Welcome
Opening of the 55th Biennale in Venice – Germany and France exchange pavilions
The 55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2013 – will open on 29 May. To mark the 50th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty, Germany and France will exchange their national pavilions in the grounds of the “Giardini”. The German contribution will be staged and presented in the French Pavilion, and France’s contribution in the German Pavilion.
“I am delighted to be attending the opening of the 55th Art Biennale in Venice tomorrow and am eager to see the art presentations in the German and French pavilions,” said Cornelia Pieper, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office. “This art project is a clear embodiment of the lively exchange, the close ties and the affinity between our countries and people. At the same time, the choice of international artists shows that today we understand art in a much wider context which goes far beyond national boundaries and continents.”
This year the curators are Susanne Gaensheimer from Germany and Christine Macel from France. The guest artists are Ai Weiwei, Romuald Karmakar, Santu Mofokeng and Dayanita Singh for Germany and Anri Sala for France. They, too, have approved the pavilion exchange.
The International Exhibition “Biennale di Venezia”, which takes place every two years, is one of the most important international forums for contemporary visual arts. Germany traditionally organizes its own contribution, which the Federal Foreign Office stages and co-finances with the support of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa).
The Venice Art Biennale will be open to the public from 1 June to 24 November 2013.