Venice Biennale, Eugenio Viola is the curator of the next Italian Pavilion

Culture Minister Dario Franceschini has revealed the name of the curator of the Italian Pavilion of the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale. It is Eugenio Viola: the new curator was chosen at the end of the invitation-only selection process, promoted by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity, from which resulted a trio submitted to the minister by the director general, Onofrio Cutaia. Viola’s proposal will represent Italy from April 23 to Nov. 27, 2022 at the Tese delle Vergini in the Arsenale, where the Italian Pavilion has been located for 15 years. The exhibition will propose a reflection on the urgencies of today’s Italy, suggesting keys to interpretation and especially resolution and redemption to the current situation through the creation of a path. Viola succeeds in the post to Milovan Farronato, curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2019 Biennale.

“For an art Biennale curated for the first time by an Italian woman,” said Minister Franceschini,“ the Italian Pavilion can only be the bearer of a creative, ambitious and innovative vision such as that of Eugenio Viola, capable of thoroughly investigating the profound changes triggered by the pandemic in our society.”

“I welcome the appointment as curator of the Italian Pavilion 2022 at the 59. International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale,” said Eugenio Viola, “as a great honor and privilege. I thank the Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini and the General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity for the trust placed in me. I will work to the utmost of my commitment, ethically, aware of the responsibility for the prestigious task that has been entrusted to me.”

Eugenio Viola, born in Naples in 1975, educated at the University of Salerno, is the current Chief Curator of MAMBO - Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotà, in Colombia; he was Senior Curator of PICA- The Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts in Perth, Australia, as well as curator of the MADRE Museum in Naples, from 2009 to 2016. Here he co-curated the first major institutional exhibitions in Italy dedicated to Boris Mikhailov and Francis Alys, a Daniel Buren project, and retrospectives of Vettor Pisani and Giulia Piscitelli. As guest curator he has collaborated with numerous Italian and international institutions, curating, among others, anthological exhibitions dedicated to Regina José Galindo (Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, 2016); Karol Radziszewski (CoCA- Centre of Contemporary Art Torun, 2014); Mark Raidpere (EKKM- The Contemporary Art Museum of Tallinn, 2013); Marina Abramović (PAC, Milan, 2012); Francesco Jodice (MSU-The Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, 2011); ORLAN (MAMC-Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Saint-Étienne, 2007); In 2015 he curated the Estonian Pavilion at the 56th. Venice Biennale. Overall, he has curated more than 70 exhibitions in Italy and around the world. Viola has more than 50 publications to his credit, including books and catalogs (authors he has written about include Marina Abramovic, Regina José Galindo, Orlan).

The Directorate General of Contemporary Creativity, which managed the selection, specifically asked the ten invited curators to address current and urgent issues in today’s society, exploring them through the transversality and interdisciplinarity proper to the languages of the contemporary, in order to create worlds and imaginaries capable of constructive dialogue with the spaces of the Italian Pavilion (since 2006 at the Tese delle Vergini in the Arsenale), which occupies 1,200 square meters, plus 900 square meters of outdoor space. The selection of curators was made taking into account the experiences gained in the national and international field of some of the main Italian representatives of contemporary art curating, evaluating their critical research and curatorial experiences, as well as their scientific activity, ensuring fair and balanced gender distribution, as well as the presence of young generations, alongside more established professionals.

Venice Biennale, Eugenio Viola is the curator of the next Italian Pavilion

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