Australia 2022

Title: Desastres
Commissioner: Australia Council for the Arts
Curator: Alexie Glass-Kantor
Exhibitor: Marco Fusinato

The Australia Council for the Arts has selected Marco Fusinato to represent Australia at the Biennale Arte 2022. Curated by Alexie Glass-Kantor, the experimental noise project titled “Desastres” will take the form of a durational solo performance as an installation by the artist that synchronises sound with image. The artist will be performing during the opening hours of the Biennale – a total of 197 days. The presentation will be the first time that the award-winning Australian Pavilion, located in the historic Giardini della Biennale, has held a live durational performance.

For Fusinato, representing Australia at the Venice Biennale holds particular significance. Originally from the Veneto region in Italy, Marco Fusinato’s parents migrated to Australia where he was born. Now based in Melbourne, the contemporary artist combines allegorical appropriation with an interest in the intensity of a gesture or event. “Desastres” is a culmination of his interests in experimental music, underground culture, mass media images, and history painting.

Developed in Melbourne during its extended COVID-19 lockdown, the artwork is inspired by current events and historical artworks such as Francisco Goya’s series “Los Desastres de la Guerra”, a body of work that is a visual protest against violence.

Placing the audience at the centre of the work, Fusinato will take visitors on an immersive journey of sound and image. He will perform live in the pavilion using an electric guitar to improvise slabs of noise, saturated feedback and discordant intensities that will trigger a deluge of images. The resulting all-consuming experience is open for the audience to interpret and make sense of.

The artist has also created a propositional ‘Score’ for “Desastres” which consists of several hundred pages of images printed onto manuscript paper. The exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive publication.