Anawana Haloba
Daniel Birnbaum, Director of the 53rd International Art Exhibition 'Fare Mondi // Making Worlds. . .', has invited artist Anawana Haloba to participate La Biennale di Venezia in Venice from 7 June trough 22 November 2009. Within 'Fare Mondi // Making Worlds. . .', Haloba will exhibit a large-scale spatial installation titled The Greater G8 (GG8) AD MARKET.
'Fare Mondi // Making Worlds. . .', presented in the renewed Palazzo delle Esposizioni in the Giardini and in the Arsenale is a single, large exhibition that articulates different themes woven into one. It comprises works by over 90 artists from all over the world and includes many new works and on-site commissions in all disciplines. Expressing 'a wish to emphasize the process of creation, 'Fare Mondi // Making Worlds. . .' is, in the words of Director Daniel Birnbaum, 'driven by the aspiration to explore worlds around us as well as worlds ahead. . . . A work of art represents a vision of the world and if taken seriously it can be seen as a way of making the world.'
Among the artists to be included in the 53rd International Art Exhibition are: John Baldessari, Thomas Bayrle, Mike Bouchet, Paul Chan, Tony Conrad, Nathalie Djurberg, Gino De Dominicis, Öyvind Fahlström, Hans Peter Feldmann, Ceal Floyer, Sheela Gowda, Gutai, Rachel Harrison, Huang Yong Ping, Joan Jonas, Miranda July, Moshekwa Langa, Goshka Macuga, Alexandra Mir, Yoko Ono, Blinky Palermo, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Tobias Rehberger, Tomas Saraceno, Wolfgang Tillmans, Pae White, Cerith Wyn Evans and Hector Zamora. For further information on the exhibition, please see www.labiennale.org.
Anawana Haloba will exhibit The Greater G8 (GG8) AD MARKET as an installation that functions as an advertising market stall for the products of the so-called GG8 members as fictionalized by the artist and in the form of the collective of: Moldova, Iraq, Sudan, Colombia, Bolivia, Malawi, Philippines and Somalia. Originally produced by the artist at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in 2007, the project follows the logic and desires of a political dreamscape in which Haloba rewrites the rules of economic financial exchange by offering Third World fair-trade goods imbued with a sense of futility. The work reflects upon Haloba's overall process and will to explore a political critique from a personal perspective, and which also contains a satirical treatment of the illegitimate entitlement of global leaders and their undemocratic policies.
Anawana Haloba (born in Zambia 1978, lives and works in Oslo, Norway) completed her studies at the National Academy of Fine Art, Oslo, in 2006. She is a graduate of the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2008).
Haloba has participated in the Sharjah Biennial (2007), Manifesta 7 (2008), and the 16th Biennale of Sydney (2008) among other exhibitions. For the 16th Sidney Biennale, curator Carolyn Christov-Barkagiev (currently the appointed Artistic Director of Documenta 13 in 2012) commissioned Haloba to produce a video and sound installation titled When the Private Became Public, exploring women's revolutionary passage from the private to the public realm. In 2008, the artist took part in the project 'The Rest of Now', curated by Raqs Media Collective as part of Manifesta 7, where she exhibited a sound installation titled The Air Between Two Women (2008), a conversation between herself and Francesca Grilli about the word 'residue' as it relates to human experience. In 2007, for the Sharjah Biennale 8, entitled 'Art, Ecology & the Poltics of Change: Still Life', co-curated by Jack Persekian, Jonathan Watkins and Eva Scharrer, she exhibited a video and sound installation titled Lamentations (2006).
Anawana Haloba's participation in the 2009 International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, as well as her participation in the 16th Sydney Biennale, Manifesta 7 and Sharjah Biennale 8 – each has been supported by Office for Contemporary Art Norway.
Accreditation for the press preview of the 53rd International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia must be requested directly from the Biennale Press Office. Please go to: www.labiennale.org/en/press/art/accreditation. Please note that applications for press accreditations have to be submitted by 30 April 2009.
For press enquiries related to this announcement and the project, and for interviews with the artist, please contact Marthe Tveitan at marthe.tveitan@oca.no.