Seventy-six countries took part in the last Venice Biennale in 2007, more than ever before. These numbers speak for themselves – national exhibitions are obviously not considered anachronistic, even if many of the selected artists reject being categorised according to their nationality.

The Venice Biennale is an international art exhibition which takes place in Venice every two years. The first exhibition was held in 1895. The main venue is the Giardini della Biennale, a park located in the Castello district, where 28 countries present themselves in their national pavilions. Most countries do not have pavilions of their own but rent exhibition space in venues spread out over the city of Venice.

Iceland participated for the first time in the Biennale in 1960. Since then 23 Icelandic artists – including this year’s participant Ragnar Kjartansson – have been invited to the Biennale. For many years the Icelandic presentations were exhibited in the Finnish pavilion designed by Alvar Aalto. Since 2007 the venue for Iceland’s presentation has been the Palazzo Michiel dal Brusa’ overlooking the Canal Grande. Iceland has never had a pavilion of its own.

The summer exhibition, which this year for the first time will be on view in the Felleshus for a duration of two months, showcases the history of Iceland’s participation in this biennial cultural event of international significance. “Iceland Box” focuses on the theme of national cultural identity, displaying selected works of eight of the previous 22 Icelandic participations in the Venice Biennale as example: Steingrímur Eyfjörð, Gabríela Fiðriksdóttir, Rúrí, Hreinn Friðfinnsson, Finnbogi Pétursson, Jóhannes Kjarval †, Birgir Andrésson † and Sigurður Guðmundsson.

Throughout the duration of the exhibition the works of each of the artists will be shown in weekly rotation.

Concept and Idea: Matthias Wagner K in collaboration with Christian Schoen, Director C.I.A., IS (Center for Icelandic Art)
Co-Curator: Sabine Schirdewahn, Berlin
Exhibition Design: Agentur für gute Gestaltung/(Agency for Good Design) David Beikirch
Translation: Katrin Arnadottir, Berlin
Technical Setup: David Beikirch, Berlin