Venice Biennale Giardini Pavilion
57th Venice Biennale 2017
Central Exhibition: Viva Arte Viva
13 May - 26 November 2017
This year there are 120 participants chosen for the Central Exhibition including three from Canada:
- Late Inuit sculptor and printmaker Kananginak Pootoogook
- Vancouver-raised, Berlin-based artist and 2016 Sobey Award winner Jeremy Shaw
- Calgary-born, Montreal-based multimedia artist and 2016 Sobey short-list nominee Hajra Waheed
Christine Macel, Photo courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
Christine Macel, the curator of the 57th International Art Exhibition, explains her project as follows:
Today, in a world full of conflicts and shocks, art bears witness to the most precious part of what makes us human. Art is the ultimate ground for reflection, individual expression, freedom, and for fundamental questions. (…) The role, the voice and the responsibility of the artist are more crucial than ever before within the framework of contemporary debates. It is in and through these individual initiatives that the world of tomorrow takes shape, which though surely uncertain, is often best intuited by artists than others.
Viva Arte Viva is an exclamation, a passionate outcry for art and the state of the artist. Viva Arte Viva is a Biennale designed with the artists, by the artists and for the artists. It deals with the forms they propose, the questions they pose, the practices they develop and the ways of life they choose.
Source: Venice Biennale