The Icelandic Art Center introduces the three artists/artistic teams that will continue to work on their proposals in a chance of becoming Iceland’s final selection for the 2017 Venice Biennale.
The Icelandic Art Center proposed an open call for Iceland’s contribution to the 57th Venice Biennale, with a deadline on the 1st of April 2016.
This time around the center received a response of 29 proposals from artists and curators. The Icelandic Art Center was pleased to vitness how many and diverse the propsals were, and the amount of applications is a true testament of the ambition among artists and curators for the international artistic platform that the Venice Biennale is.
A professional committee has now closed in on its deliberation of the 29 proposals and chosen three applicants that will continue to evolve their projects over the next six weeks for the final selection that will be announced in the beginning of June 2016.
The following artists have been chosen to work on their proposals for further selection:
Egill Sæbjörnsson in collaboration with the curator Stephanie Böttcher.
The Icelandic Love Corporation, Eirún Sigurðardóttir, Jóní Jónsdóttir and Sigrún Hrólfsdóttir in collaboration with the curators Nadim Samman and Anja Henckel.
Margrét Blöndal in collaboration with the curator Alfredo Cramerotti.
It shall be noted that the professional committee found themselves to have a tough task on their hands, and in order to make their decisions they kept the following guidelines in order: The project shall be relevant in an international context, be able to draw attention to itself and the artist or artistic team shall have previous experience in the participation of a large scale international project. The aforementioned individuals or teams that have now been mentioned present all these guidelines and more.
The professional committee are excited and curious to see how the projects of theses artists and teams will continue to develop within the next six weeks. Each of the proposals will be given 250.000 ISK to be continued along so they may start its execution as soon as the final selection has been made. In June 2016 it shall be announced which of the three proposals will go on to be Iceland’s contribution to the Venice Biennale 2017.
The second step of the open call was in the hands of The Icelandic Art Center’s professional committee, consisting of the following people: Björg Stefánsdóttir managing director of The IAC, Hlynur Hallsson, director of the Akureyri Art Museum, Sirra Sigrún Sigurðardóttir, artist. Guests of the committee were: Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir, art philosopher and head of academic art studies at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts and Ólafur Ólafsson, artist.
The Icelandic Art Center is in charge of the Icelandic pavilion’s production at the Venice Biennale. The IAC introduces contemporary art abroad, supports international collaboration through its travel grants, publishing, guest programs, events, exhibitions, symposiums and lectures, both in collaboration with other institutions as well as independently.
The Icelandic pavilion in Venice is funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.