The Artists' Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale with work by artist Erica Donovan: Beach Hut (2013), Digitally printed contravision, 2 x 2.5m
The Artists Pavilion
a meeting place for visual artists
29-31 May 2013
The Artists Pavilion
via Garibaldi 1809
Castello
Venice Italy
www.artquest.org.uk
www.venice.axisweb.org
The Artists Pavilion is a place for visual artists to meet each other, plan their visit to the Venice Biennale and find out about working internationally.
Artquest, in partnership with Axis and engage, created The Artists Pavilion - a social space reserved for visual artists during the Venice Biennale preview days, the art world's pre-eminent showcase. The Pavilion provided a focus on artists - without whom the Biennale would not exist - during the exhibition preview days (29-31 May 2013), shifting the focus from the glitzy parties and billionaire collectors for which it is increasingly known.
A series of talks and events at the Pavilion provided an alternative to the glamorous and frenetic activity of the Biennale preview days, transforming the building into a humble refuge for visiting artists.
As part of the Pavilion, Artquest commissioned London-based screenprinter Erica Donovan to make a new work. Donovan transformed the window of The Artists Pavilion into the façade of an English beach hut, constructing and photographing a model that was scaled up on Contravision to fill the window. Her humorous intervention drew on the convention of national pavilions representing aspects of their culture, and responded to Venice from a particularly 'British holiday' perspective.
Erica Donovan (b. 1979, East Sussex) studied at Bath Spa University College, Bath and Camberwell College of Arts, London and now lives and works in North London. Donovan primarily works within the medium of print with key themes in her practice including the sharing and digesting of information and decision-making processes. She was selected for the Jealous Graduate Print Prize (2009) and the Curwen Gallery’s Hot Off The Press 10 exhibition (2010). Donovan has exhibited across the UK with recent group exhibitions including Loop at The Gallery in Redchurch Street (2011), Small Print at Aspex Gallery (2011) and A House of Colour at Clifford Thames Gallery (2010). Residencies include The Florence Trust in Islington (2009-2010). She has also recently set up a screen print studio where she produces and publishes her own works.
Axis ran its Venice Confessions video booth and collected survival strategies and coping mechanisms for the art world's most frantic three days of parties, art and networking. You can watch the films Axis produced about how to get the most out of your visit to the Biennale here.
Programme
Thursday 30 May,
The artist collective Blauer Hase, founded in Venice in 2007 by Mario Ciaramitaro, Riccardo Giacconi, Giulia Marzin, Daniele Zoico, proposes experimental forms of cultural production and experience. Members will reflected on the guerilla events and exhibitions that take place in Venice when the Biennale is not taking place.
Friday 31 May
Ann Jones, curator of the Arts Council Collection and engage board member, was in conversation with Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva, artist representing Macedonia at the 2013 Venice Biennale, about the place of the Biennale in an artists career and where such high-profile opportunities come from.
Friday 31 May,
Drinks reception for Axis, engage and Artquest members and friends. UK and international artists mingled to find out the best things to see during their visit, and hear from artist Erica Donovan about her commission for the Pavilion.
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Other projects during the Biennale include:
Venice Agendas
Venice Agendas is a series of breakfast events and performances during the preview week
of the 55th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia.
We are also pleased to announce that ArtonAir at the Clocktower in NYC will be broadcasting the events during the press days.
This Venice Agendas grew out initially from Audio Arts and then began its first manifestations as Agendas, Agendas, Agendas in 1999 a programme devised by Bill Furlong and Mel Gooding.
In 2011 workinprogress co-directors Terry Smith and Clare Fitzpatrick after discussions with both Bill and Mel decided to continue the tradition and opened a series of three day discussions followed by a sound work by Bill Furlong and an evening of performance and readings. To support Agendas 2011 we invited artquest, the De La Warr Pavilion and ACIA.
In the 2013 edition we have invited creative partners and a group of advisors to help and support the project. Workinprogress has a growing reputation for constructing strong, dynamic, intelligent and successful collaborations.
The eight edition of Venice Agendas will focus on Live Art for two sessions the first is a discussion on Live art, the second a speed dating performance where the idea of an audience is lost and everyone becomes active, and the third concentrating on art production and ways in which discussions and debates are becoming influential or at least prevalent in many art fairs and Biennales.
The Team in Venice include Tim Rawlins, Chantelle Purcell and students from CSM Ambra Gattiglia, Yifei Wu and Tabita Rezaire. Video films of the events were made by Marie Therese Shortt.
Venice Agendas, by artist-led group workinprogress, a series of breakfast talks and debates focussing on performance art and the alternative scene: its hostory, legacy and future. In 2011 Artquest and workinprogress devised and programmed Soundings at the Biennale.
The Clocktower Gallery and ARTonAIR.org
Founded in 1972 by Alanna Heiss, the Clocktower Gallery is a legendary alternative art space for exhibitions, performances, long-term and site-specific installations, and artist residencies. Over its 40-year history, the Clocktower has presented formative work by some of the most important artists of our time, including Gordon Matta-Clark, Max Neuhaus, Lynda Benglis, Dennis Oppenheim, Vito Acconci, Nam June Paik, Charlotte Moorman, Laurie Anderson, David Tudor, Marina Abramovic, and Christian Marclay, among many others. Today, the Clocktower presents a full program of exhibitions, performances, and residencies that honor the spirit of the alternative spaces movement by focusing on experimental, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational projects.
The Clocktower Gallery’s radio station is a free and searchable online cultural audio archive operating at www.ARTonAIR.org. Its 5,000 hours of diverse, indexed content –an unduplicated collection in any media– consist of non-commercial music, audio art, spoken word, cultural news, history and dialogue, and new media innovation. ARTonAIR’s mission is to excel as a globally accessible and technically innovative deliverer of content, through a traditional radio-style stream of hosted shows in a curated schedule and a searchable on-demand archive.
Together, the Clocktower Gallery and ARTonAIR.org function as a laboratory for experimentation, working closely and collaboratively with artists, musicians, curators, writers and producers to develop, realize and present innovative and challenging work in all media, ranging from installation to performance and from experimental music to radio theater. By engaging both the physical resources of its historical gallery space and ARTonAIR’s access to a broad and international online radio audience, the Clocktower is able to disseminate experimental work to numerous communities, and promote a rich cultural and social dialogue between artists, audiences, and institutions worldwide
