MARTIN BOYCE PRESENTS SOLO SHOW for the
SCOTTISH PRESENTATION at the
53rd INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION -
LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
7 June – 22 November 2009
PALAZZO PISANI, CALLE DELLE ERBE,
CANNAREGIO, 6103
Press Preview: 2pm – 3pm (accredited press)
Opening Reception: 5.30pm – 7pm (invitation)
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. 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
MEDIA CONTACT
Wendy Grannon, Scotland+Venice 2009
t: +44 (0) 7916 137 632 / e: press@scotlandandvenice.com
