Richard Bell’s No Tin Shack – a replication of the Australian pavilion, wrapped in chains – sails past the 58th Biennale di Venezia. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
La Biennale de Venezia – BIENNALE ARTE 2019
MAY YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES
58th International Art Exhibition
11 May > 24 November 2019
Curator: Ralph Rugoff
The 58th International Art Exhibition, titled May You Live In Interesting Times, takes place from 11th May to 24th November 2019. The title is a phrase of English invention that has long been mistakenly cited as an ancient Chinese curse that invokes periods of uncertainty, crisis and turmoil; “interesting times”, exactly as the ones we live in today.
Indigenous artist Richard Bell applied to represent Australia at this year’s Venice Biennale, but he was not selected. In spite of this, Bell intervened at the Biennale with his work titled No tin shack. The work is a sculptural replica of Australia’s official Biennale pavilion wrapped in chains and driven around the canal city on a motorised barge. The work aims to provoke conversations in Embassy2019, an installation he and his team also set up in Venice, in the gardens nearby the Giardini.
Richard Bell’s Embassy2019 at the 58th Biennale di Venezia. He has created the Aboriginal Embassy in one of the gardens near to the main exhibition area. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
While initially an intervention, Bell’s No tin shack will now be exhibited from 12th May – 24th November 2019 at the Giardini Della Marinaressa as part of PERSONAL STRUCTURES – Identities, hosted by the European Cultural Centre.
SOURCE: La Biennale de Venezia, The Guardian.