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The Danish Arts Foundation announced on September 19 that Danish-Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour has been selected as the representative artist for the Danish Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale.
The London-based artist received a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1995 and an MA in fine art from New York University in 2000. Through her multimedia practice, she broaches topics including conflict and displacement in Palestine. She is widely recognized for her trilogy of science-fiction works, A Space Exodus (2008), Nation Estate (2012) and In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain (2015), which examine current events in Palestine through the lens of alternative pasts and near-futures. Recently, Sansour’s solo exhibition “In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain” toured to Liverpool, Rome, Cardiff, Copenhagen, Nottingham, Dubai, Madrid and London. Sansour has expressed her excitement to develop new works for the pavilion.
Lisette Vind Ebbesen, chair of the Danish Arts Foundation, stated: “We have chosen Larissa Sansour, because her art addresses issues that are relevant, not only to people in Denmark but also to the rest of the world. She delves into current political issues as well as more universal aspects of the human condition associated with identity and sense of belonging. Good art functions as a trigger for conversations, and we believe that Larissa Sansour achieves precisely that in a deeply affecting way in her art.” Besides Vind Ebbesen, the committee that selected Sansour includes artists Peter Land, Jane Jine Kaisen, Søren Assenholt and gallerist Charlotte Fogh.
The Danish Pavilion will be curated by Amsterdam-based independent curator and art critic Nat Muller who specializes in art from the Middle East. Muller’s recent projects include “Spectral Imprints” for the Abraaj Group Art Prize in Dubai (2012), Adel Abidin’s solo exhibition “I love to love…” at Forum Box in Helsinki (2013), “Customs Made: Quotidian Practices & Everyday Rituals” at Maraya Art Centre in Sharjah (2014) and “This is the Time. This is the Record of the Time” at Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam & American University of Beirut Gallery (2014/15).
Dennis Mao is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.
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