Pavilion of the Republic of Macedonia at the 55th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia


Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva, Silentio Pathologia, silk worm cocoon, work in progress, 2013 © Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva



Silentio Pathologia
An installation by Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva

Scuola dei Laneri, Fondamenta del Gaffaro, Santa Croce 131, Venezia

1 June – 24 November 2013

Press Launch: 31 M ay 2013 at 15.00h


National Commissioner: Halide Palloshi, Director of National Gallery of Macedonia
Curator: Ana Frangovska, Curator of National Gallery of Macedonia

Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva has been selected by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia to represent the Republic of Macedonia at the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia.

Elpida will present a major new installation work, Silentio Pathologia, at the Scuola dei Laneri, commissioned by National Gallery of Macedonia Director, Halide Paloshi and working with National Gallery curator Ana Frangovska.

Silentio Pathologia draws upon her original proposal to the Ministry of Culture of Macedonia, which reflects upon the movement, migration and impact of medieval plagues through Europe (and city states such as Venice) and considers contemporary concerns about international migratory illnesses such as coronavirus. This ambitious installation work will include pure woven silk, silkworm cocoons, rat skins, curtains of steel sheet and possibly, subject to permissions, live rats. Drawing upon her established and highly regarded practice of extended periods of working and embellishing multiple objects into large-scale art installations; Elpida will present a signature artwork for the 55th international Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia .

“What drives Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva? She has an almost sacrificial capacity for hard work, combined with a rare lack of sqeamishness. There is an intense desire to find a fragment – somewhat like a fractal – that can be duplicated and endlessly spun into material.” [Alison Wilding, exhibition pamphlet, We are Shadows, published by Unit 2, London Metropolitan University, 2008]

Elpida completed her MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London in 1998 and currently lives and works in Brighton, England. She has exhibited extensively and realised numerous commissions nationally and internationally, in gallery spaces, museums and within the public realm, most recently Pied à Terre Restaurant, London; Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester; Towner Gallery, Eastbourne; Kilmainham Gaol Museum, Dublin, Ireland; ArtSway's New Forest Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale and Public Room, Skopje, Macedonia.

“It is a slowly evolving, carefully considered and constructed body of sculpture. These and other of Hadzi-Vasileva’s large-scale works involve repetitive, physical labour by the artist over extended periods of time. She gives herself to the material, and the material gives back. She gives the work the time it needs – and then quietly but insistently asks for the time of the viewer too.” [James Lingwood, Co-Director of Artangel, introduction to Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva’s website, 2013]

END
________________________________________________

Press Contact:
Ana Frangovska
Curator
National Gallery of Macedonia
Telephone: +389 (0)23126856
Mobile: +389 (0)71387818
Email: anafrangovska@gmail.com
________________________________________________

For further information about Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva and artist’s images, please contact:
Mark Segal&nbs p;
Telephone: +44 (0)1420 84310
Mobile: +44 (0)7976 267978
Email: mark@theartistsagency.co.uk
or visit www.theartistsagency.co.uk

_____________________________________________________________________

Editor’s Notes:

The National Gallery of Macedonia is organising the national pavilion of The Republic of Macedonia at the International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia for the sixth time (previous artists include: Svetiva, Shumkovski, Vangeli, Nanevski and Zero), confirming The National Gallery of Macedonia as experienced producers and organisers well acquainted with all aspects of a successful presentation in this administratively complex, but most significant visual arts festival in the world. www.nationalgallery.mk
_____________________________________________________________________

Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva produces works which are carefully balanced between the beautiful and the brutal (this can be paradoxical), and between transcendent and abject. She aims to make work that challenges and inspires the viewer and resonates with the surroundings. She usually employs locally significant or sourced materials, following personal and in-depth research responding to the physical site and utilising forms of repetition and manipulation, She chooses to use both scale and surprise to challenge the viewer to see the locality (and the world) differently. Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva is also currently developing a new commission for MIMA and Engage as part of the Alexandra Reinhardt Memorial Award Artist Residency and a new work for the artSOUTH project at Mottisfont Abbey. Visit: www.elpihv.co.uk for more information

Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva is represented by The Artists Agency (www.theartistsagency.co.uk)
_____________________________________________________________________

The Pavilion of the Republic of Maced onia is funded by the Ministry of Culture of Macedonia and Silencio Pathologia is also supported with public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

The Pavilion of the Republic of Macedonia is also supported by:

• The Major of Kavadarci, Region of Tikves, The Republic of Macedonia
• The Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Sericulture and Agriculture Experiment Station, Vratsa, Bulgaria
• Pero Bojkov Architect
• Gill Hedley
• Mark Segal
• David Leggett Taxidermist

Kommentare

Beliebte Posts