Maurizio Cattelan - Holy See Pavilion 60th Venice Biennale
The Dicastery for Culture and Education is joining the 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, dedicating the Holy See Pavilion to the theme of human rights and the figure of the lowliest , a pillar of the Pontificate of Pope Francis that will give us the immense joy of visiting the Pavilion next April 28. He will be the first Pope in history to attend the Venice Biennale.
The exhibition, with the emblematic and programmatic title With My Eyes, will take place from April 20 to November 24, 2024. The project presented is unprecedented and groundbreaking for the Venice Biennale, thanks to the physical and conceptual installation inside the Giudecca Women's Prison, which will host the Pavilion.
Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Holy See's Dicastery for Culture and Education and Commissioner of the Pavilion, has appointed two of the most notable curators on the international art scene, Chiara Parisi and Bruno Racine. The curators have invited eight artists to participate: Maurizio Cattelan, Bintou Dembélé, Simone Fattal, Claire Fontaine, Sonia Gomes, Corita Kent, Marco Perego & Zoe Saldana, and Claire Tabouret, while the Catalogue will be edited by Irma Boom and published by Marsilio.
The project is characterised by the coexistence of an artistic community that is established by challenging conventions, a new body that truly reflects the diversity and wholeness of estranged lives. Each endeavour, from workshops to installations, from dance to cinema, from performances to paintings, is an expression of this shared drive, consistent with the urge for a multifaceted dialogue suggested by Pope Francis.
The visits to the Pavillion, available upon reservation and led by the detainees/conference speakers, will question the desire for voyeurism and challenge the judgement toward the artists and the detainees themselves, thinning down the boundaries between observer and observed, between those who judge and those who are judged, reflecting also on power structures within art and institutions.