Viva Arte Viva: Artists Announced
During the press conference held today, February 6th, 2017, the curator Christine Macel and the president Paolo Baratta revealed the participating artists and the national pavilions of the 57thEdition of La Biennale di Venezia. In the beautiful Venetian Palazzo, Ca’ Giustinian, headquarter of the Venetian Biennale, they have outlined what we should expect from the International Exhibition of Art, next May.
The show will be accompanied by 85 National Participations, 4 of which will be attending the Biennale for the first time (Antigua and Barbuda, Kiribati, Nigeria and Kazakistan); 120 invited artists from 51 different countries, 103 of them will be having their first Venetian experience.
The exhibition will stretch and wind into nine different chapters: the first two will take place at the Giardini while the other seven will occupy the Arsenale and the Giardino delle Vergini. As the curator explained, these “chapters” or “trans-pavilions” start from the “Book and artists Pavilion” to the “Time and infinitive Pavilion”. Each chapter will show peculiar approaches and different perspectives on the world and the art itself.
As the curator stated: “Viva Arte Viva wants to spread positive energy to the artists and at the same time dedicate a new attention to those artists too soon disappeared or still unknown to the general audience despite the importance of their work.”
Following this concept, the curator has planned to set up an “Open Table” , in order to give the artists the central part of the exhibition. Every Wednesday and Thursday during the six months, “Viva Arte Viva” will give artists the great chance to meet the audience for a shared brunch, discussing their work and art practice.
As Baratta stated: “We usually define La Biennale as a research site. We usually say that whatever the theme or setting of the exhibition will be, the Biennale must be qualified as a place that has its own method, and almost “raison d’etre”, and enlights the free dialogue between artists and the audience. For this 57th Edition, encounters and dialogues will be the main topics of the Exhibition “Viva Arte Viva””.
