Legarda Looks Forward to Philippine Participation in the 56th Venice Biennale
August 10, 2014Senator Loren Legarda said she is looking forward to the Philippines’ participation in the 56th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale 2015 following a 50-year hiatus.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), in partnership with the Office of Senator Loren Legarda, recently announced the Philippine participation to the 2015 Venice Biennale through an open call for curatorial proposals.
“It has been 50 years since we last joined this prestigious contemporary art exhibition. We have many talented Filipino artists worthy to be given the chance to showcase their craft in this event and we should also use this as a platform to engage the international community on the cultural level. I am confident that our artistry and culture would leave other nations in awe,” said Legarda.
The Philippines’ first national pavilion was in the 32nd International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale 1964. Jose Joya and Napoleon Abueva were chosen to represent the country.
The NCCA said that the Philippines’ participation in the 56thVenice Biennale, which will be held in Venice, Italy from May 9 to November 22, 2015, marks the country’s significant return to this kind of platform and further pursues an engagement in the dynamic process of defining and shaping contemporary art.
The Coordinating Committee is accepting curatorial proposals from Filipino curators and artists residing in the Philippines and abroad until August 28, 2014.
The curator must be a Filipino citizen, has curated international contemporary art exhibitions and has sufficient grasp of contemporary art discourse and practice; while the artists must be Filipino citizens and must have participated in one major national exhibition.
Submitted proposals will be reviewed by a distinguished panel in the field of contemporary art. Only one proposal will be selected and will be mounted at the Philippine pavilion in Venice.
The Artistic Director for the 56th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale is Okwui Enwezor, a Nigerian-American who is the current Director of the Haus der Kunst in Munich. He will curate the main exhibition in the central pavilion.
Enwezor has served as Artistic Director for several major exhibitions including the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale in South Africa (1996-1998), documenta 11 in Kassel, Germany (1998-2002), the Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo de Sevilla in Spain (2005-2007), the 7th Gwangju Biennale in South Korea (2008), and the Triennal d’Art Contemporain of Paris at the Palais de Tokyo (2012).