Venice
Writing
On truth and telling stories
By Hana Pera Aoake
04.10.2024
Aotearoa artist Hana Pera Aoake reflects on their visit to the Venice Biennale and the questions posed by its central exhibition, Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere. Unearthing the fraught political contexts of Venice, Aoake asks who is really made strange by the Biennale; and whether the presenting Aotearoa artists are able to retain the specificities of place within a curatorial frame that groups categories of difference under the theme of the “stranger”.
Writing
Crossing Currents: Episode 8
By Contemporary HUM
17.08.2024
Contemporary HUM speaks with Aotearoa New Zealand artist Sandy Adsett (Ngāti Pahauwera), a pioneer in the customary artform of kōwhaiwhai and an active figure in the emergence and presentation of contemporary Māori art on the national and international scenes. He discusses being featured in the 60th International Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, his experience as a teacher, and the question of the uses and future of Māori representation at events such as the Biennale.
Writing
Crossing Currents: Episode 7
By Contemporary HUM
10.08.2024
Robert Jahnke (Ngāi Taharora, Te Whānau a Iritekura, Te Whānau a Rakairo o Ngāti Porou) speaks to Contemporary HUM about his work Te Wepu MMXXIII, which is featured in the 7th edition of Personal Structures in Venice. Jahnke discusses the influence of Te Wepu, the battle flag of the 19th-century Māori prophet Te Kooti, and how the work highlights a formal whakapapa (genealogy) between Te Kooti, who was not only a religious visionary but an artistic innovator in his own right, and contemporary references to the flag, including by the late sculptor and painter Paratene Matchitt.
Writing
Crossing Currents: Episode 6
By Contemporary HUM
03.08.2024
On the occasion of an historic edition of the Venice Biennale for Aotearoa New Zealand, Contemporary HUM speaks with Mataaho Collective, who were awarded one of the top prizes at the Biennale, the Golden Lion, for their work Takapau. Mataaho Collective discuss the logistics of transforming Takapau for the Biennale, as well as working within a continuum of contemporary Māori art practice that also situates them alongside the intergenerational contingent of Māori artists presenting at this year’s Biennale. HUM also speaks with artist, writer and researcher Rychèl Thérin.
Calendar
David Rickard, AETHER/ETERE la presenza dell’assente
19 July —
28 September 2024
Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice, Italy
Writing
Crossing Currents: Episode 5
By Contemporary HUM
27.07.2024
Contemporary HUM speaks to esteemed Māori sculptor Fred Graham, a pioneering figure in contemporary Māori art who is part of a generation that forged a new path in ngā toi Māori in post-war Aotearoa. Reflecting on his practice of over 70 years, Graham discusses the influence of his teaching and the importance of friends and family, as well as the experience of exhibiting alongside his son, Brett Graham, at the Venice Biennale.
Project
Crossing Currents: Aotearoa New Zealand Artists in Venice
Podcast series
Despite there being no national pavilion for Aotearoa New Zealand this year, the 60th Venice Biennale is an historic edition for Aotearoa artists. Not only are there an unprecedented number of artists from Aotearoa featured in Venice – both within the International Exhibition of the Biennale and in concurrent events taking place across the city – but it also features the most Māori artists to be included.
In Crossing Currents: Aotearoa New Zealand Artists in Venice, Contemporary HUM speaks with the artists featured in the 60th Venice Biennale and parallel events Personal Structures and Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania as they reflect on presenting in Venice during an historic year for Aotearoa art, Ngā toi Māori and Indigenous art globally.
Writing
Crossing Currents: Episode 4
By Contemporary HUM
13.07.2024
Architect, artist and mother Elisapeta Hinemoa Heta speaks to Contemporary HUM about her presentation The Body of Wainuiātea, which is featured alongside work by Latai Taumoepeau in Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania, an exhibition curated by Taloi Havini at TBA21–Academy’s Ocean Space in Venice. She discusses the influence of the Māori pūrākau (mythological tradition) of the atua (deity) Wainuiātea, the need to re-establish a sacred relationship to the ocean and the conversations that guided the creation of the work, including with Havini and Taumoepeau.
Writing
Crossing Currents: Episode 3
By Contemporary HUM
06.07.2024
Contemporary HUM interviews artist Caitlin Devoy about BODYOBJECTS, her presentation in the 2024 edition of Personal Structures in Venice. Speaking to HUM in April 2024, Devoy discusses using humour as a feminist strategy to challenge the power relations encoded in gallery spaces, resulting in works that refuse disembodied objectivity in favour of tactility, subjectivity and intuition.
Writing
Crossing Currents: Episode 2
By Contemporary HUM
29.06.2024
Contemporary HUM interviews Brett Graham (Ngāti Koroki Kahukura, Tainui) about Wastelands (2024), his work in Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. Graham discusses Wastelands as a commentary on extractive attitudes to land, the logistics of exhibiting at the Venice Biennale and what it’s like to be included alongside an intergenerational selection of Māori artists, including his father, Fred Graham.
Writing
HUM live from the 2024 Venice Biennale
16.04.2024
From 16–21 April 2024, Contemporary HUM will publish live coverage, exclusive images and videos from the opening week of Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere, The 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Click through for coverage of the Aotearoa New Zealand artists presenting work in the curated section of the Biennale, as well as in other events held off-site.
Calendar
Veronica Green, From Where I Stand
12 April —
18 July 2024
Venice Art Projects, Venice, Italy
Calendar
Areez Katki, The Rhapsode’s Tools Will Build the Rhapsode’s House in Personal Structures
20 April —
24 November 2024
Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy
Calendar
Caitlin Devoy, BODYOBJECTS in Personal Structures
20 April —
24 November 2024
Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy
Calendar
Mizuho Nishioka, Movement_17; Tasman Sea in Personal Structures
20 April —
24 November 2024
Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy
Calendar
Caroline Earley and Kate Walker in Personal Structures
20 April —
24 November 2024
Palazzo Bembo, Venice, Italy
Calendar
Mataaho Collective and Megan Tamati-Quennell, Indigenous Visions
10.00AM — 6.00PM
16 April 2024
Centro Culturale Don Orione Artigianelli, Venice, Italy
Calendar
The 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
20 April —
24 November 2024
Giardini and Arsenale, Venice, Italy
Calendar
Robert Jahnke, Te Wepu MMXXIII in Personal Structures
20 April —
24 November 2024
Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy
Calendar
Elisapeta Hinemona Heta, Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania
23 March —
13 October 2024
Ocean Space, Venice, Italy
Calendar
David Rickard, Throwing Dice in the Dark
20 October —
24 November 2023
GMR.2, Venice, Italy
Calendar
Mizuho Nishioka, Personal Structures Public Screening
4.00PM — 5.30PM
26 November 2022
Palazzo Michiel, Venice, Italy
Project
HUM stands for NZ at Venice
Special feature
In light of the review of Aotearoa New Zealand’s ‘official’ presence at the Venice Biennale, HUM invited New Zealanders on- and off-shore who have visited or been involved in ‘New Zealand at Venice’ projects—as artists, pavilion attendants, exhibition installers or designers—to reflect on how involvement in (or experience of) our previous national pavilions have influenced their own careers, and the international profile of contemporary art from Aotearoa.
Writing
Aotearoa Reviews its Official Participation in the Venice Biennale
By Anna Brown, Bruce Barber, Heather Galbraith, Hutch Wilco, James Goggin, Jennifer Flay, Jhana Millers, Julia Holderness, Laura Preston, Michael Stevenson, Ron Hanson, Sophie Thorn, Tessa Giblin, Tessa Laird
26.09.2022
In light of the current review of Aotearoa New Zealand’s ‘official’ presence at the Venice Biennale, HUM invited responses from New Zealanders on- and off-shore who have visited or been involved in ‘New Zealand at Venice’ projects, as artists, pavilion attendants, exhibition installers or designers, to enable insights into how involvement in (or experience of) our previous national pavilions have influenced people’s own careers, and the profile of contemporary art from Aotearoa.
Calendar
Yuki Kihara and Ngahuia Te Awekotuku, TALANOA FORUM: Swimming Against the Tide
11 October —
19 October 2022
Online & Venice, Italy & Leiden/Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Writing
An interview with Yuki Kihara
By Contemporary HUM
24.05.2022
In the opening week of the 2022 Biennale di Venezia, Contemporary HUM sat down with the artist representing Aotearoa, Yuki Kihara, to discuss her exhibition Paradise Camp, and what it means to bring a Pasifika, Fa'afafine voice to the international audience of this major event.
Writing
An interview with the curators of 'Paradise Camp'
By Contemporary HUM, Ioana Gordon-Smith, Natalie King
24.05.2022
In the opening week of the 2022 Biennale di Venezia, Contemporary HUM sat down with the Aotearoa New Zealand pavilion’s Curator, Natalie King, and Assistant Pasifika Curator Ioana-Gordon Smith, to talk about bringing Yuki Kihara’s Paradise Camp to Venice.
Writing
HUM live from the 2022 Venice Biennale
By Contemporary HUM
24.04.2022
From 20—24 April 2022, Contemporary HUM brings you live coverage, exclusive images and videos from the opening week of The Milk of Dreams, The 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, including Yuki Kihara's Paradise Camp for the New Zealand Pavilion.
Calendar
Gill Gatfield in Personal Structures
23 April —
27 November 2022
Palazzo Bembo, Venice, Italy
Writing
An interview with Dane Mitchell
By Contemporary HUM
24.06.2019
Contemporary HUM's editorial team sat down with artist Dane Mitchell to discuss his work for the New Zealand Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, Post hoc. The work, both ambitious in scale and subject, has sparked discussions on global climate change and meditations on what has truly disappeared from the world.