Martin Boyce has been selected to represent Scotland at the 53rd
International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia.

The exhibition, No Reflections is curated by Dundee Contemporary Arts
(DCA) and will be presented at the Palazzo Pisani (S.Marina) from 7
June - 22 November 2009.

Representing the fourth Scottish presentation at Venice by Scotland
and Venice, a partnership between the Scottish Arts Council, National
Galleries of Scotland and the British Council, No Reflections builds
on the critical success of previous projects which have promoted
artists including Turner Prize winner Simon Starling and Turner Prize
nominees, Cathy Wilkes and Jim Lambie.

In a series of new works developed specifically for presentation in
Venice, Boyce has devised a lyrical installation for seven
inter-connected rooms of the second floor of this 15th-century
palazzo.

The artist transforms the fading grandeur of the Palazzo Pisani with
suspended, geometric chandeliers, sculptural autumn leaves, stepping
stones, brass letters, tables and benches - all altered from the
everyday into an atmospheric, poetic landscape. Boyce sets out to
'delve into the city's interior landscape' and with this exhibition
he conflates the internal and external and echoes the labyrinthine
nature of Venice, creating a heightened sense of displacement and
abandonment.

The concept for No Reflections makes reference to a starting point in
Boyce's work - a photograph of four concrete trees created by Joël
and Jan Martel for the 1925 'Exposition des Arts Décoratifs' in
Paris. These trees, Boyce says, "represent a perfect collapse of
architecture and nature", visualising oppositional elements of urban
existence: the natural versus the constructed, the populated versus
the uninhabited, old versus new.

Following the Venice presentation, the work will return to Scotland
in December 2009 to be re-presented at Dundee Contemporary Arts
marking the culmination of the venue's 10th anniversary year.

Boyce (born 1967) lives and works in Glasgow. He is one of Scotland's
most prominent artists and is well known for his sculptural
installations that recall conventional public spaces – the
playground, pedestrian subway, discarded or abandoned sites – to
form a cohesive and immersive environment. Drawing on the
iconography and subsequent production of modernist design, these
objects take on an alternative life by being displaced from their
original context and purpose.

Recent solo exhibitions and public projects: We Are Shipwrecked and
Landlocked, Kaldor Art Projects, Melbourne (2008); Ikon Gallery,
Birmingham (2008); Münster Sculpture Project, Münster (2008); We
Burn, We Shiver (with Ugo Rondinone), Sculpture Centre, New York
(2008).

NOTES TO EDITORS
1.Martin Boyce No Reflections is at the 53rd International Art
Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, Palazzo Pisani, Calle delle
Erbe, Cannaregio (off Campo Santa Marina), 6103, 7 June–22 November
2009. 10am-6pm (closed Mondays). Vaporetto: Rialto.

2. No Reflections returns to Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA), 12
December 2009–14 February 2010. http://www.dca.org.uk

3. Scotland+Venice 2009 is a partnership between the Scottish Arts
Council, National Galleries of Scotland and the British Council with
additional support from Dundee Contemporary Arts, Duncan of
Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee, The
Henry Moore Foundation, Jet2, Scottish Government, the Leng Trust and
in-kind support from Hendrick's Gin, Fentimans and American Apparel.

Martin Boyce is represented by Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York,
Johnen Galerie, Berlin, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich and The
Modern Institute / Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow