○Originally a 13th-century convent and once a rehabilitation facility for prostitutes, Giudecca Women’s Prison, located on an island in the Venetian lagoon, will take on a very different role this summer. This year in Venice, it will be the official pavilion of the Vatican. Biennale.
Pope Francis is scheduled to attend on April 28, marking the first papal visit since the Biennale was founded in 1895. In the women’s prison, visitors will see the work of Maurizio Cattelan, who is infamous for creating a hyper-realistic sculpture depicting Pope John in 1999. Pope Paul II was struck by a meteorite and fell.
However, for this exhibition, an Italian-born artist has contributed works that will be displayed on the façade of the prison chapel.Based on paintings by Andrea Mantegna Lamentation for the dead Christit’s a large photo of his own dirty, dusty feet.
Lead one of the first tours through the prison. Reserved The public participants included three inmates wearing striking navy and white uniforms that they designed and made in the prison’s workshop. They introduced themselves only by their first names: Sylvia, Emanuela and Paola.
After an introduction to the prison, Emanuela, a middle-aged woman wearing neat jewelry and a confident demeanor, led the group to the first art venue. The staff bar had bottles of Select and Aperol. Although the prices are a little lower than any other bar in the city.
On the walls, radical poster works by artists are displayed. Corita Kent, contains graphic messages protesting war and violence. Kent, who died in 1986, was the only deceased artist to appear on the show and spent part of her life as a nun.
As the guests entered the long, narrow passageway between the prison building and the outer wall, Sylvia took the lead. The sides are lined with glass lava stone slabs depicting excerpts from poems written by prisoners by artist Simone Fatale. “Our feelings are written here. A part of us is written in these works of art,” Emanuela said. On the wall at the end of the walkway, under a watchtower, was a work by Claire Fontaine, an art collective based in Palermo. It depicts a large eye in one stroke, conveying “the blindness of society,” or “what people don’t see or don’t want to see,” Paola said.
The tour continued past a vast lush vegetable garden with rows of fruit trees and artichokes. Emanuela said she works here. She said, “We can dream about other things. We almost forget that we are in prison.” Next, we visited a spacious courtyard. Several inmates gathered next to a medieval well to watch Emanuela explain Claire Fontaine’s second piece, a large neon text piece fixed to one of the walls.Shiamocon Voi Nera Notte“We are with you at night,” she said. “This speaks to us as a message of solidarity from those on the outside.”
The tour then proceeded through the visitor’s room to a space where a short film by artist Marco Perego and his wife, actor Zoe Saldaña, was being shown. On the day of his release, Saldaña, who starred in James Cameron’s “Avatar,” co-starred with other inmates in a story about a prisoner. Of the process, she said the work was “not like a documentary that has to be true, but rather something that we encouraged.” [the inmates] Create art with us. ”
The pavilion was commissioned by Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, the Vatican’s head of culture and education. Co-curators Bruno Racine and Chiara Parisi worked on the construction of the Vatican Pavilion “in complete trust with the cardinal, who is himself a distinguished poet,” said Racine, a former director of France’s National Library. Told. “He understands the psychology of artists and their desire for autonomy without being influenced by ideas from outside.”
French hip-hop choreographer Bintu Dembélé, one of the artists involved in the project, laughed when asked if he was Roman Catholic. “My religion is the streets,” she said.
