Swiss Pavilion, Switzerland at Venice Biennale of Art - Giardini, Castello - City of Venice
Exhibition in progress from April 23rd to November 27th 2022
The 59th Biennale Arte will open to the public on 23 April. But on the 20th, 21st and 22nd there will be the various openings and collateral events that always suddenly animate the Venetian artistic life. The awards ceremony will take place on the day of the opening to the public.
The title of the 59th edition of the Biennale d'Arte is Il Latte dei Sogni that means The Milk of Dreams.
The invited artists are 213 from 58 countries. There are 26 Italian artists, 180 the first participations in the International Exhibition, 1433 the works and objects on display, 80 new productions.
In all, 80 nations will participate in the Venice Biennale in the pavilions at the Giardini, the Arsenale and in the historic center of Venice.
Go to the page of the 59th Venice Art Biennale
Swiss Pavilion, Switzerland at 59th Biennale Arte of Venice
The title of the exhibition at the Swiss Pavilion is The Concert.
Artists: Latifa Echakhch.
Curators: Alexandre Babel e Francesco Stocchi.
Commissioner:
Fondazione svizzera per la cultura Pro Helvetia Madeleine Schuppli, divisione Arti visive; Sandi Paucic, Project Leader; Rachele Giudici Legittimo, Project Manager.
Seat: Swiss Pavilion, Giardini - Venice
Press Release of Swiss Pavilion
In the beginning was the end: Latifa Echakhch�s cycle of life
The Pavilion of Switzerland exhibition at the 59th International Art Exhibition � La Biennale di
Venezia is titled The Concert and conceived by Latifa Echakhch, in collaboration with
percussionist and composer Alexandre Babel and curator Francesco Stocchi.
Gloomy remnants of art fill the first space, where visitors set out on a counterclockwise journey
through time. In each room, the atmosphere changes � time runs backwards, from broad daylight
to the evening before. Ever more recognizably inspired by folk sculpture and customs, the
sculptures, filling the whole space, are increasingly veiled by a spreading darkness.
These are scenes of impermanence, of catharsis, with which installation artist Latifa Echakhch
captivates visitors of the Pavilion of Switzerland at this year's Biennale Arte, scenes that bring to
the fore the cycle of life in a multi-layered and complex way. Most of the material used for the
exhibition is itself part of a transformation, recycled from previous biennales.
Between ritual and rhythm
The artist Latifa Echakhch, who lives in Switzerland, evokes the ritual fires that are common in
many cultures. They include the lighting of straw dolls for the St. John's fire, which is supposed to
protect against demons and diseases around the solstice at the end of June or, in Switzerland, the
burning of the �B��gg� on Zurich's Sechsel�utenplatz to bid farewell to the winter season. Fire is
always both the end and the beginning on a constantly turning wheel of time.
Latifa Echakhch also enters into a dialogue with the building designed by Bruno Giacometti in 1951.
The artist revisits its architectural program and appropriates the entirety of its spaces, exploring
their relationship to light and the different sounds that emerge from them.
The exhibition plays with harmonies and dissonances, with the mixed feelings of expectation,
fulfilment and disappearance. The sculptures are part of an orchestrated and enveloping
experience, a rhythmic and spatial proposal that allows viewers to experience a fuller perception
of time and of their own body.
�We want visitors to leave the exhibition with the same feeling they have when they come out of a
concert. That this rhythm, those fragments of memory, still echo,� says Latifa Echakhch. �The
Biennale is an eruption of artistic greatness every time. A wave that culminates in a cathartic
grandeur only to then recede, leaving a deserted landscape of abandoned buildings.� Through the
exhibition, Latifa Echakhch raises the question whether art, similar to music, only begins to exist
once silence and emptiness take over.
Project book and record
The exhibition will be accompanied by a record and a book functioning as a reflection of the
discussions that guided the project. The book presents archival material, interviews and critical
texts, including theoretical considerations around sound, rhythm and the notion of a total work of
art. As such, it will constitute an additional dimension in the understanding of the exhibition.
Latifa Echakhch is co-represented by Dvir Gallery, kamel mennour, kaufmann repetto and Pace
Gallery.
Useful information for the visit
Hours:
Gardens from 10.00 to 19.00. Arsenale from 10.00 to 19.00 (from 10.00 to 20.00 on Friday and Saturday until September 30th). Closed on Mondays (except May 13, September 2, November 18).
Tickets: please visit the official website.
Phone: +39.041.5218711; fax +39.041.5218704
E-mail: aav@labiennale.org
Web: Biennale
of Venice |
