Read the BBC despatch here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22791617
By Manuel ToledoBBC Africa
The Angolan show was curated by architects Paula Nascimento (above) and Stefano Rabolli Pansera
The long queues in front of Angola's pavilion at the Venice Biennale bear witness to the extraordinary success that Africa has just had at the "Olympics of the art world".
Ever since it was announced that, out of 88 contenders, Angola had won the Golden Lion award for the best national participation, art lovers and journalists from all over the world have been flocking across the Accademia bridge - from the distant main exhibition areas, the Giardini and the Arsenale - to try to see the show.
Many have left Venice without being able to do so.
The centrepiece of the pavilion - located in a 16th-century building, the Palazzo Cini - is a series of 23 posters, which visitors can take home, with images of objects that photographer Edson Chagas found in the streets of Luanda.
(...)
'Viva Africa'
Angola's triumph has been celebrated across Venice by the other participating African nations.
"The excitement to me is overwhelming because it's very important. Angola, this is their first participation and they've done it, and they've done Africa proud…
Start Quote
Angola, this is their first participation and they've done it, and they've done Africa proud”
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In the African press:
Mail & Guardian (South Africa)
Angola marks Venice Biennale debut with a victory
Angola, exhibiting for the first time at the Venice Biennale, has been awarded the prestigious Golden Lion for the best national pavilion.
Curated by Paula Nascimento and Stefano Rabolli Pansera, the exhibition, which was commissioned and supported by the Angolan Ministry of Culture, features a selection of photography, painting and sculpture in a novel setting.
Being a newcomer to Venice, Angola has had to rent an exhibition venue for the duration of the exhibition, which runs until November 24. Rather than follow the lead of Zimbabwe and Kenya, which inhabit temporary venues on the busy tourist promenade between the gardens and St Mark’s Square, Angola is showing its artists in Cini Palace, a plush historic building near Accademia Bridge, a busy tourist destination....
Angola Press:
Le Prix de Venise est le fruit du soutien du gouvernement angolais à la Culture
| Angop |
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| La ministre de la Culture, Rosa Cruz e Silva |
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Luanda - La ministre de la Culture, Rosa Cruz e Silva, a reconnu mercredi, à Luanda, que le prix remporté par l'Angola à la 55ème édition de la biénnale internationale d'Art de Venise, était le fruit de l’investissement que le gouvernement angolais avait fait pour encourager la créativité et les créateurs.
Dans une déclaration à la presse, peu après son arrivée à l'aéroport international "4 de Fevereiro" de Luanda, Rosa Cruz e Silva a salué le travail d’Edson Chagas et des architectes Paula Nascimento, Jorge Gumbe et Stefano Pansera.
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Some comments from a Tanzanian-German Curator too:
Angola wins, but Germany's "ART - Das Kunstmagazin" wonders: Where is Angola?
by Safia Dickersbach
With Angola for the first time a sub-Saharan African country has won the Leone d'Oro/Golden Lion prize for the best national pavilion of the Venice Biennial. This distinction for an African national pavilion during this year’s 55th Venice Biennial has been greeted with inappropriate prejudice by "ART - Das Kunstmagazin", the leading art magazine from Germany. "ART" commented the jury's decision with the question "Angola! Where is Angola?" It claimed that hardly any visitor actually saw the work of the photo artist Edson Chagas in Palazzo Cini and speculated about "successful lobbying and networking" by curator Stefano Rabolli Pansera. The only reason which was given for these vague conjectures was the fact that Stefano Rabolli Pansera had already curated Angola's contribution to the architecture biennial a year ago. The German article is available here:
http://www.art-magazin.de/kunst/62397/angola_venedig_biennale
Safia Dickersbach, an art market practitioner, born in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, currently based in Berlin, Germany, is the Public Relations Director of Artfacts.Net, a British company which is the leading online database for modern and contemporary
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