The Artists’ Pavilion: Laura Malacart – Speak Robert

Speak Robert is a newly commissioned work by Italian-born London based artist Laura Malacart at the Artists’ Pavilion. It takes the form of an installation and a series of language workshops (daily 4 – 5pm). The project shows and performs the idea that globalisation is rewriting the legacy of post-colonialism and to an extent re-enacting it.

Malacart utilizes a narrative around the Scottish botanist Robert Fortune (1812-1880), the East India Company and the American actor Matt Damon starring in the Chinese blockbuster The Great Wall of China (2017).
Malacart’s collaborative and interdisciplinary work is concerned with language and the politics of the voice. Her practice engages with a range of media, including participatory performance, writing and video. These strategies explore contemporary issues concerning identities in a globalised post-colonial world. They conceive the speaking and listening subject, their positioning and idiom, crucial to define a historical and ideological perspective or its absence.

The Artists’ Pavilion is a project by Artquest that provides an awarded artist with a platform to realise new work at the Venice Biennale. This year’s pavilion is curated by Camilla Palestra and is accompanied by a programme of talks and events addressing issues of cultural identity within a global economy, dislocation and language, curated in collaboration with students from the University of the Arts London (Annie-Marie Akussah, Riah Charles, Rachel Hinman, Ciara McNeill, Josh Simpson.)


Public Programme:

Wednesday 10th May at 5pm:
Opening reception: Laura Malacart in conversation to discuss Speak Robert and the wider themes of her practice.

Thursday 11th May at 5pm:
Sign language workshop with Gabriele Caia and Laura Volpato, University of Venice Ca’ Foscari. Participants will be introduced to sing language and will learn to use the basic skills to interact with each other, becoming aware of language as an identity apparatus.

Friday 12th May at 10.30am
Programming & invigilation at the Venice Biennale – a professional development experience
In partnership with Engage
Students from University of the Arts talk about their experiences of developing a public programme in response to the Artists’ Pavilion commission.

Friday 12th May at 5pm:
susan pui san lok – Fortune Cooking
A conversation with artist, writer and researcher susan pui san lok on the notion of translation and diaspora




For full speaker biographies and further info visit:
Website: artquest.org.uk/project/artists-pavilion-venice-biennale-2017
Twitter: @ARTQUESTLONDON / Facebook: http://arq.st/FBVenice17
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Laura Malacart is an Italian-born artist based in London. Her work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions including 2015 The Little Book of Answers, Turbine Hall, Tate Modern - 2014 YES! Onomatopoeia, project launch and debate, Dana Centre, Science Museum, London - 2013 Three Moments of a Temporary Loss of Perspective, H. Conte Museo de la Memoria, Buenos Aires, Argentina Laura holds a PhD from in Fine Art, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London and she has been lecturing in various universities including LCC, London, Univeristy of Amsterdam and RCA, London.

Camilla Palestra is a curator based in London. Her curatorial interest lies in artistic practices that reflect on aspects of our contemporary society, in connection to the socio-political environment and its diversity. She is the Associate Curator at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts London. She collaborates with the studio of Shezad Dawood as curator and editor. Previously she was writer and researcher at SKIRA publishing house, Public Programme Curator at MART Museum, Trento (Italy), and Research Associate at Culture + Conflict.

Artquest is an organisation dedicated to supporting artists. It connects them to the opportunities, resources and networks they need to develop their practices and careers, delivering its activities through its website: www.artquest.org.uk and an ongoing series of live commissions, residencies publications and events. Artquest is National Portfolio Organisation of Arts Council England and is a programme of University of the Arts London, Europe's largest university. This project is funded as part of a Careers and Employability programme at the Univeristy of the Arts London, which aims to promote equality on grounds of ethnicity, disability and social class, funded through Widening Participation.