Mexican Pavilion, 52 Venice Biennale
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Some things happen more often than all of the time
10 June-21 November 2007
Vernissage: 7 – 9 June 2007
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer will represent Mexico at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. The exhibition, Some things happen more often than all of the time will be curated by Priamo Lozada and Barbara Perea.
The exhibition project is supported by the National Council for Culture and the Arts (CONACULTA), through the Institute for the Fine Arts (INBA); the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mexican Embassy in Italy. The organizing efforts will be carried out by ArtFest A.C., a non-profit cultural agency, in conjunction with major contributions from other public and private institutions. A bi-lingual catalogue will be published to accompany the exhibition.
This is the first time that Mexico will have an official presence, with a pavilion in site at the San Marcos area. The exhibit will be held in Mexico afterwards.
Lozano-Hemmer (Mexico City, 1967) is an electronic artist that develops interactive installations that are at the intersection of architecture and performance art. His main interest is in creating platforms for public participation, by perverting technologies such as robotics, computerized surveillance or telematic networks. Inspired by phantasmagoria, carnival and animatronics, his huge light and shadow works are antimonuments for alien agency.
His work in kinetic sculpture, responsive environments, video installation and photography has been shown in three dozen countries, including Art Basel Unlimited (Switzerland), Laboratorio Arte Alameda (Mexico), Musée des Beaux Arts (Canada) and Biennials in Sydney (Australia), Liverpool (UK), Shanghai (China), Istanbul (Turkey) and Havana (Cuba). His work is in important private and public contemporary art collections such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Jumex Collection in Mexico, the Cisneros Fontanals Foundation in Miami and the Daros-Latinamerica Collection in Zürich.
His work in public space has been commissioned for events such as the Millennium Celebrations in Mexico City (1999), the Cultural Capital of Europe in Rotterdam (2001), the opening of the Basque Museum of Contemporary Art ARTIUM (2002), the United Nations World Summit of Cities in Lyon (2003), the opening of the YCAM Centre for Art and Media in Japan (2003) and the Expansion of the European Union in Dublin (2004).
At the Prix Ars Electronica in Austria, his pieces have received a Golden Nica, a distinction and two honorable mentions. He also won two BAFTA British Academy Awards for Interactive Art in London, a distinction at the SFMOMA Webby Awards in San Francisco, Artist of the year at Wired Magazines Rave Awards, a Rockefeller fellowship, a Langlois Grant, the Trophée des Lumières in Lyon and an International Bauhaus Award in Dessau, Germany, among others. Videos, texts and images of his works can be found at www.lozano-hemmer.com
For further information on the presence of Mexico in the Venice Biennale, please visit:
Contact:
info@mexicobienaldevenecia.org
