Australian pavilion

The Australian pavilion houses Australia's national representation during the Venice Biennale arts festivals.

Pavilion entrance

Background

The Venice Biennale is an international art biennial exhibition held in Venice, Italy. Often described as "the Olympics of the art world", participation in the Biennale is a prestigious event for contemporary artists. The festival has become a constellation of shows: a central exhibition curated by that year's artistic director, national pavilions hosted by individual nations, and independent exhibitions throughout Venice. The Biennale parent organization also hosts regular festivals in other arts: architecture, dance, film, music, and theater.[1]

Outside of the central, international exhibition, individual nations produce their own shows, known as pavilions, as their national representation. Nations that own their pavilion buildings, such as the 30 housed on the Giardini, are responsible for their own upkeep and construction costs as well. Nations without dedicated buildings create pavilions in venues throughout the city.[1]

Organization and building

The Australian pavilion was designed in 1987 by the Australia Council's Design Arts Board and constructed by 1988. The two-level single exhibition space includes a veranda-style entrance with a courtyard constructed around a pre-existing tree. This connection between internal space and landscape was designed to relate to architectural themes in Australia. The curvature of the pavilion's sheet metal roof is meant to invoke a wave.[2]

The original Australian Pavilion, designed by Philip Cox to be a temporary structure of fiber cement and steel,[3] was opened in 1988 at the western edge of the Giardini.[4] Italian-born Australian industrialist Franco Belgiorno-Nettis had previously lobbied so successfully that in 1988 Australia beat 16 other countries to the last site on which to build a permanent pavilion in the Giardini.[5] Cox and other generous donors gifted the pavilion to the Commonwealth Government.[6] The pavilion was not heritage protected because of its temporary status.[7] A new, permanent pavilion was designed by architectural practice Denton Corker Marshall and completed in 2015.[8] Built from concrete and steel, the two-story structure contains 240 square meters of exhibition space and the exterior is covered in black granite from Zimbabwe.[9] Australia's participation at the Venice Biennale is managed by the Australia Council for the Arts. However, all of the A$6 million ($6.04 million) originally needed for the new building were to be raised from the private sector.[8] Eventually, the pavilion cost $7.5 million to build, $1 million of which was funded by the Australia Council for the Arts; the rest was donated by 82 private Australian donors, including actress Cate Blanchett[9] and producer Santo Cilauro.[10]

Representation by year

Art
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References
  1. Russeth 2019.
  2. Volpi 2013.
  3. Barbara Graustark (May 7, 2015), Australia's Black Box At The Biennale New York Times.
  4. Martino, Enzo Di. The History of the Venice Biennale. Venezia: Papiro Arte, 2007.
  5. Jeremy Eccles (December 13, 2013), Banker Simon Mordant on the new Australian pavilion in Venice Financial Times.
  6. The Australian Pavilion Archived 2012-04-08 at the Wayback Machine Australia Council for the Arts.
  7. Janelle Carrigan (May 6, 2015), Australian Politics at the Venice Biennale New York Times.
  8. Louisa Buck (June 27, 2012), Australia's new Venice pavilion to be built with private money Archived 2013-05-01 at the Wayback Machine The Art Newspaper.
  9. Nadja Sayej (May 6, 2015), Venice Biennale: Cate Blanchett and George Brandis open $7.5m Australian pavilion The Guardian.
  10. Katya Wachtel (May 6, 2015), The New Australia Pavilion Opens at the 56th Venice Biennale Broadsheet Melbourne.
  11. Roderick Conway Morris (June 14, 2015), Pushing boundaries at Venice Biennale New York Times.
  12. Dylan Rainforth (December 15, 2015), Indigenous artist Tracey Moffatt to represent Australia at 2017 Venice Biennale The Sydney Morning Herald.
  13. Alex Greenberger (November 1, 2019), Australia Picks Sound Artist Marco Fusinato for 2021 Venice Biennale Pavilion ARTnews.

Bibliography
  • Russeth, Andrew (April 17, 2019). "The Venice Biennale: Everything You Could Ever Want to Know". ARTnews. Retrieved April 22, 2019.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Volpi, Cristiana (2013). "Australia". In Re Rebaudengo, Adele (ed.). Pavilions and Garden of Venice Biennale. Rome: Contrasto. p. 193. ISBN 978-88-6965-440-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Further reading

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