Federal Councilor Alain Berset inaugurates the Swiss Pavilion at the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale on Thursday. In the spotlight: the installation “The Concert”, by the artist Latifa Echakhch, which invites you to travel through time.
After a postponement due to the pandemic, one of the most important international contemporary art events will reconnect with its public on Saturday.
Artist Latifa Echakhch. [Christian Beutler – Keystone]“This year, the Swiss Foundation for Culture Pro Helvetia has entrusted the Swiss pavilion to the artist Latifa Echakhch, she wrote in a press release. She takes over the entire space of Bruno Giacometti’s building with her installation.”
The Franco-Moroccan visual artist, who will represent Switzerland at the Venice Biennale, lives and works in Vevey (VD) and Martigny (VS). She conceived “The Concert” with Geneva percussionist and composer Alexandre Babel, 42, and Italian curator Francesco Stocchi.
Cycle of life
His installation shows scenes related to the cycle of life such as ritual fires, which exist in all cultures. These sculptures with popular contours – marked by the ephemeral – which enter into a dialogue with space and time are to be discovered from April 23 to November 27.
About the title of the artistic project, Latifa Echakhch said: “We want the public to leave the exhibition with the same feeling as when leaving a concert.” The exhibition will be accompanied by a vinyl record and a book echoing the discussions that guided the project.
Also worth seeing: the main exhibition, “Il latte dei sogni/The milk of dreams”, which places particular emphasis on the representation of bodies and their metamorphoses. It notably hosts the works of three Swiss artists: Hélène Smith, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Miriam Cahn. In total, nearly 80 national pavilions will offer “outstanding artistic projects” to art lovers.
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59th edition of the Biennial of artVenice, from April 23 to November 27, 2022