Museum PR Announcements News and Information

National Gallery of Iceland open Venice Biennale project passage2011

The National Gallery of Iceland present the Venice Biennale project passage2011: an actionistic transalpine drama on September 6–October 27, 2013.

passage2011The award-winning undertaking passage2011 was driven by hope: Bare-handed, the artists dragged a self-made, seventeen-foot boat over the Alps. Neo-romantic aspirations and Sisyphean exertion characterized the mission, whose apparent aim was to launch the boat into the lagoon in time for the most distinguished art event in the world, the Venice Biennale in 2011—to eventually celebrate the victory of art over nature in a triumphal journey up the Canal Grande or to fail dramatically. Huber and Aichner conceived of this seemingly Sisyphean task, passage 2011, as a metaphor for human hubris and the pursuit of success. As neither expected to complete the pass, passage 2011 would also serve as a study of failure.

The boat—object and sculpture—stands in the center of the exhibition along with the 27-minute short film, which was premiered in Venice 2011.

passage2011 will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue (ed. by Christian Schoen, Kunsthalle Emden/National Gallery of Iceland, Hirmer-Verlag) in German and English.

National Gallery of Iceland
Fríkirkjuvegur 7
101 Reykjavík
Iceland
www.listasafn.is
www.passage2011.org