2024

60th International Art Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia 2024

ANNA JERMOLAEWA

The Austrian Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2024 in Venice is designed by Anna Jermolaewa and curated by Gabriele Spindler. In her work, the artist, who was born in Leningrad (USSR) and has lived in Vienna since 1989, has demonstrated again and again that she is a keen observer of human life, its societal conditions and political preconditions. For the Austrian contribution, Jermolaewa covers a broad spectrum ranging from her personal migration experiences to forms of non-violent resistance against authoritarian regimes. The presentation shown at the Pavilion will comprise videos, installations, luminous objects and sound as well as performative elements combining newly developed works and extensions of existing works of the artist.

Anna Jermolaewa’s contribution for the Austrian Pavilion blends in excellently with the general theme of the Art Biennale 2024 defined by curator Adriano Pedrosa: Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere centers on the topics of foreign lands, migration as well as issues of national identity and cultural diversity and focuses on artists who personally experienced flight and migration.

Andrea Mayer, State Secretary for Arts and Culture: “The Venice Biennale is the most significant art exhibition worldwide and impressively demonstrated its eminent standing last year. The show continues to make a vital contribution to the aesthetic as well as social-policy, cultural and intercultural discourse. It is good and important that Austria has a strong presence at the Biennale and makes a crucial contribution to this international exhibition of contemporary art. It is precisely for this reason that I am highly pleased that the Austrian contribution will showcase particularly topical and relevant positions in 2024."

The Austrian Pavilion opened on 18 April 2024 at 3.00 pm.

www.biennalearte.at

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Biennale Arte 2024

Stranieri Ovunque - Foreigners Everywhere

Exhibition: 20 April - 24 November 2024

Curator: Adriano Pedrosa

www.labiennale.org/en/art/2024

Aperto – 90 Years of Neighborhood

90 years ago, the Austrian Pavilion opened in the Giardini della Biennale. On this occasion, the Friends ...

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19th International Architecture Exhibition 2025

Agency for Better Living was selected to be Austria’s contribution to the Architecture Biennale 2025.

Together with ...

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Agency for Better Living was selected to be Austria’s contribution to the Architecture Biennale 2025.

Together with jury member Claudia Cavallar, State Secretary for Art and Culture, Andrea Mayer, announced at a press conference on 28 February that the curatorial team made up of Michael Obrist, Sabine Pollak and Lorenzo Romito would design the show at the Austrian Pavilion for the 19th Architecture Biennale in Venice in 2025.

Their proposal Agency for Better Living won the project competition organised by the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport.

Project on burning global housing issues

The project focuses on burning global housing issues that are going to be addressed in a synthesis of top-down schemes (successful model of social housing in Vienna) and bottom-up approaches (self-organisation models of civil society) based on specific architectures and explorations of different systems. An overall budget of up to 600,000 euro is provided by the federal government for implementing the project. Any further funds required for implementing the concept are to be covered by sponsors.

Andrea Mayer, State Secretary for Art and Culture:

“The Biennale is one of the most significant art exhibitions worldwide. In 2025, it is again the turn of architecture and the Biennale raises awareness for a subject that influences and shapes our living environment. It provides space for reflecting on architecture and, aside of aesthetic issues, also increasingly on the social and political responsibility of architecture. Thus, Austria’s commitment to the Biennale, to this unique international cultural exchange, is unwavering.

The contribution selected for 2025 is a project with strong references to Vienna since it deals, on the one hand, with ‘social housing’ and, hence, affordable housing and, on the other hand, with the re-use of abandoned or unfinished buildings and former infrastructures illustrated by examples found in the host country Italy, specifically in Rome.”

More information at:

https://www.bmkoes.gv.at/kunst-und-kultur/sparten/bildende-kunst-design-mode-fotografie-medienkunst/biennale-venedig/architektur-biennale-2025.html

Summary

Venedig Biennale Archiv Austria

Since 1895 Austria regularly takes part in the Biennale di Venezia (Biennale). The Biennale ...

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Biennale

Austria’s contributions are organised and implemented on commission by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and ...

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Austria’s contributions are organised and implemented on commission by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport and are significantly co-financed by it. They are a starting point for a lively, internationally oriented discussion and strengthen the country’s successful presence and the world-wide renown of Austrian arts, culture and architecture. Austria’s presentations at the Biennale contribute to a vibrant and creative art scene inside and outside Austria. The Venice Biennale is not just a magnet for art enthusiasts from all over the world, it is also an important forum attracting people from around the globe.

Being one of the most significant art exhibitions world-wide, the Venice Biennale is more than a periodic show of the creative achievements of different nations. For decades, it has decisively contributed to contemporary discourse and cultural development. Since 1895 artists from all over the world have presented their works in the national pavilions of the Venice Biennale, which has been complemented by the biannual International Architecture Exhibition since 1980.

The diversity of contributions and country presentations exhibited in the pavilions of the Giardini provide a suitable setting for showcasing the current works of art and architecture for an international audience. Austria was already invited to the very first Biennale in 1895 and ever since, has participated in each Biennale – with two exceptions – and all Architecture Exhibitions.

A review of previous contributions illustrates the great variety of the positions exhibited there. The spectrum of Austrian contributions ranges from Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka to the manifold positions of contemporary art, such as Maria Lassnig, Bruno Gironcoli, Arnulf Rainer, VALIE EXPORT, Franz West, Herbert Brandl, Mathias Poledna, Markus Schinwald, Dorit Margreiter, Walter Pichler, Elke Krystufek and Heimo Zobernig, to name just a few. They all showed their works in the Austrian pavilion and successfully represented Austria as a country of the arts. In the field of architecture, too, major projects have been implemented. When Austria participated for the first time in 1991, the country contributed 13 Austrian positions under curator Hans Hollein. Innovation, mutual exchanges and openness to experimental projects permitted inspiration and further development.