Scotland at the Venice Biennale 2003 - a step closer

The team taking Scottish art to the world-famous Venice Biennale in 2003 has now been selected by the Scottish Arts Council and the British Council.

Francis McKee and Kay Pallister will curate Scotland’s exhibition at the 2003 Venice Biennale, one of the world’s most prestigious showcases for contemporary visual arts.

Francis and Kay have been asked to produce an exhibition which presents the very best contemporary work coming out of Scotland today. They will create a carefully-focused show with related events that will involve several artists through exhibition, writing and performance. To help them select the artists, they will be visiting artists’ studios and galleries across Scotland and talking to curators, critics and writers. The exhibition will come to Scotland in the winter of 2003/04 and there are plans for it to tour elsewhere.

Kay is delighted to have been selected and commented:
“It's a privilege to be able to visit so many emerging artists practising throughout the country. We have an exciting opportunity to commission new work, both for the international audience at Venice and for the viewers back home when the exhibition returns to Scotland.”

Francis added:
“This project presents a tremendous opportunity to raise the profile of a new generation of Scottish artists internationally at a time when our art scene is bursting with talent. It is equally exciting to bring the work back to Scotland so that everyone can enjoy it.”

The Scottish Arts Council and the British Council see the Venice Biennale as an important opportunity to promote Scotland’s visual artists on the world stage, where artists from over 40 countries hold five-month exhibitions in specially-constructed pavilions in the Biennale gardens and in various fringe venues across Venice.

This much-awaited exhibition will complement the importance of the British pavilion by introducing Scottish-based artists whose work is rapidly gaining an international reputation. The British pavilion has consistently shown the most interesting and innovative art from the UK over many years. The organisers of the Scottish exhibition are proud to work alongside it by showing the most innovative art from Scotland in celebration of the diversity of contemporary art practice in the UK.

The partners expect that this showcase will attract major sponsorship from companies wishing to participate in such a high profile event.

For further information on the project, please contact:

Amanda Catto, Head of Visual Arts, Scottish Arts Council
T: 0131 240 2483
E: amanda.catto@scottisharts.org.uk
or
Sheila Murray, International Arts Manager, Scotland at British Council Scotland
M: 07901 518840
E: sheila.murray@britishcouncil.org
or
Kay Pallister, Curator
E: kapallister2001@yahoo.com

Notes to editors

1. Francis McKee and Kay Pallister were selected as curators following a call put out at the beginning of the year. Each brings a wealth of knowledge about artists working in Scotland, the UK and further afield:

• Francis McKee is a writer and curator working in Glasgow. He is Head of Digital Art and New Media at CCA in Glasgow and is a research lecturer at the Glasgow School of Art where he teaches on the MFA course. He has curated many exhibitions including Words and Things for the relaunch of CCA in 2001. For the past ten years he has written extensively on the work of Scottish artists such as Christine Borland, Ross Sinclair, Douglas Gordon and Simon Starling. This has been paralleled by texts on other international artists and he has recently completed a short book on the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist and is about to co-publish a book on the Icelandic Love Corporation in collaboration with NIFCA (Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art).

• Kay Pallister has worked as a curator for nine years in both non-profit institutions and commercial galleries. Kay recently moved back to the UK (based in Glasgow) having worked in New York and mainland Europe over the last ten years. Since 1997 she has worked as a curator at the Gagosian Gallery, New York and London on major productions with artists such as Richard Wright, Douglas Gordon and Vanessa Beecroft. Kay was recently recruited by Axis (an agency of the Arts Council of England, the Scottish Arts Council and the Arts Council of Wales). As their first curator she is creating a new curatorial network across the UK that will research and develop a virtual information service about UK contemporary artists: as yet unnamed it will be launched at the end of 2002.

2. The Glasgow School of Art has generously agreed to support the initiative by housing the project team and the office will be up and running in June 2002. In the meantime, Francis can be contacted on 07816 986 613.

3. The Scottish Arts Council champions and sustains the arts for Scotland, investing £56 million from Scottish Executive and National Lottery funding to support and develop artistic excellence and creativity throughout Scotland.

4. The British Council connects people worldwide with learning opportunities and creative ideas from the UK and builds lasting relationships between the UK and other countries. It has offices in 109 countries, 7,300 staff and a turnover of £430 million. In Scotland the British Council offers its partners a gateway to its global networks and provides its audiences worldwide with a window on Scotland.

Further media contact:
Giselle Dye, Pagoda PR, Media Relations Manager for the British Council
T: 0131 447 8999
E: Giselle.dye@pagodapr.com

Contact email(s)

media.office@scottisharts.org.uk

Issued by: Scottish Arts Council