny

Simon Denny studied at the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts and at Frankfurt’s Städelschule, graduating in 2009. Born in Auckland, he is currently based in Berlin. Denny was a founding member of the Auckland artist-run space Gambia Castle. His work is regularly exhibited in New Zealand and is held in major public and private collections in New Zealand, including the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, and Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

Denny’s work has been included in shows in major European art museums, including the ICA, London; Kunsthaus Bregenz; KW Center for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Fridericianum, Kassel, and Centre Pompidou, Paris.

In 2013, he presented All You Need Is Data: The DLD 2012 Conference Redux at Kunstverein Munich, Petzel Gallery, New York and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (as one of four nominees for the 2013 Preis der Nationalgalerie für Junge Kunst). In 2013, he exhibited The Personal Effects of Kim Dotcom, at MUMOK, Vienna, and, in 2014, at Firstsite, Colchester. These shows received positive reviews in various publications including the New York Times, Focus, Frieze, and Süddeutsche Zeitung. Denny recently opened New Management at the Portikus, Frankfurt.

In 2012, Simon Denny won the Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel. He was the only New Zealand artist invited to exhibit in the curated show at the 2013 Venice Biennale and is a nominee for the 2014 Walters Prize.

The Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana

The Biblioteca Marciana, the Library of St Mark, is one of the most important research libraries in Italy.  It currently occupies the original Renaissance library dating from 1537 and the building that was constructed between 1537 and 1588 to house the mint.

Today, besides about a million printed books, the Marciana Library contains some 13,000 manuscripts and 2883 incunabula and 24,055 works printed between 1501 and 1600.

Among the irreplaceable treasures are unique scores of operas by Francesco Cavalli and sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, two manuscripts of the Iliad from the 10th and 11th centuries and the first book ever printed in Venice (1469).

In the first floor vestibule the ceiling is decorated with a painting by Titian "La Sapienza", and on the vaulted ceiling of the library hall are twenty one paintings, the work of seven artists chosen by Titian and Sansovino themselves: the most famous are three by Paolo Veronese; on the walls are portraits of philosophers, some of which are works by Tintoretto and Veronese.

Fra Mauro’s famous Map of the World (1450ca.), which has just been exhibited in Australia, is also housed in the vestibule, and will be on view in conversation with the New Zealand Pavilion.

Sarkis per la Turchia

La Turchia ha reso noto che sarà l’artista concettuale Sarkis a rappresentarla alla prossima Biennale di Venezia, evento curato da Defne Ayas negli spazi dell’Arsenale che saranno curati fino al 2034 dalla Fondazione Istanbul per la cultura e le arti (IKSV). Il progetto ha già un titolo “Sarkis at the 56th”.

Pressrelease

The Pavilion Of Turkey to present a new installation by Sarkis at the 56th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale Di Venezia

A new installation by the influential artist Sarkis will be presented at the Pavilion of Turkey at the56th International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, to be held between 9 May and 22 November 2015. Curated by Defne Ayas, the presentation will take place at a dedicated new location at the Arsenale as recently secured by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) for the duration of 20 years from 2014 to 2034.

A graduate of Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, Sarkis had his first exhibition at the Istanbul Art Gallery in 1960. Throughout his career, Sarkis has worked with various mediums and has been, since the end of the 1960s, an icon of installation art in particular. His works have been shown worldwide in important art institutions, museums, and galleries, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; the Kunst-und-Ausstellungshalle, Bonn, Germany; the Louvre, Paris; the Bode Museum, Berlin; and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany. Sarkis was also part of When Attitudes Become Form: Works - Concepts - Processes - Situation - Information (Kunsthalle Bern, 1969), Documenta VI and VII (Kassel, 1977 and 1982), and the biennials of Sydney, Shanghai, São Paulo, Moscow, and Istanbul. Recently, Sarkis has had solo shows at Galeri Manâ (Istanbul, 2013), Arter (Istanbul, 2013), the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam, 2012); Galerie Nathalie Obadia (Paris, 2011 and 2014), MAMCO, Museum of Contemporary Art (Geneva, 2011), Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2010), and the Istanbul Modern (2009). He has been living and working in Paris since 1964.

The curator of the pavilion, Defne Ayas, has been the director and curator at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, since 2012. Prior to coming to Witte de With, Ayas was the founding co-director of Arthub Asia in Shanghai (2007-) and founding co-curator of the Blind Dates Project, an artistic platform dedicated to tackling what remains of the people, places, and cultures that were once part of the Ottoman Empire. Since 2005 she has been a curator at Performa, the biennial of performance art in New York. In September 2012, Ayas co-curated the 11th edition of the Baltic Triennial of International Art, to great acclaim. Ayas was the education and new media programs coordinator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York before attending the De Appel curatorial program in Amsterdam. She received an MA from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University in 2003, and a BA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia in 1999.

The Advisory Board consists of the artist Ali Kazma, Burcu Pelvanoğlu, associate professor of Art History at Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts; Cristiana Perrella, independent curator and art critic; Lewis Johnson, Associate Professor in history and theory of art and visual culture, Bahçeşehir University; and Zerrin İren Boynudelik, Yıldız Technical University art and design faculty member.

The Pavilion of Turkey at la Biennale di Venezia is coordinated and organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), sponsored by Fiat, and realised under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey.

The 56th International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia will run from 9 May through 22 November 2015 and will be curated by Okwui Enwezor.