The Icelandic Art Center (IAC) calls for proposals for the Icelandic contribution for the 58. International Art Biennale in Venice 2019.
The Venice Biennale is one of the oldest and most prestigious art event in the world, founded in 1895. Iceland has participated in the Biennale since 1960.
Almost a hundred countries take part in the Venice Biennale at each time. In 2017, over 600 thousand guests attended the Biennale during its seventh month period, and it is safe to say that every single person of influence within the international art scene made an appearance. The artists that have represented Iceland art at the Biennale work within the international scene, and have made a name for themselves at home and abroad. The exhibitions have garnered much attention and resulted in increasing visibility of Icelandic visual art internationally.
For many years, ever since 1984, the Icelandic exhibition was held in the Finnish Pavilion that was located in the Venice Giardini, where many countries have built their own pavilions. Since KÍM took over the project in 2007, the Icelandic Pavilion has been located in various buildings all over the city. Steingrímur Eyfjörð (2007) and Ragnar Kjartansson (2009) both exhibited in the ancient and beautiful space Palazzo Michiel dal Brusa by Canal Grande, Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson (2011) and Katrín Sigurðardóttir (2013) set up in an old laundrette Palazzo Zenebio in Collegio Armno Moorat-Raphael in Dorsoduro, which is located within a beautiful rose garden – a rarity in Venice. Cristoph Büchel exhibited in Santa Maria della Misericordia (2015), and in 2017, Egill Sæbjörnsson exhibited in space on the island Guidecca, with his troll pals Ugh & Boogar.
The Icelandic Art Center now calls for the third time, proposals for Iceland’s contribution for the Biennale, a procedure that was implemented for the 2015 Biennale.
The deadline to hand in proposals for the Icelandic Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019 is 1 March 2018.
The selection process is two-fold: The IAC’s scientific board along with two guests who work within the international art scene assess all proposals and select three proposals for further development. The three shortlisted applicants will receive 250.000 ISK each to further develop their proposals.
The winning proposal that will represent the CaC in 2019 will be announced at the end of May 2018.
Further information and instructions are to be found here and with Björg Stefánsdóttir, director of IAC: bjorg@icelandicartcenter.is, tel.: (+354) 562 7262.