2015 an incredible year for New Zealand at Venice Biennale

3 December 2015

2015 an incredible year for New Zealand at Venice Biennale

The 2015 Venice Biennale, which opened in May 2015, has now closed marking the end of an extraordinarily successful run for Simon Denny’sSecret Power exhibition and the New Zealand pavilion.

The Venice Biennale is the most famous contemporary art showcase in the world. More than half a million people attended this year and around two fifths of them visited the Secret Power installation in the Marciana Library in San Marco Square, with many thousands also experiencing the other half of the exhibition in the arrivals zone of the Marco Polo Airport.

Commissioner for NZ at Venice 2015 Heather Galbraith says “Secret Power has been an incredible success. It has drawn unprecedented international critical reception and media coverage and been a catalyst for discussion about evolving patterns of surveillance, geopolitical power and agency, and the visual language and management cultures of both state and corporate agencies.”

“Secret Power has raised the profile of contemporary New Zealand art on the international stage. Visits and special tours by major art institutions have been a standout success of this exhibition including The New Museum of Contemporary Art NYC; Kunstverein München; the Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt; the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen; the Boston College of Fine Arts; the Serpentine Galleries, London; the Hong Kong Museum of Art; the Moderna Museet in Stockholm; the Royal College of Art; Washington University, St Louis; the Kustakademie Düsseldorf Arts Academy and the University of New South Wales, School of Art and Design. Many of the directors and curators of these institutions attended and many accompanied large groups of trustees, patrons or students.”

Since the opening of Secret Power, Simon Denny has gone on to a full schedule of exhibitions, designing a central installation (in collaboration with architect and designer, Alessandro Bava) to represent a modern Tower of Babel in After Babel, at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm; and showing The Personal Effects of Kim Dotcom 2014 at the Lyon Biennale.

Most recently, he opened Products for Organising which runs until 14 February 2016 at London’s Serpentine Sackler Gallery. Further invitations to create new work as well as exhibit elements of the Secret Power installation in Europe over the summer are also anticipated.

Four of the Secret Power vitrines will be brought to New Zealand to become part of the national collection at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Other aspects of the installation are currently under negotiations or have been acquired for private collections.

Arts Council Chairman Dr Dick Grant says “I congratulate Simon Denny and all of the team involved in this highly successful season for New Zealand. The opportunity to have national representation at this level is unique to the Venice Biennale and our participation requires a high level of expertise and professionalism. This helps to establish our place in the international contemporary art world and it also carves out future pathways for New Zealanders to succeed in this exciting and highly competitive environment.”

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