Two worlds will literally collide in Travelling Light, an exhibition which promises to explode London's edgy East End onto the luminescent international art stage when all eyes will be upon it: the opening week of the 53rd Venice Biennale Art Exhibition.

Travelling Light is an exciting collaborative project between a dynamic trio of female East End director/curators, Sophie Wilson of Pharos Gallery, Chiara Williams and Debra Wilson of WW Gallery. Intending to stretch the imagination of their artists through imposing size and weight constraints, the brief demanded that work arrived by post for the London exhibition before being transported to Venice for the Biennale. The dogma has encouraged lateral thinking and some interesting responses: artists used to working on a larger scale have had to challenge their usual practice and leave their comfort zone, often to surprising, silly and outright creative ends.

The exhibition will showcase a total of 58 artists including: Kate Davis, Maria Chevska, Jarik Jongman, Oona Grimes, Sardine & Tobleroni, Boa Swindler, Lucy May and Eva Lis. Submissions have arrived from all over the globe, which is appropriate not only because the theme of this year’s Venice Biennale is, ‘Making Worlds', but because the ethos of community-grounded Pharos and WW Gallery is inclusiveness. Selected artists hail from USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Greece, Wales, Scotland and England.

Travelling Light will open in London at WW Gallery from 15th – 28th May. From there it will travel along the trade route to Venice, a path historically well trodden by merchants and hedonists attracted to the pleasure capital of Europe. From 6th – 10th June it will be hung in a palazzo between the Accademia Galleries and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. A bright new addition to the many ‘Collateral Events’ that have sprung forth from the expanding Biennale, Travelling Light is featured by the British Council on the Artupdate map. In addition, the Italian Cultural Institute invited the curators to the Venice Biennale press conference on the 27th March to share Travelling Light with the national and international press.

A group of all-female artists/documenters of varying nationalities will accompany the curators to Venice in order to make and record site-specific works. One of these artists is Roma Tearne, the Sri Lankan born artist and writer whose first book, Mosquito, was shortlisted for the 2008 Costa First Novel Award. The Travelling Light team will be collaborating with her on a series of stunts across London and Venice. Hinting at the involvement of blindfolds, balaclavas and prominent landmarks, the public art interventions will accompany the release of Tearne’s latest book, Brixton Beach on 1st June 2009. The website & blog will be following and reporting on the Travelling Light happenings in both locations. Additionally there will be a special acoustic performance by Italian born Olivia Chaney at the London private view and by Veneto musician Alberto Grollo at the Venice private view.

Travelling Light is more than just an art exhibition; it is a truly international event and is stirring considerable media interest.

For more information, please refer to the official Travelling Light website at: http://www.wilsonwilliamsgallery.com/travellinglight.htm

Further information:

Venues

London 15 May - 28 May 2009
WW Gallery, 30 Queensdown Rd. London E5 8NN
(nearest train: Hackney Downs)
Press Thurs 14 May 6-9pm
Private view Fri 15 May 6-9pm
Open Sat-Sun 12-6pm and by appointment

Venice 6 June - 10 June 2009
622 Fondamenta Bragadin, 30123 Venice, Italy
(nearest vaporetto: Accademia)
Press Sat 6 June 10-6pm
Private view Sun 7 June 3-9pm
Open daily 10-6pm

About WW Gallery
WW Gallery is an artists' run space in a converted Victorian terraced house in Hackney, East London. Running a series of fearless and ambitious shows, WW features an eclectic array of work that runs from the beautiful and ornate to the grotesque and unsettling. Breaking away from the tendency of their East End counterparts to show work with a dry and introspective concern with theory, concept and the politics of the art industry, WW looks outward by staging shows centered around wider social and cultural themes. The result is often dark, frequently humorous and at once democratic and challenging. For more information visit http://www.wilsonwilliamsgallery.com/.

About Pharos Gallery
Pharos Gallery is an art collective based in the beating heart of London’s East End art scene. Built from a manifesto which aims to decentralise the West End art system, Pharos functions at the most basic level as a forum for artist to network, communicate and share ideas. Working with local artists, upcoming talent and established artists on curated and themed exhibitions, Pharos aims to build bridges between the adventurous projects of the East and the more traditional, transactional setting of the West End. For more information visit http://www.pharosgallery.com/.