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.

Call for curatorial project at next Biennale of Venice

ATTENTION  change the deadline at 3 September  2014     INFO

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), in partnership with the Office of Senator Loren Legarda, are pleased to announce the Philippine participation in the Venice Biennale, 50 years after its last official participation in 1964.

 To offer this exceptional opportunity to a large community of Filipino curators and artists residing in the Philippines and abroad, an OPEN CALL FOR CURATORIAL PROPOSALS is hereby launched. Submitted proposals will be reviewed by a distinguished panel in the field of contemporary art. Only one (1) proposal will be selected and will be mounted at the Philippine pavilion in Venice. The exhibition officially represents the Philippines at the 56^th Venice Biennale which will open on May 9, 2015 and will run until November 22, 2015. The Philippine participation in the Venice Biennale marks the country’s significant return to this kind of platform and further pursues an engagement in the dynamic process of defining and shaping contemporary art.

Content of the Proposal

1. Title of the Exhibition

2. Curatorial Concept (800 -1,000 words only)

3. Proposed Exhibition lay-out

4. CV of Curator

5. CV of Participating Artists

6. Budget (production of the works only)

7. Production Timeline

8. Contact Information

Qualifications of Curator

1. Filipino citizen

2. has curated  international contemporary art exhibitions

3. has sufficient grasp of the issues in contemporary art

Qualifications of Artists

1. Filipino citizen

2. must have participated in one major national exhibition

Submission Guidelines:

1. Download open call proposal form from www.ncca.gov.ph 

2. Submit the completed form and ALL the necessary documents only via email, with subject

heading “Curatorial Proposal,” to info@philartvenicebiennale2015.net on or before August

28, 2014.

           *emailed proposal will be duly acknowledged upon receipt

Deadline of Submission: August 28, 2014

Contact Information

Email: info@philartvenicebiennale2015.net

Landline: 527-2206

Website: www.ncca.gov.ph 

31/08/2014

from http://www.manilatimes.net/

THE deadline for the submission of curatorial proposals for the Philippine participation at the 56th Venice Biennale is extended to September 3 at 12 midnight.

After 50 years since its last official participation in 1964, the Philippines will again be joining the Venice Biennale through efforts of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), in partnership with the Office of Senator Loren Legarda.

To offer this exceptional opportunity to a large community of Filipino curators and artists residing in the Philippines and abroad, an open call for curatorial proposals was launched. Submitted proposals will be reviewed by a distinguished panel in the field of contemporary art. Only one proposal will be selected and will be mounted at the Philippine pavilion in Venice.

The exhibition officially represents the Philippines at the 56th Venice Biennale opening on May 9, 2015, and runs until November 22, 2015. The Philippine participation to the Venice Biennale marks the country’s significant return to this kind of platform and further pursues an engagement in the dynamic process of defining and shaping contemporary art.

The proposal must contain the title of the exhibition, curatorial concept (800 to 1,000 words only), exhibition layout, curriculum vitae of the curator, curriculum vitae of participating artists, budget (production of the works only), production timeline, and contact information.

Curator must be a Filipino citizen, who has curated international contemporary art exhibitions and has sufficient grasp of the issues in contemporary art. Artists must be Filipino citizens and must have participated in one major national exhibition.

One can download proposal form at the NCCA Web site (www.ncca.gov.ph), submit the completed form and all the necessary documents only via email, with subject heading “Curatorial Proposal,” to info@philartvenicebiennale2015.net on or before September 3. For inquiries, call 527-2206.

Adelina von Fürstenberg curatrice dell'Armenia

Il sito Artribune ha pubblicato la notizia che Adelina von Fürstenberg curerà il Padiglione della Repubblica Armena alla 56esima Biennale Internazionale d’Arte di Venezia, nel 2015, anno del centenario del genocidio armeno.

Filip Markiewicz al Lussemburgo

Oggi il Ministero della Cultura del Lussemburgo ha annunciato che sarà l'artista Filip Markiewicz a partecipare alla prossima Biennale di Arti Visive di Venezia nel 2015 nella solita sede della Cà del Duca. 

Press release

Maggy Nagel, ministre de la Culture, a le plaisir d'annoncer que dans sa réunion du 14 juillet 2014, le jury constitué pour sélectionner le projet luxembourgeois à la Biennale de Venise 2015 a choisi le projet Paradiso Lussemburgo de Filip Markiewicz, avec comme commissaire Paul Ardenne. Cette décision a été prise suite à de longs débats, étant donné la qualité, la pertinence et la diversité des dossiers proposés.

Le jury a particulièrement apprécié la cohérence d’ensemble du projet de Filip Markiewicz et son adéquation aux espaces de la Cà del Duca, tout en proposant une lecture complexe des réalités contemporaines – et notamment luxembourgeoises – grâce à l’intégration de disciplines différentes (dessin, installation, vidéo et performance), à l’utilisation d’images d’actualité et au recours au travail collectif qui renforce le potentiel de sociabilité rhizomatique de l’œuvre.

Né en 1980 à Esch-sur-Alzette, Filip Markiewicz a fait ses études à l’Université Marc Bloch à Strasbourg. Il vit et travaille entre le Luxembourg et l’Allemagne. Son projet a été sélectionné parmi les 17 qui sont parvenus au jury. Ce dernier était composé de Bart de Baere (Directeur du Muhka Anvers), Martine Feipel (artiste), Paul di Felice (Université de Luxembourg, critique d’art et curateur indépendant), Claudine Hemmer (Ministère de la Culture) et Enrico Lunghi (Directeur du Mudam Luxembourg).

La 56^ième exposition internationale d'art contemporain de Venise 2015 aura lieu du 9 mai au 22 novembre 2015. Le Mudam est chargé de l'organisation de la participation luxembourgeoise.

Communiqué par le ministère de la Culture

Marco Maggi per l'Ungheria

Hotbed Marco Maggi Hotbed, 2009 (detail) Cuts on paper Courtesy of Hosfelt Gallery © Marco Maggi

Manca solo più un anno alla prossima edizione della Biennale di Venezia e le nomine cominciano ad arrivare, ecco ora quella di Marco Maggi per rappresentare l'Uruguay. L’artista vive fra il suo paese e gli Stati Uniti, dove ha già partecipato a diversi eventi internazionali. 

Tsang Kin-Wah per Hong Kong

L' Hong Kong Arts Development Council ha reso noto che Tsang Kin-Wah, è l'artista cinese che rappresenterà Hong Kong.

 L’artista opere prevalentemente con carta da parati e video arte

Press release

The Hong Kong Arts Development Council (ADC) and M+, Hong Kong’s future museum for 20th and 21st century visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District, announced today that Mr Tsang Kin-Wah has been selected as Hong Kong’s submission to participate in the 56th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale from 9 May to 22 November 2015.

The selection was made by M+, and endorsed by collaborating partner ADC’s 56th Venice Art Biennale Working Group. The renewed collaboration between M+ and ADC follows on from the successful presentation of Mr Lee Kit in the 55th edition of Venice Art Biennale in 2013. The M+ curatorial team will consist of Mr Doryun Chong, Chief Curator, and Ms Stella Fong, Curator, Learning and Interpretation, with M+ Executive Director Dr Lars Nittve as Consulting Curator.

Two positions of assistant curator and curatorial assistant will be created specifically for this project, fostering and developing local expertise by providing an opportunity to work with the M+ team over an extended period. Up to thirteen interns will be recruited locally and given the chance to assist with the exhibition and experience the Venice Biennale. Once again, to supplement the presentation in Venice, M+ will present a series of public programmes in Hong Kong, building on the activities successfully developed for 2013.

In 2016, a response exhibition will be mounted in Hong Kong which will feature a comprehensive learning and outreach programme.

Commenting on the selection, Dr Lars Nittve, M+ Executive Director said, “We are thrilled to work with Mr Tsang Kin-Wah, a Hong Kong artist who has developed a mature artistic language that at once is deeply personal and has the capacity to communicate universally. His work wonderfully represents the quickly maturing contemporary art scene of Hong Kong.”

Mr Chow Yung-Ping, Chief Executive of ADC said, “We are pleased to collaborate with M+ again to deliver an exhibition by a talented Hong Kong artist. The Venice Art Biennale provides a unique platform to present the excellence of Hong Kong contemporary art to overseas audiences and participation in fact gives a tremendous boost to the city.”

Mr Tsang Kin-Wah said, “I am delighted to have been selected to represent Hong Kong in the Venice Biennale. I would like to thank M+ and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council for their support and endorsement.”

Born in 1976, Guangdong Province, Mr Tsang Kin-Wah lives and works in Hong Kong. He studied fine art at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and studied book art at the Camberwell College of Arts in London. His work is well known and critically acclaimed for its innovative use of text and language, which are manipulated using computer technology to create immersive artworks. The artist has exhibited globally with solo shows at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2011), Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom (2008), and group exhibitions at the National Taiwan Museum of Art (2011), Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul (2010), Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai (2008) and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland (2008), among others. His work was also showcased in M+’s second public exhibition of Hong Kong artists Mobile M+: Yau Ma Tei, in 2012. He is currently exhibiting Landscape: The Virtual, The Actual, The Possible at the Guangdong Times Museum. His work is held in several important private and public collections including the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.

Herman de Vries per l'Olanda

La Fondazione Mondrian ha annunciato che Herman de Vries  è stato scelto per rappresentare l'Olanda alla Biennale di Venezia del prossimo anno, con la curatela di Colin Huizing e Cees de Boer.

L'artista presenterà un particolare progetto sulle "isole deserte e incolte della laguna veneta", secondo un comunicato stampa della Fondazione Mondrian. "De Vries considera la natura essere il modello di realtà ultima e il suo obiettivo è quello di dimostrare la sua qualità immanente-poetica". 

Press release

herman de vries to be all ways to be Dutch entry to the 56th edition of the Venice Biennale

Curators: Colin Huizing and Cees de Boer

Commissioner: Mondriaan Fund

9 May - 22 November 2015

Mondriaan Fund has announced that the presentation ‘to be all ways to be’ by visual artist herman de vries (1931) and curators Colin Huizing (1965) and Cees de Boer (1955) will be the Dutch entry for the 56th edition of the Venice Biennale, which is to take place in 2015. Mondriaan Fund is following the advice of a jury, which selected the herman de vries and Huizing and De Boer duo’s plan from five proposals.

They selected the presentation developed by herman de vries, Colin Huizing and Cees de Boer because of the artist’s quality and oeuvre and the relevance of the proposal. The Rietveld Pavilion will be filled with three-dimensional installations, including new work to be produced by de vries on deserted and overgrown islands in the Venetian Lagoon. de vries considers nature to be the ultimate reality model and his goal is to demonstrate its immanent-poetical quality.

The jury was fascinated by de vries’ engagement and is of the opinion that, in all its austerity and terseness, it will be a powerful, believable, intimate and topical presentation within the biennale spectacle. de vries himself considers this to be a unique opportunity to make his statement on a prominent international platform.

The relationship between man, culture and nature is increasingly becoming a subject of (artistic) research within the visual arts - a theme on which de vries has been working for decades. For more than 60 years now he has been developing a highly versatile oeuvre in which art, science and philosophy are confronted with the world’s, and especially nature's reality. The theme of his work is topical in an age in which ecological issues can count on an ever broadening attention from the general public.

Autumn 2014 the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam will host the retrospective exhibition ‘herman de vries. all' (curator: Colin Huizing, advisor: Cees de Boer) in combination with the exhibition 'herman de vries. no thing' at the Schiedam Ketelfactory. Works by herman de vries are also included in this year's 'ZERO: Countdown to Tomorrow, 1950s-60s' at the Guggenheim Museum in New York; in 2015 this exhibition will travel to the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

The jury members were Hester Alberdingk Thijm (Director, AkzoNobel Art Foundation), Saskia Bos (Dean, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art), Aernout Mik (visual artist) and Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen (Curator, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam). The Chair is Birgit Donker, Director of Mondriaan Fund.

Jaanus Samma per l’Estonia

 

Il Padiglione dell’Estonia ospiterà il lavoro “NSFW: From the Abyss of History” di Jaanus Samma  con la curatela di Eugenio Viola

English

JAANUS SAMMA PICKED FOR ESTONIAN PAVILION AT 56th VENICE BIENNALE

Center forContemporary Arts, Estonia  Estonian Ministry of Culture

PRESS RELEASE

The project “NSFW: From the Abyss of History” by Estonian artist Jaanus Samma and Italian curator Eugenio Viola will represent Estonia at the 56th Venice Biennale. The exhibition consists of an aesthetically and dramaturgically integrated multimedia installation, which uses a personal story of a man from the Soviet-era Estonia and provides a new perspective on events during Estonians’ recent past. “NSFW: From the Abyss of History” raises questions about power, violence, persecution and an individual’s powerlessness in rigid political regimes that curtail human rights.

The winning project is a continuation of Jaanus Samma’s 2013 work “Chairman. The Opera,” which won the Köler Prize Jury award and People’s Choice that year. Samma has trained his lens on gay life in the Soviet era - when the community faced criminal sanctions - and the social conditions that influenced its behaviour, to remember and devote attention to problems yet to be solved. The central character in the exhibition is a successful kolkhoz (Soviet collective farm) chairman in the 1950s, who was sent to a prison camp for one and a half years for an homosexual relationship. The exhibition is an oneiric installation with theatrical elements, and relies on court transcripts and the fate of the chairman who – having lost not just his position in society but his family and job – became one of the legendary figures in the invisible gay community of Soviet Estonia. The acronym NSFW stands for “Not Suitable / Safe For Work”. 

A total of 11 projects were entered to the competition for the 2015 Estonian Pavilion exhibition at Venice Biennale. The jury members included the commissioner for the Estonian Pavilion at Venice Biennale Maria Arusoo, Wales MOSTYN art centre director Alfredo Cramerotti, board members of CCA, Estonia Rael Artel, Sirje Helme, Andres Kurg and Kaido Ole, World Expo Milano 2015, Project Manager Andres Kask and Adviser on Visual Arts, Estonian Ministry of Culture Maria-Kristiina Soomre. Besides the high artistic calibre of the project, the jury also praised “the exceptionally intelligent, relevant, discrete and multi-faceted manner in which the theme is explored.” 

Jaanus Samma (1982) studied graphic art at the Estonian Academy of Arts and is currently a PhD candidate in the Art and Design programme at EAA. He has taken part in many group exhibitions and appeared in solo exhibitions in Estonia and international venues since 2005. Samma's work can be viewed at http://www.jaanussamma.eu/. 

Eugenio Viola (1975) is curator at large at Madre Museum in Naples. He has worked with, among many others, such world-renowned artists as Marina Abramovi?, Teresa Margolles and Tania Bruguera. He is well-versed in the Estonian art scene, having co-curated (with Reet Varblane) Orlan’s 2008 exhibition at the Tallinn Art Hall and (with Anders Härm) Mark Raidpere’s 2013 solo exhibition at the EKKM (Contemporary Art Museum Estonia). Viola was also a member of the Köler Prize’s international jury last year. 

The Biennale di Venezia, held since 1895, is the oldest and largest international art forum in the world. Estonia has exhibited in Venice since 1997, making the 2015 pavilion the tenth one. The 56th International Biennale di Venezia is taking place from 9 May to 22 November 2015. 

Estonia was represented at the 2013 Venice Biennale by Dénes Farkas’s exhibition “Dénes Farkas. Evident in Advance” at Palazzo Malipiero. During the six months, the Biennale was visited by 475,000 people, with 27,000 people visiting the Estonian pavilion, including 4,000 art professionals at the press events. The exhibition received, without exception, positive coverage in the major art journals such as Art Agenda, Kunstforum, Modern Painters, Gallerist NY and Arterritory, Estonian press and many art blogs. Following the appearance at the Biennale, the artist has received many cooperation offers from international galleries.

Estonia’s participation at the Biennale di Venezia is organized by the Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia and funded by Estonian Ministry of Culture. 

Danh Vo a Venezia per il Padiglione Danese

Dal sito www.kunstkritikk.se è stata data notizia che l'artista Danh Vo sarà al Padiglione Danese.  L'artista è noto per il suo lavoro sulla Statua della Libertà. 

Danh Vo, We The People (Detail), 2010-2013. Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen 2012.  

English

A press release issued by the Danish Arts Foundation today states that the Committee for Visual Arts Project Funding has selected Danh Vo as the artist to be featured in the Danish Pavilion in the 2015 Venice Biennial.

Appointing Danh Vo to represent Denmark at the 56th Venice Biennial is not just an obvious choice in view of the committee’s ambition to “show pre-eminent examples of Danish contemporary art in an international context”. Out of all currently active artists with close ties to Denmark, Vo has had one of the most prominent careers on the international art scene in the last decade. He exhibits his work at many of the most important institutions in the world and collaborates with some of the most cutting-edge artists, curators, and galleries around today. But Vo is also an interesting choice for a national pavilion because he often addresses, with his distinctive neo-conceptual approach, issues of nationality and migrant culture in a highly personal manner, always characterised by his unusually well-honed sense for reading rooms and contexts – both physical and cultural. His large-scale work We the People (Detail), 2010-2013, which has been exhibited at e.g. Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, is a good example of this.

Danh Vo

Danh Vo (b. 1975) is a graduate from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art in Copenhagen and the Städelschule in Frankfurt. Born in Vietnam, Vo grew up in Denmark, arriving here at the age of four with his family.

With their choice of Vo the Danish Arts Foundation continues the selection policy evident from the previous Venice Biennial, where Denmark was represented by another young Danish artist with an international career, Jesper Just (who belongs to the same generation of artists as Vo).

Back then the International Committee for Visual Arts wanted the pavilion to house a project that integrated and merged art, architecture, and communication, even going so far as to dictate that “such ‘experimental co-operation’ will form the fundamental premise of the Danish contribution to the Biennial”, which specifically meant that Just would “work closely with an architect and a communicator/educator of his choice”, as the press release issued back then said. The very brief press release provided by the Danish Arts Foundation today stipulates no particular preconditions or expectations regarding Danh Vo’s upcoming contribution to the Danish Pavilion.

The Danish Arts Foundation’s Committee for Visual Arts Project Funding is responsible for and funds Denmark’s participation in the Venice Biennial. The current Committee comprises the following members: Gitte Ørskou (chair), Bodil Nielsen, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, Jacob Tækker, and Claus Andersen.