Media Release: Scotland + Venice 2013

More than 10,000 visitors as exhibition passes half-way point

Sworn and Campbell’s film selected for London Film Festival

HALF-way through its run as a Collateral Event of the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, organisers of Scotland + Venice are pleased to announce that more than 10,000 people have now seen the exhibition.

Running until 24 November Scotland + Venice 2013, which is at the Palazzo Pisani (Sta. Marina), features new work by artists, Duncan Campbell, Corin Sworn and Hayley Tompkins, and is curated by The Common Guild.

Since showing in Venice, Duncan Campbell and Corin Sworn’s films have been selected to screen in the London Film Festival showcase of Experimental Cinema and Artists’ Moving Image. Duncan Campbell’s It for Others will screen on Friday 11 and Saturday 19 October.

Corin Sworn’s The Foxes will screen on Wednesday 9 October.

The Scotland + Venice presentation, which will return to The Common Guild during the summer of 2014 as part of GENERATION: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland, features solo exhibitions across a range of media, from watercolour to digital video.

Amanda Catto, chair of the Scotland + Venice partnership, Creative Scotland, said:

“Since 2003 world leading Scottish artists have presented work as part of Scotland + Venice to critical and public acclaim. It’s fantastic to see that so many people have taken the opportunity to see this year’s exhibition in Venice.

“The exhibition showcases work by three of Scotland’s most imaginative and interesting artists, who continue to attract critical and public acclaim – most recently shown by Corin Sworn’s shortlisting for the Max Mara Art Prize for Women. We look forward to audiences being able to see the work in the UK.”

Culture Secretary, Fiona Hyslop, said:

“I’m pleased to have seen Duncan, Corin and Hayley’s exceptional work personally when I visited the Venice Biennale at the start of the exhibition.

“Since then many thousands of people have been able to enjoy some of the best talent from Scotland and it’s clear that such exposure on an international stage is a fantastic showcase, not only for the individuals but also for Scotland as a creative nation.

“This presentation is a confident statement about the continued growth and achievement of our visual arts sector, and I hope many more people take the opportunity to enjoy the best that Scotland has to offer between now and November 24th.”

Scotland + Venice is a partnership between Creative Scotland, British Council Scotland and the National Galleries of Scotland.

With a proud, ten-year history of promoting new work at one of the world’s most prestigious visual art festivals, the Venice Biennale, Scotland + Venice plays a vital role in helping to raise the profile of Scotland as one of the most vibrant countries for the production, promotion and presentation of contemporary art.

www.scotlandandvenice.com

A landmark exhibition celebrating some of the very best art to have emerged from Scotland in the last 25 years GENERATION will see new and existing work shown at more than 50 venues across the country from June to October 2014.

This nationwide programme will be one of the most ambitious celebrations of contemporary art ever held by a single country and is part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme.

GENERATION has been developed as a partnership between the National Galleries of Scotland and Glasgow Life, supported by Creative Scotland. www.nationalgalleries.org/aboutus/special-projects/generation

The London Film Festival runs from 9 – 20 October 2013. For details of the screening of Duncan Campbell and Corin Sworn’s films:

Duncan Campbell: https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/when-statues-die

Corin Sworn: https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/an-eternal-return

ENDS

Editor’s note

Scotland + Venice is a partnership between Creative Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland and British Council Scotland. Additional support for the new works commissioned for Scotland + Venice 2013 has been provided by Outset Scotland, a new chapter of Outset Contemporary Art Fund, dedicated to the philanthropic support of contemporary art.

Further support has been given by The Hope Scott Trust and Arts Trust Scotland.

Hayley Tompkins makes painted objects that transform familiar, commonplace things – such as knives, hammers, mobile phones or furniture. Her work articulates the relationship between the form, feel and function of an object.

For Scotland + Venice 2013, Hayley has produced a new body of work including paintings and photographic works for the very particular visual character of the palazzo, working with its natural light and ornamental details.

Corin Sworn creates installations that explore the way objects circulate to disseminate stories and create histories.

Often combining images with spoken narrative, her work examines the cultural and personal significance attributed to found objects, including images, and the factors that shape their meaning.

Corin’s new work for Scotland + Venice 2013 takes inspiration from a collection of slides taken by her father during his field work as a social anthropologist in the 1970s.

In returning a selection of the images to the village where they were first taken, Sworn uses the photographs to explore aspects of imaging, memory, place and oral history.

Duncan Campbell produces films that look at representations of the people and events at the heart of very particular histories.

Combining archive material with his own footage, his work questions the authority, integrity and intentions of the information presented.

For Scotland + Venice 2013, Duncan has taken Chris Marker and Alain Resnais’ 1953 essay film, ‘Les Statues meurent aussi’ (Statues also Die), as both source and artefact, to pursue a meditation on the life, death and the value of objects.

Duncan includes the film alongside a new work that combines filmed footage, animation and archive footage, in a social and historical examination of cultural imperialism and commodity.

The Common Guild is a visual arts organisation based in Glasgow, established in 2006. It presents a dynamic, international programme of contemporary visual art projects, exhibitions, and events including gallery-based exhibitions at its current premises as well as non-gallery, one-off projects, talks and collaborations.

The Common Guild is committed to presenting artists’ work in interesting and engaging ways and aims to offer access to world-class contemporary art experiences and discussions. www.thecommonguild.org.uk

The Max Mara Art Prize for Women was established by the Whitechapel Gallery in collaboration with Max. Mara in 2005 to promote and nurture female artists and is the only visual art prize for women in the United Kingdom.

www.whitechapelgallery.org/downloads/Max_Mara_Art_Prize_for_Women_-_Press_Release_01.08.13.pdf

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