Paula Nascimento is an Angolan architect and curator [1] who along with Stefano Rabolli Pansera curated the Angolan pavilion at the 55th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia which won the Golden Lion for "best national participation". [2]
In 2011, Nascimento and Pansera founded Beyond Entropy Africa, a limited company registered in Angola. Beyond Entropy Africa focuses on Luanda as the paradigm of the urban condition of the African Sub-Saharan region, a type of city that is defined by a lack of basic infrastructures and a high density of population. In 2012, Beyond Entropy Africa curated the Angola Pavilion at the 13th Architecture Biennale in Venice [3] with the title of their partnership ‘Beyond Entropy’. [4] In 2013, Beyond Entropy Africa curated the Angola Pavilion at the 55th Art Biennale in Venice entitled ‘Luanda, Encyclopedic City’ featuring the work of photographer Edson Chagas. [5] [6]
In 2023, Nascimento was a member of the visual arts jury for the annual DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program. [7]
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the "Big Five" International film festivals worldwide, which include the Big Three European Film Festivals, alongside the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada and the Sundance Film Festival in the United States. These festivals are internationally renowned for giving creators the artistic freedom to express themselves through film. In 1951, FIAPF formally accredited the festival.
The Venice Biennale is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy, by the Biennale Foundation. It focuses on contemporary art, and includes events for art, contemporary dance, architecture, cinema, and theatre. Two main components of the festival are known as the Art Biennale and the Architecture Biennale, which are held in alternating years. The others – Biennale Musica, Biennale Teatro, Venice Film Festival, and Venice Dance Biennale – are held annually. The main exhibition held in Castello alternates between art and architecture, and there are around 30 permanent pavilions built by different countries.
The Golden Lion is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes. In 1970, a second Golden Lion was introduced; this is an honorary award for people who have made an important contribution to cinema.
Venice Biennale of Architecture is an international exhibition of architecture from nations around the world, held in Venice, Italy, every other year. It was held on even years until 2018, but 2020 was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic shifting the calendar to uneven years. It is the architecture section under the overall Venice Biennale and was officially established in 1980, even though architecture had been a part of the Venice Art Biennale since 1968.
Countess Adelina von Fürstenberg-Herdringen is a Swiss curator specialized in contemporary art. Von Fürstenberg was one of the first curators to show an interest in non-European artists, thus opening the way for a multicultural approach in art. She also took a more global and flexible approach to contemporary art exhibitions, in bringing art into spaces such as monasteries, madrasas, large public buildings, squares, islands, and parks. Her objective is to give a larger context for visual art in making it a more vigorous part of our lives, in creating a more vivid dialogue for it with other arts, and relating it more to worldwide social issues.
Sunjung Kim is a Seoul-based curator and Professor at the Korea National University of Arts who has played a pivotal role in linking Korean contemporary art and the international art world.
Beyond Entropy is a London-based non-profit limited company practicing architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. The company evolved from trans-disciplinary research at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, in London. The company was founded by Stefano Rabolli Pansera in 2009 as a collaborative practice operating public-private partnerships globally. Beyond Entropy Ltd operates at the threshold between art, architecture, and geopolitics focusing on the notion of energy influencing form. Projects vary from art installations, to architectural master-planning, to public relations.
The 56th Venice Biennale was an international contemporary art exhibition held between May and November 2015. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Artistic director Okwui Enwezor curated its central exhibition, "All The World's Futures".
Paolo De Grandis is an Italian contemporary art curator and president of PDG Arte Communications. He lives currently in Venice.
Edson Chagas is an Angolan photographer. Trained as a photojournalist, his works explore cities and consumerism. In his "Found Not Taken" series, the artist resituates abandoned objects elsewhere within cities. Another series uses African masks as a trope for understanding consumerism in Luanda, his home city. Chagas represented Angola at the 2013 Venice Biennale, for which he won its Golden Lion for best national pavilion. He has also exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and Brooklyn Museum.
The 55th Venice Biennale was an international contemporary art exhibition held in 2013. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Artistic director Massimiliano Gioni curated its central exhibition, "The Encyclopedic Palace".
The Angolan pavilion, representing the nation of Angola, has participated in the Venice Biennale since 2013. As one of the biennial international art exhibition's national pavilions, Angola mounts a show in a Venetian palazzo outside Venice's Giardini. The first Angolan pavilion, which featured the photography of Edson Chagas, became the first African national pavilion to receive the biennial's top prize, the Golden Lion for best national pavilion. Chagas displayed poster-sized photographs of resituated, abandoned objects and weathered architecture in the Angolan capital of Luanda. Reviewers praised the interplay between the photographed subject matter and the Italian Renaissance artwork that adorned the hosting palazzo's walls. The 2015 Biennale hosted a group show of five Angolan artists on themes of intergenerational dialogue.
Marco Scotini is an Italian curator, writer and art critic based in Milan, where he is artistic director of the FM Center for Contemporary Art and Head of the Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies Department at NABA.
The 58th Venice Biennale was an international contemporary art exhibition held between May and November 2019. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Artistic director Ralph Rugoff curated its central exhibition, May You Live in Interesting Times, and 90 countries contributed national pavilions.
The 49th Venice Biennale, held in 2001, was an exhibition of international contemporary art, with 65 participating nations. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Prizewinners of the 49th Biennale included: Richard Serra and Cy Twombly, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Marisa Merz, Pierre Huyghe, and Germany.
The 43rd Venice Biennale, held in 1988, was an exhibition of international contemporary art, with 44 participating nations. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Prizewinners of the 43rd Biennale included: Jasper Johns, the Italian pavilion, and Barbara Bloom.
The national pavilions host each participant nation's official representation during the Venice Biennale, an international art biennial exhibition held in Venice, Italy. Some countries own pavilion buildings in the Giardini della Biennale while others rent buildings throughout the city, but each country controls its own selection process and production costs.
The Japanese pavilion houses Japan's national representation during the Venice Biennale arts festivals.
The 59th Venice Biennale was an international contemporary art exhibition held between April and November 2022, having been delayed a year due to the COVID pandemic. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Artistic director Cecilia Alemani curated its central exhibition.
The 77th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 2 to 12 September 2020, albeit in a "more restrained format" due to the COVID-19 pandemic.