The Venice Pavilion of the Biennale is coming back to its town: Luca Massimo Barbero, Chiara Bertola and Angela Vettese, nominated by the Province of Venice, Veneto Region and the Municipality of Venice respectively, have been called to lay the foundation for a new direction focusing on the creativity of the territory. The three curators have been chosen for their roles in three of the most active contemporary art institutions in Venice: the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the Querini Stampalia Foundation and the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation.
The reopening of the Venice Pavilion ought to be seen not solely as the effort to bring a historical space back to its pristine condition, but also in the far-reaching perspective and opportunity offered to the languages of contemporary art in the future. A new opening to young researchers who may find here a point of reference and visibility not only for visual art but also for all the other Biennale sectors.
As a solid foundation must necessarily be grounded into the recognition of one’s past and local identity, capable nonetheless of asserting itself on the international scenario, the curators have duly turned their attention to Emilio Vedova. Vedova, who left us less than a year ago, is the artist that has permanently imbued of his art the Fine Art Academy of Venice, leaving his mark on generations of students; at the same time, as he was always invited to exhibit at the Biennale, he was able to become the liaison between the Venice artistic milieu and the world-wide context of the exhibition. His mere presence in town was a sufficient welcome to participating artists and visitors from abroad, as well as the critics, artists, musicians he played host to: with his extraordinary mental and physical energy, Vedova was always at the centre of a system of relations helping Venice to remain within the international arena.
It is therefore within this perspective that the tribute to the artist has been designed, by presenting him within the framework of the Biennale history and stressing his importance as one of its most relevant protagonists, in the great Biennale events.
As a symbol of the constant relation with the Biennale and thanks to the precious cooperation of the “Emilio e Anna Bianca Vedova” Foundation, only one piece has been chosen for the exhibition, Senza Titolo (Als ob), representing the expressive maturity of the artist’s language but also his Golden Lion to the career (1997), which will be on display in the exhibition to be held from 10 June to 21 November 2007.
All around it, video of the protagonists of the international art scene will be presented, evoking the cultural milieu of the Biennale in the 70’s. The presence of video works by Marina Abramovic, Vito Acconci, Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltansky, Pierpaolo Calzolari, Rebecca Horn, Jannis Kounellis, Ketty La Rocca, Arnulf Rainer, Richard Serra, has been made possible thanks to another significant and fundamental contribution by the Biennale Historical Archive (ASAC) which for the first time has made the exhibition of these extraordinary documents possible.
A heartily-felt tribute will come from Georg Baselitz, Vedova's friend and fellow explorer in his expressive research, who will be present in the exhibition with some of his works.
The tribute presented in the Venice Pavilion is on the one hand a celebration and a recollection, together with other events to be organized in town and in expectation for the retrospectives in Rome (October 2007) and Berlin (2008), and on the other a reflection on the present-day art, within the international context of the Biennale of Visual Art.
