Project Aim: 

Development of a new work to present as a group show in Venice June 2009, touring to Croatia, Serbia and Wales. 

Artists involved, 6 artists from across Europe and beyond:

Philippe Murphy (Irish) philippe_murphy@yahoo

 

Alice Briggs (Welsh) mail@alicebriggs.co.uk 

www.alicebriggs.co.uk 

 

Ana Glazar (Croatian) anule1@hotmail.com 

 

Zeljko Marinkovic (Serbian) zeljko.marinkovic@gmail.com 

 

Alys Owen (Welsh) alysowen@yahoo.co.uk 

 

Nika Rukavina (Croatian) nitko@hotmail.com 

Project Partners: 

Blaengar in Wales and Arts association Udruga Plus and the 'Camera Obscura' Gallery Rex Gallery Belgrade, Serbia Ceredigion Museum, Wales Scuola Grande di San Tesdoro, Venice, Italy 

VIA coheres around the city of Venice where the applicants first met as invigilators for different national pavilions at the Venice Biennale. Venice and art are inseparable. They have depended on each other for centuries. Artists have looked to Venice as a hub of both inspiration and patronage. Venice, in turn, has looked to artists to make it one of the most aesthetically distinctive cities in the world. A principal component of that distinction is the Venice Biennale, which has, for over a century, been one of the city's most prestigious cultural institutions. 

VIA takes as its starting point the Biennale event where, behind the headlines and global publicity concerning famous artists and exhibitions, invigilators forge new, often unlikely, international relationships that go unnoticed. The fleeting environment of the exhibition draws together invigilators (very often artists in the own right) in a coincidental and transient community that comes together every other year under the shadow of an international art competition. 

VIA aims to cultivate this community through exchange visits and research trips and foreground it through an exhibition of new work in the city that brought its members together. In particular VIA's focus on encounter and exchange is driven around three aims: 

1) to give the artists a chance to explore each others cultures and natural environments and to develop links and networks by interacting with new publics. Such experiences and observations are crucial in better understanding and representing how we conduct ourselves in todays multicultural society. 

2) to raise the profile of these young artists by allowing them to encounter new audiences and their creative aptitude. 

3) to enable cultural institutions within each country to forge sustainable partnerships and build capacity. 

Phase one involves the exchange where the artists resident in Wales travelled to Croatia to meet artists, conduct research and foster relationships. We are now looking towards a return trip where the Croatian and Serbian artists travel to Wales. 

Phase two involves the encounter a collaborative trans-national exhibition in Venice uniting all the projects artists. (June 2009, for a period of two weeks). Holding the exhibition in Venice during the Biennale will allow the artists to reflect on their literal and creative journeys as a collective, but this location is also ideal since it beings with it an exposure to eclectic and diverse audiences who may share many of the same sentiments invoked by the work. 

Phase three involves touring the exhibition showing the work in Aberystwyth, Wales hosted by Ceredigion Museum; in Rijeka, Croatia hosted by the Camera Obscura Gallery; and in Belgrade, Serbia hosted by the Rex Gallery.