Maurizio Cattelan will create a large outdoor installation for the Vatican's Venice Biennale presentation, details of which were released on Monday, March 11. The exhibition includes works by eight artists and will be installed in the Giudecca Women's Prison. Many of the works will be carried out with the active participation of prisoners.
Known for his hyper-realistic satirical sculptures, Cattelan shocked Catholics with his provocative “La Nona Ora” (The Ninth Hour) – featuring a life-size wax effigy of Pope John Paul II lying on his side, crushed by a huge black meteorite - which traveled to various locations, including the 2001 Biennale. The Italian artist's latest work will be installed outside the prison.
Inside there will be several works created with the help of women from the prison. A 12-minute video installation, currently in production, features some of the inmates as actors. Directed by actress Zoe Saldana and her husband, Italian director and producer Marco Perego, the short film revolves around the theme of freedom. Some inmates provided photographs of themselves as children for a work by French artist Claire Tabouret; others contributed poems to an installation by Lebanese-American artist Simone Fattal.
Additionally, works by the late Corita Kent, American pop artist, social activist and former Catholic nun, will be on display in the Giudecca café. Works by Claire Fontaine and Sonia Gomes will also be on display.
The exhibition, titled “With My Eyes”, is curated by Chiara Parisi, director of the Center Pompidou-Metz, and Dr. Bruno Racine, former president of the French National Library; will be open from April 20th to November 24th.
Pope Francis announced that he will visit the exhibition on April 28, as part of a planned one-day visit to the Italian city. The visit marks the first time that the current Bishop of Rome will participate in the biennial. The Holy See, the government of the Roman Catholic Church, has participated in the Venice Biennale since 2013.
Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, the Vatican's culture minister, said at a press conference on Monday that the decision to house this year's pavilion in the prison was "unexpected" but in line with the Gospel mandate and the call of the Pope Francis to clothe the naked, feed the hungry and visit the imprisoned.
“‘With My Eyes’ wants to focus our attention on the importance of how we responsibly conceive, express and build our social, cultural and spiritual coexistence,” he said. “Seeing with our own eyes gives vision a unique status, as it involves us directly in reality and makes us not spectators, but witnesses. This is what religious and artistic experience have in common: neither fails to value the total and anti-conformist implication of the subject.”
Source: Artnet News