Announced: Aus­trali­a’s artis­tic team for 2021 Venice Biennale

As Com­mis­sion­er for Aus­tralia, the Aus­tralia Coun­cil is pleased to announce Mar­co Fusina­to and Alex­ie Glass-Kan­tor have been select­ed as the artist and cura­tor for Australia’s rep­re­sen­ta­tion at the 59^th Inter­na­tion­al Art Exhi­bi­tion of la Bien­nale di Venezia (Bien­nale Arte 2021). Fusinato’s exhi­bi­tion will be pre­sent­ed at the Aus­tralian Pavil­ion with­in the his­toric Gia­r­di­ni del­la Bien­nale precinct from May to Novem­ber 2021.

Mar­co Fusina­to has led a dis­tin­guished career as a con­tem­po­rary Aus­tralian artist and musi­cian. Com­bin­ing gallery prac­tices and live per­for­mance, Fusina­to works exten­sive­ly across instal­la­tion, pho­tog­ra­phy, per­for­mance, record­ing, and pub­lish­ing. Through­out his prac­tice, he has chal­lenged pow­er struc­tures and author­i­ty, con­fronting con­ven­tions of con­for­mi­ty and con­sumerism, aim­ing to pro­voke and resist the sta­tus quo. Mar­co Fusina­to lives and works in Melbourne.

Alex­ie Glass-Kan­tor is one of Australia’s most high­ly regard­ed cura­tors, cur­rent­ly the Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Art­space in Syd­ney and the cura­tor of Encoun­ters for Art Basel Hong Kong. 

Aus­tralia Coun­cil CEO Adri­an Col­lette AM said: ​“We are excit­ed to announce Mar­co Fusina­to and Alex­ie Glass-Kan­tor as Australia’s rep­re­sen­ta­tives at Bien­nale Arte 2021 and look for­ward to the real­i­sa­tion of this work that will reflect the rich­ness of Australia’s cre­ativ­i­ty. Rep­re­sent­ing Aus­tralia at la Bien­nale di Venezia offers one of the most sig­nif­i­cant inter­na­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for Aus­tralian con­tem­po­rary visu­al artists. Australia’s con­tin­ued par­tic­i­pa­tion at Venice main­tains our com­mit­ment to Aus­tralian con­tem­po­rary visu­al arts and artists and con­nect­ing Aus­tralian and glob­al audiences.”

Fusina­to said he was hon­oured to be select­ed to rep­re­sent Aus­tralia at the Bien­nale Arte 2021. ​“It’s an immense priv­i­lege to have been cho­sen from among such a high cal­i­bre of short­list­ed artists to present my work at the pres­ti­gious Bien­nale Arte 2021. I look for­ward to work­ing with Alex­ie Glass-Kan­tor to present my work at this unpar­al­leled inter­na­tion­al plat­form,” he said.

The 2021 artis­tic team was cho­sen through an open call for appli­ca­tions, assessed by an inde­pen­dent expert pan­el of visu­al arts pro­fes­sion­als. The Venice Selec­tion Pan­el for 2021 com­prised Rhana Deven­port, Juliana Eng­berg, Kel­ly Gel­lat­ly, Julie Gough and Aaron Seeto. 

The Aus­tralia Coun­cil is Com­mis­sion­er for Australia’s Nation­al Par­tic­i­pa­tion at the Bien­nale Arte 2021.

https://​www​.aus​trali​a​coun​cil​.gov​.au