SVIZZERA
Gianni Motti, Shahryar Nashat, Marco Poloni, Ingrid Wildi
Pipilotti Rist (Chiesa di San Stae)
Commissario: Urs Staub. Curatore: Stefan Banz. Commissario aggiunto: Andreas Münch. Sede: Padiglione ai Giardini



51st International Art Exhibition, Biennale di Venezia
12 June to 6 November 2005
Official contribution of Switzerland:
Gianni Motti, Shahryar Nashat, Marco Poloni, Pipilotti Rist, Ingrid Wildi

Upon the recommendation of the Federal Commission on Art, five artists have been selected to represent Switzerland at the 51st Biennale in Venice: Pipilotti Rist and Ingrid Wildi as well as Gianni Motti, Shahryar Nashat and Marco Poloni. The Federal Office of Culture has organized the presentation of works by Gianni Motti, Shahryar Nashat, Marco Poloni and Ingrid Wildi in this Swiss Pavilion in the Giardini, and the video installation by Pipilotti Rist in the Church of San Stae. The exhibitions offer an insight into the current work of young artists in Switzerland.

The exhibition Shadows Collide With People in the Swiss Pavilion in the Giardini of the Biennale shows new works by Gianni Motti (born 1958 in Sondrio), Shahryar Nashat (born 1975 in Teheran), Marco Poloni (born 1962 in Amsterdam) and Ingrid Wildi (born 1963 in Santiago de Chile). Stefan Banz, artist, curator and member of the Federal Commission on Art, planned and executed the exhibition. The multimedia installation The Regulating Line by Shahryar Nashat; Permutit, a sequence of 50 photographs (Storyboard for a Film) by Marco Poloni; the video projection Portrait oblique by Ingrid Wildi; the installation ‘Big Crunch Clock‘ outside the Pavilion by Gianni Motti each offer a different response to the metaphor implied in the exhibition title. They explore the relationship between image and reality, between institution and audience and between art and society.

Pipilotti Rist (born 1962 in Grabs SG) has mounted her video installation Homo sapiens sapiens in the high Baroque Church of San Stae on the Canale Grande. The video, projected onto the entire surface of the vaulted ceiling above the nave, shows scenes of a heavenly paradise prior to the fall. The artist filmed most of the sequences in Minas Gerais, Brasil. The tropical landscape provides the backdrop for dreamy surrealist images that tell the story of two women, of human bodies and of lush nature. Visitors are invited to relax on the soft leafy tongues of an oversized branch.

In conjunction with the exhibition in the Swiss Pavilion, the Federal Office of Culture has published the catalogue Shadows Collide With People, distributed by edition fink in Zürich. The publication, in German, French and English, contains essays by Stefan Banz, Friedrich Kittler, Stefan Heidenreich, Eveline Notter, Giovanni Carmine, Octavio Zaya, Michael Newman and Philip Ursprung. For the exhibition by Pipilotti Rist in the Church of San Stae, Lars Müller Editions in Baden have been commissioned to publish the artist’s book titled Pepperminta Homo sapiens sapiens.

Commissioner for both Swiss contributions at the Biennale is Urs Staub, Head of the Art and Design Section at the Swiss Federal Office of Culture. Assistant Commissioner Andreas Münch, Head of the Arts Section at the Federal Office of Culture, was responsible for installing the exhibition in the Church of San Stae.

From 9 to 11 June 2005, representatives of the international press are invited to previews at the Swiss Pavilion and the Church of San Stae. The official opening of the 51st International Art Exhibition in Venice will take place on 10 June 2005. The Biennale will be open to the public from 12 June to 6 November 2005.

The Banca del Gottardo is generously supporting Switzerland’s official contribution to the Venice Biennale as well as the production of the two publications.

For further information, see: http://www.bak.admin.ch/biennale

Swiss Federal Office of Culture
Communication