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

Danish Pavilion, Denmark at 59th Biennale Arte of Venice

The title of the exhibition at the Danish Pavilion is We Walked the Earth.

Artists: Uffe Isolotto.
Curators: Jacob Lillemose.
Commissioner: Danish Arts Foundation.
Seat: Denmark Pavilion, Giardini - Venice

Press Release of Danish Pavilion

The Pavilion of Denmark at the 59th International Art Exhibition � La Biennale di Venezia is excited to present the installation We Walked the Earth, created by Uffe Isolotto and curated by Jacob Lillemose. Visitors step into a hyperrealistic world where elements from an idyllic Danish farm life of the past blend with strange sci-fi phenomena to create a haunting image of an uncertain present. Taking over the entire Pavilion, We Walked the Earth displays an unexpected drama of life and death that revolves around a family of three centaurs. Trying to cope with the challenges of a changing world, the family embodies an uneasy state of mind between despair and hope that speaks to the deep ambiguities of our current times.

The Pavilion has been transformed into an uncanny farmhouse. Next to the entrance lies a heap of horse manure and a small area paved with field stones. Inside the pavilion, piles of eelgrass, once commonly used for farmhouse roofs on the island of L�s� in Denmark, fill one of the main spaces. These are all elements characteristic of country life. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that everything seemingly familiar is altered. Curious tools reminiscent of those used in traditional Danish farming and fishing techniques lay around, yet they are remarkably different. In one of the rooms hangs a mutated ham, and unfamiliar species of farm crops are scattered around the Pavilion, some oozing a blue fluid.

The protagonists are two hyperrealistic sculptures of centaurs. Rather than mythical creatures, they are the physical result of a biotechnological and transhuman attempt to survive in a world where it is no longer enough to be human as we know it. Our descendants have adapted to the new conditions of a changed world through a demanding and dramatic process. Their faces, bodies and hands � a fifth larger than an average human and covered in markings � bear witness to their arduous labour. The same blue fluid oozing out of the crops appears to sustain them through tubes � be it a heating agent, a form of nutrition or a drug.

A drama of life and death plays out across the Pavilion�s two main rooms. The male centaur has taken his own life and can be seen hanging from a piece of rope-like chain suspended from the ceiling, while the female centaur is lying on the floor in the adjacent room, giving birth to a baby centaur. It is an open question as to why the male centaur has decided to take his own life, but the act seems inextricably linked to the simultaneous birth of his offspring, almost as if he has realised that his time in this changing world is over and it is now up to the next, further evolved generation to take over. The baby centaur looks to be of a different hybrid than its parents. Its human hands are mutated towards something that both holds a promise for the future and suggests hard times ahead.

Uffe Isolotto says, �I have transformed the entire Pavilion. As visitors enter, they will encounter an apparently idyllic Danish farmhouse, where they will find a haunting drama of life and death. There is a deep uncertainty in understanding what has happened to the centaurs and the world they live in. Is it a tragic or hopeful situation, or perhaps both? Even though the centaurs may not be real, we feel their struggle. The present time we live in is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable as we face a lot of challenging realities, whether ecological, political or existential. There's much hope and despair in the air, and I want to make that a physical reality with this installation. We Walked the Earth also draws on experiences from my personal life that in a metaphorical sense resonate with more universal feelings and thoughts about life and death that I sense exist in the world today.�

Curator, Jacob Lillemose says, �More and more people in Denmark move to the countryside to live a more simple and self-sufficient life. At the same time, the news media, politicians and capitalistic enterprises daily celebrate the promises of new technologies. In this context, We Walked the Earth asks if we should look backward or forward for solutions to the problems of the world. Moreover, it addresses a world at a crossroads, where something familiar disappears and something unknown emerges. In that sense it�s an image of the circle of life and death. How we navigate this intimate and complex entanglement of endings and beginnings is critical to the future we will create for ourselves here on Earth.�

Like a complex film production, Isolotto and Lillemose have collaborated with a collective of specialists, including 10 Tons (model of centaurs), Fyns Naturv�rksted (taxidermy), Thomas Foldberg Studio (humanoid parts), Anne Sofie Madsen (clothing and accessories), Soft Baroque (aluminium structures), Maria Koshenkova (glass works), Ida Hy (resin and silicone works), Christine Bechameil and Marie S�egaard Tarp� (scenic painting) and Line-Gry H�rup (graphic design). The installation is accompanied by a short story entitled And Then We Became Water, conceptualized by Isolotto and Lillemose, and written by Lillemose himself. Like a piece of fanfiction, it expands the narrative of the installation, imagining a future artificial being roaming the seabed of a flooded Venice where it encounters the body of a centaur and another liquid being.

The Danish Arts Foundation�s Committee for Visual Arts Project Funding appointed Isolotto following a new open-call process where proposals were welcomed from all interested Danish visual artists. From a total of 190 submissions, the committee shortlisted three artists who were asked to elaborate on their project proposals.

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