Andrea Mancini and the design collective Every Island exhibit at the Venice Biennale
Luxembourg has regularly participated in La Biennale di Venezia since 1988. Every two years, alternating with the Architecture Biennale, an artist represents the Grand Duchy at this large-scale international contemporary art event. Since 2019, the Luxembourg pavilion has been located within the historic spaces of Sale d'Armi, at the Arsenale. This year a unique collaboration between Andrea Mancini and Every Island is on display.
A space for production and experimentation
In 2024, the artist and musician Andrea Mancini and the design collective Every Island have created a space for production and experimentation at the Luxembourg Pavilion at the International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. The theme chosen for the 60th edition of the Biennale is "Foreigners Everywhere", representing a call for tolerance and hospitality.
The result of the unprecedented collaboration between Andrea Mancini and Every Island, entitled "A Comparative Dialogue Act", combines visual art, music, performance and installation. It takes the form of an open "sound lab", where four young international artists are invited to create a soundscape in the form of a collage over the course of the Biennale, using a variety of research processes. In this acoustic library, experimental sounds, melodic structures, speech and voices will be assembled to become the "sound of the Biennale".
The music studio is integrated into the architecture of the pavilion; it is malleable and transformable and can be arranged and adjusted by the artists. The performances that take place there will also create opportunities for exchange with the public.
The four intervening artists are Spanish musician and performer Bella Báguena, Turkish artist Selin Davasse, Swedish artist Stina Fors and French transdisciplinary artist Célin Jiang. At the end of the exhibition, a vinyl record will be released comprising all the pieces produced by the artists.
Andrea Mancini, born in 1989, is a Luxembourgish musician and artist who lives and works in Brussels. His interdisciplinary practice explores the relationship between space, his subject and sound, using a variety of techniques including installations, video and performance. His work has already been exhibited several times in Luxembourg, for example at the Kulturfabrik – Cultural Centre in Esch-sur-Alzette, the Rotondes and Casino Luxembourg – Forum d'art contemporain. He is also active in the electronic music scene and has released several records under the alias Cleveland.
Every Island is a Belgian design collective based in Brussels. It was founded in 2021 by five designers who explore performativity in spaces through ephemeral architecture and installations. They use ambiguity as a design tool, and space becomes a scenography of transition and meaning. They have already completed projects in Leuven, Brussels, Rimini and also at Mudam Luxembourg – The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg.
A brief history (of art)
Luxembourg's first steps at the Venice Biennale were difficult – unfortunately its first participation in 1956 initially remained a one-off... It was only thirty years later, in 1988, at the initiative of the artist Patricia Lippert, that the Ministry of Culture made a further attempt to participate in the prestigious artistic event. Since then it has never looked back.
In 2017, the Luxembourg government signed a contract with the Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia that guaranteed Luxembourg's participation in the stunning Sale d'Armi for the next 20 years.
Exhibitions are organised alternately by Mudam – The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg and Casino Luxembourg – Forum d'art contemporain. Kultur | lx, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, has launched the latest call for projects to select the artist and the curator for this year's edition of the Biennale.
List of participating artists
1956 / Joseph Kutter and Auguste Trémont
1988 / Patricia Lippert and Moritz Ney
1990 / Marie-Paule Feiereisen
1993 / Jean-Marie Biwer and Bertrand Ney
1995 / Bert Theis
1997 / Luc Wolff
1999 / Simone Decker
2001 / Doris Drescher
2003 / Su-Mei Tse
2005 / Antoine Prum
2007 / Jill Mercedes
2009 / Gast Bouschet & Nadine Hilbert
2011 / Martine Feipel & Jean Bechameil
2013 / Catherine Lorent
2015 / Filip Markiewicz
2017 / Mike Bourscheid
2019 / Marco Godinho
2022 / Tina Gillen
2024 / Andrea Mancini and Every Island
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