New York Curator Names Artists for Italian Pavilion at Venice Biennale
By Christopher D. Shea
Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Roberto Cuoghi, and Adelita Husni-Bey will represent Italy at the 2017 Venice Biennale, the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism announced on Tuesday.
The prestigious exhibition, one of the top tickets on the international art calendar, opens in May.
Cecilia Alemani, the curator of this year’s pavilion, said in a statement, “I hope this pavilion will convey an image of the contemporary, cosmopolitan Italy, no longer seen through the nostalgic lens of previous generations, but looking to the future.”
Ms. Alemani was born in Milan and is now the director of High Line Art, which plans and commissions public art for the High Line park in Manhattan. (And just three years ago, her husband, Massimiliano Gioni, artistic director at the New Museum, served as artistic director of the Biennale.)
The three artists in the 2017 pavilion were all born in Italy. Mr. Cuoghi, arguably the best known of the trio, has created works including sound installations, large-scale sculptures and small, mixed-media pieces. He has had exhibitions in New York, London and Los Angeles, among other cities. Mr. Calò is best known for minimalist sculpture works. Ms. Husni-Bey, the youngest of the three, makes prints, video art, photographs and works in other media as well.
The Biennale draws intense international interest. In 2015, it drew an even higher level of attention than usual when the local police shut down an artwork that converted a disused church into a functioning mosque.