PRESS RELEASE 31.08.2012

Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia announces that artist Dénes Farkas will represent Estonia at the 55th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia (from 1 June 2013 until 24 November 2013), with his project Evident in Advance, curated by Adam Budak.

Dénes Farkas lives and works in Tallinn, Estonia. As a post-conceptual photo artist, Farkas has primarily focused since the late 2000s on contemplating social structures and reflecting the result in a laconic visual language that unites photography and captions as a means of expression. Both private art collectors as well as the Art Museum of Estonia have acquired his work.

The exhibition project Evident in Advance studies the various aspects of linguistic elusiveness, translation and interpretation. The project is a collaboration between the artist and an international team of architects and theoreticians curated by Adam Budak, who is currently working as the curator of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, USA. Budak and Farkas first worked together during the exhibition Beyond under the Fotokuu project (Photography Month) at Kumu Art Museum in 2010. Budak has curated several important international exhibitions, including Architectures: Metastructures of Humanity, Morphic Strategies of Exposure, held in the Polish Pavilion at the 9th International Architecture Biennale in Venice in 2004. He was also co-curator at Manifesta 7.

The 55th International Venice Biennale will be held from 1 June until 24 November 2013. The head curator of the biennale is Massimiliano Gioni. The venue for the Estonian exposition in Venice 2013 will continue to be the Palazzo Malipiero, this time with the entrance at the front of the building on San Samuele Square, S. Marco 3199 (2nd floor).

The Venice Biennale is the oldest and largest international art forum, and Estonia has participated since 1997. The Center for Contemporary Arts, Estonia is the official representative of the Estonian exposition at the Venice Biennale.

The competition for the 2012 Estonian exposition attracted 13 projects and the evaluation took two rounds of meetings. The winner was chosen by a nine-member panel of artists and representatives from various art institutions, including Sirje Helme (Art Museum of Estonia), Reet Mark (Tartu Art Museum), Andres Kurg (Estonian Academy of Arts), Kaido Ole (freelance artist), Katrin Kivimaa (Estonian Academy of Arts), Johannes Saar (Center for Contemporary Arts), Maria-Kristiina Soomre (Estonian Ministry of Culture), Christian Schoen (Kunst-Konzepte, Germany) and Jan Boelen (Z33, Belgium).

Estonia's participation at the 55th International Art Exhibition in Venice is supported by the Estonian Ministry of Culture.