Varun-СУДАНИ untitled. 2009
Source: artinfo.com

according to ARTINFO.com it is likely that the number of participants in the Venice Biennale 2011 will include Iraq. The official curator of the pavilion of the designated country residing in Italy American Mary Angela Schroth (Mary Angela Schroth), which is now actively engaged in the collection of the necessary funds.

Meal is going to organize an exhibition titled Acqua Ferita, which translated from Italian means "Wounded water". Water somehow appears in the works of all participating artists. Work for exhibition will provide six artists: Adel Abidin (Abidin Adel), Halim al-Карим (Halim Al Karim), al Ahmed-Судани (Ahmed al-Soudani), Nanakuli Azad (Azad Nanakeli), city Walid (Walid Siti) and Ali Assaf (Ali Assaf). The latter, together with the Italian curator Vittorio Urbani (Urbani Vittorio) will be the Commissioner of the pavilion. The exhibition will be held with the support of the Iraqi Ministry of culture and Ministry of water resources, as well as the Embassy in Italy and its representation in Roman UN agencies.

"Iraq is now very important the pavilion, — approves the Meal. — Last 30 years the country was a scene of hell, but despite this, she gave birth to wonderful artists. We want to show the best of the best that the world has seen that the level of development of culture, intellectual resources, Iraq is not inferior to other countries. And we want the situation in Iraq is normalized. The first step to this may be projects like our exhibition in Venice. Maybe it sounds idealistic, but I need to do-то to start".

the Last time Iraq officially participated in the Venice Biennale in 1976, the regime was Saddam Hussein. Since then the country has left many intellectuals. Among them the above six artists: all of them were born in Iraq but now living in other countries. Video artist Adel Abidin has settled in Helsinki, his colleague Azad Nanakuli — in Florence; photographer Halim al-Карим calls his Denver home, and producers of works in mixed media, Ali Assaf and Walid Siti — Rome and Britain respectively. The only invited artist, Ahmed al-Судани, lives in new-Йорке. Incidentally, he has achieved very significant commercial success: it sells influential creations gallery Haunch of Venison.

the First serious "promote" the idea of the Iraqi pavilion began Assaf, who founded together with Walid city Association. They asked Mary Angela Schroth to help them in dealing with Italian officials and embassies of the countries concerned. A more suitable candidate be found, it would be difficult: a Meal held in Italy for many exhibitions world-famous artists. Twenty-five years ago, she was Director of the Sala Uno, one of the first in Rome centre for contemporary art. Long before the rise of Metropolitan art-сцены — when in Rome had no major contemporary art Museum MACRO or built by Zaha Hadid MAXXI, nor the Gagosian gallery — Meal showed work of the Russian, Chinese and South African artists. She never shied away from ambitious projects: before to come to Sala Uno, Schroth became one of the organizers of the exhibition in a public restroom, where she performed a performance artist-транссексуал Dominot. She worked at the Venice Biennale, in particular oversaw the first ever South African pavilion.

Meal've already secured exhibition space; in her words, this "unusual" place, where he was one of the "related exhibitions" of last year's Biennale. The cost of "Iraqi" project is 250 thousand dollars — is a modest amount, about four times lower than the cost of the pavilions, say, the United States and France. To Finance the training of Iranian exposure will help an investment banker Schwan Taha (Shwan Taha); funds provided to them, according to the Meal, will be enough for a rental. In addition, she established a Subcommittee, headed by living in Dubai ray collector Kubba (Kubba Reem). He is working to attract other patrons from the UAE. Schroth hopes that philanthropists will give from 20 to 50 thousand dollars, the remaining money is planned to receive from the various funds. They say the initiative will support the U.S. national endowment for the arts, which will pay for projects artists — U.S. residents. "We have already collected a lot of money, — says the curator. — And we still have about a year. I think we will succeed".

the Material was prepared Yulia Maksimova, AI

Sources: artinfo.com, artinvestment.ru