Seychelles gears up for Venice Biennale 2015

Seychelles gears up for Venice Biennale 2015

06-September-2014
This is very good news for Seychellois artists. Three representatives of Global Art Affairs Foundation – Rene Rietmeyer, Sarah Gold and Karlyn De Jongh – were on a working visit to Seychelles to look at the possibility of Seychelles taking part in the Venice Biennale 2015.

The Venice Biennale 2015 is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years (in odd years) in Venice, Italy.

“It all started when Nitin Shroff, an artist, came to my office telling me about his dreams of bringing the Seychelles to the biennale. After many months of contacts, we had no choice but to take him seriously. This is why we have come down to Seychelles to see what the possibilities are. After a fruitful meeting with Minister Alain St Ange and George Camille, we promise Seychelles our fullest cooperation and support to take the country to the Biennale and also show them how to represent themselves. Participation in the Biennale always costs a lot of money and our foundation will take care of all the cost in case Seychelles cannot get the necessary funding,” said Mr Rene Rietmeyer.

In the meantime, George Camille has created an association which allows all Seychellois artists to take part in the selection process and also to look for sponsors with the support of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture.

A committee will be formed to select which artists will represent Seychelles in the 2015 Venice Biennale. “The Biennale is like the highest international art podium commonly referred to as the Olympics of the Art. This activity will put Seychelles on the contemporary map and it shows artists that there are many ways to make art work, not only for tourists. They should no longer be scared to show their talents to the world,” added Mr Rietmeyer.

“The artists in Seychelles should take the opportunity and be part of it as this is an opportunity for us to work differently. It is a long term investment and as we get the foundation going, we will be able to fund our involvement ourselves. It is high time for us to take Seychellois art outside of the country and show our talents to the world,” said George Camille.

The Global Art Affairs Foundation was founded in 2002 in New York, USA. Since 2009, the foundation is based in Leiden, the Netherlands with a branch in Venice, Italy. Since 2002 the GAA-Foundation has organised 26 contemporary art exhibitions and six symposia in Japan, USA and different European countries.

“We extensively publish about all our enterprises in art-books and magazines. In addition, we support and encourage as well as enable the creation of artworks by certain artists and undertake joint projects with them. By all our activities, publications, exhibitions and symposia, all artists taking part always are in direct contact with us and actively involved,” said Mr Rietmeyer.

The Global Art Affairs Foundation works in close cooperation with Dutch curators Karlyn De Jongh and Sarah Gold as well as with Dutch artist Rene Rietmeyer.

The latest Biennale in 2013 was curated by Italian Massimiliano Gioni and curator Okwui Enwezor is responsible for the 2015 Biennale. He is also the first African-born curator of the Biennale since its existence in 1895. Every two years this contemporary art event attracts over 300,000 visitors.

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