Venice Biennale

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.

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 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

Crossing Currents: Episode 1

By Contemporary HUM

22.06.2024

Aotearoa New Zealand artist Areez Katki speaks to HUM about The Rhapsode’s Tools Will Build the Rhapsode’s House, his presentation in the 7th edition of Personal Structures. Katki discusses the processes and politics of exhibiting in Personal Structures and the two series he produced for the exhibition, which take migrant and queer positionalities as points from which to restore notions of pedagogy and learning from patriarchal, religious dictates to an affectual, instinctual realm of care.

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

Yuki Kihara, Paradise Camp: Homecoming film screening

24 June —
27 June 2024

Espace Encan, La Rochelle, France

Calendar

Yuki Kihara, artist talk

6.00PM — 7.00PM
04 July 2024

Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, UK

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

Yuki Kihara, Paradise Camp

01 June 2024 —
31 January 2025

Saletoga Sands Resort, Upolu Island, Sāmoa

Calendar

Talanoa Forum: Moana Rising

10 October —
12 October 2023

Powerhouse Ultimo, Sydney, Australia

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