61st Venice Biennale: Call for entries for the Argentine Pavilion is open, but the State will not contribute a cent.

The biennial event, which attracts artists, curators, museum directors, gallery owners, cultural managers, specialized press, and audiences from all continents, the 61st Venice Biennale , will open its doors to the public on May 9th of next year. However, countries with permanent pavilions have already begun warming up. In Argentina , the consultation period for project submissions opened today and will run until September 1st of this year.

The most notable feature of this year's call is that the selected project will have to secure its own funding . The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will not contribute a single peso, a single dollar, or a single euro . This is the first time that a submission will not have public funding. In previous editions, with more or less financial support, plus a substantial private contribution, the selected artist was able to have a financial base to begin putting together their proposal.

The bidding rules clearly state: "Projects must have their own funding and/or resort to private sources of financing to complete the work to be exhibited at the Argentine Pavilion in Venice."

Through the Directorate of Cultural Affairs (DiCul), headed by Ambassador Alejandra Pecoraro, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Gerardo Werthein, together with the National Secretariat of Culture, headed by Leonardo Cifelli, and the Argentine Agency for Investment and International Trade, headed by Diego Sucalesca, have launched an open competition for visual arts preliminary projects to select the work that will represent our country in the Argentine pavilion.

The preliminary projects will be evaluated to select the Argentine submission by a jury composed of Amalia Amoedo , president of the Ama Amoedo Foundation; Sergio Baur , president of the National Academy of Fine Arts; Andrés Duprat , director of the National Museum of Fine Arts; Tulio Andreussi , president of the National Arts Fund; Rodrigo Moura , artistic director of Malba; Adriana Rosenberg , president of the PROA Foundation; and Eugenia Usellini , president of the Castagnino Museum Foundation.

Usellini is the federal quota of a jury located in the City of Buenos Aires , with the exception of the Amoedo Foundation, which is on two shores: Buenos Aires and Montevideo.

The space, an extraordinary historical example, is located in the Venice Arsenal, next to the Gardens, another mega-exhibition space . Our country has the loan for that pavilion until 2033. It's worth remembering that it was in 2011 that our country obtained the "onerous" transfer ( paying more than a million euros ) to bring its art consignments to the Art Biennial.

The 61st Biennial will have its pre-opening for specialists three days before its opening to the public, which, as we mentioned, will be on Saturday, May 9, and will run until Sunday, November 22 of next year.

This year, according to the decision taken by the Biennial authorities, the exhibition project conceived by Koyo Kouoh under the curatorial motto In Minor Keys will be carried out .

The curator died unexpectedly weeks before her proposal was announced, delaying the announcement of what would happen next year. Ultimately, with the consent of the family and the team of the deceased African curator living in Switzerland, it was decided to continue with her project , which also represents a tribute to Koyo Kouoh.

In this regard, the terms and conditions state that the Venice Biennale decided to continue Kouoh's project with the additional purpose of preserving, enhancing and widely disseminating his ideas and the work he carried out with such dedication.

The jury will evaluate, according to the terms and conditions, those proposals that "encapsulate a profound Argentine vision and that dialogue with the substantial guidelines proposed by the general curator . Projects must be self-funded and/or use private sources of funding to complete the work to be exhibited at the Argentine Pavilion in Venice," the terms and conditions state.

In the 2022 edition of the Biennial, Luciana Lamothe 's work, which was showcased in the extraordinary Argentine pavilion, was primarily funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the largest number of sponsors being private. Her gallery, Ruth Benzácar, even offered some of Luciana's smaller works for sale, which were sold to contribute to the funding.

It's unusual, to say the least, that a shipment representing a country doesn't have a state contribution. Beyond the fact that Venice is a global showcase for art with enormous visibility, and considering that the country tries to use—in a positive way—art and culture as a beachhead to open markets abroad, it's striking that the state completely ignores funding the shipment, yet imposes rules and "conditions."

The selection criteria included the curatorial concept, its content, and how it relates to the theme proposed by general curator Koyo Kouoh; the ability of the artist and/or group of artists to finance the work with their own funds and/or private financing, in accordance with the feasibility criteria; the museography of the proposal and how it would fit into the space of the Argentine pavilion; and the sustainability of the materials to be used.

The selection of the project will be preceded by a jury report , which will establish a ranking of merit among the three proposals. In this regard, and given the national nature of the pavilion, the jury must bear in mind that the organizing committee reserves the right to reject any submitted project. The competition is open to all individuals and/or legal entities of Argentine nationality, of legal age, with or without Argentine residency.

To participate in the competition, you must accept the terms and conditions, which can be downloaded from this Foreign Ministry website , and complete the registration form. Inquiries can be sent to [email protected].

And if you'd still like to know more about Kouoh's vision, here's a link for inspiration.