52nd International Art Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia

Migration Addicts
Curated by Biljana Ciric, Karin Gavassa

Urban interventions, Venezia (Italy)
June 6th – 15th 2007

Migration Addicts was selected for the Collateral Events, a section of the Biennale which shows public museum quality projects chosen by Robert Storr, the Artistic Director of the Venice Biennale.

Opening party (by invitation) on June 7th 2007, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., at Orange Restaurant and Champagne Lounge, Campo Santa Margherita, featuring Rizman Putra The Hyperbolic Alpha Male performance, and Giorgio Pulini aka RACH3 live dj set.

PRESS CONFERENCE:

Saturday June 9 h. 13.00, Teatro Piccolo Arsenale, Calle della Tana, 30122 Venezia.

Participating artists and sites: Htein Lin, (Myanmar), Campo San Barnaba; Jin Shan, (China), Campo San Polo; Li Pinghu, (China), Campo San Salvatore; Huang Kui, (China), Campo San Maurizio; Miljohn Ruperto, (Philippines / USA), Campo Sant’Angelo; Josefina Posch, (Sweden / USA), Campo Santo Stefano; Mogas Station, (Vietnam), Cultural Association Aurora Street, Caffè Aurora, Piazza San Marco, 48,49,50; TODO, (Italy), the town – starting point at Chiostro Ex Chiesa Santi Cosma e Damiano, Giudecca, 620; Belén Cerezo, (Spain), Campo Santa Margherita, Dorsoduro, 3054; Yap Sau Bin, (Malaysia), Cultural Association Aurora Street, Caffè Aurora, Piazza San Marco, 48,49,50; Hasan Elahi, (Bangladesh / USA), Campo Santa Margherita, Dorsoduro, 3054; Rizman Putra, (Singapore), Orange Restaurant & Champagne Lounge, Santa Margherita, Dorsoduro, 3054.

Artists Talks Sessions:
Mogas Station collective artists talk on June 9th, h. 9pm, Cultural Association Aurora Street, Caffè Aurora, Piazza San Marco
Yap Sau Bin artist talk on June 10th, 2007, h. 9pm, Cultural Association Aurora Street, Caffè Aurora, Piazza San Marco
Special press conference on Huang Kui’s performance I Believe, Campo San Maurizio (artist will be present) on June 14th h.6 pm

Migration Addicts began as an ongoing project two years ago in Shanghai, investigating how migration re-determines issues related to human identity, gender and spiritual needs. The fast expansion of urban spaces, following the model of big cities, has led to new social conflicts within the social structure.
Recently the tension between Western and Chinese traditional values and lifestyles, as well as the late arriving of capitalism and the persisting communism, have not hindered the Chinese impulse towards assimilating the “international standards”, while fostering its own economic development.

The project is touching upon topics which concern not only Shanghai but many other expanding Asian and Western cities. The structure of the exhibition is based on a series of interventions that will take place throughout the public space in Venice, articulating new perspectives entrenched directly in the urban environment, and methodologically operating in time and in space.

The exhibition investigates the questions of temporal and spatial strategies which deal with this situation. On political and aesthetic levels, these projects interact with people from outside artistic circles opening to the encounter with the unknown viewer, expanding the idea of art and its experience, to continue an engagement with the public sphere.
Venice is currently undergoing profound changes with respect to the urban landscape and its own future depends on the new structure it undertakes. More and more Venetians are leaving the lagoon to settle in other towns. In the next 30-40 years, it is certain that Venice’s population will be dramatically reduced.

The artists participating in Migration Addicts face through their own culture and artistic practices the topic of migration, providing a direct relationship with the public space where the exhibition is hosted, reflecting on the peculiarities of the territory, investigating differences and possible points in common.

Official catalog 52 Biennale di Venezia and Migration Addicts available.

Presented and organized by ddm warehouse, Shanghai, China.

Collaborator:
Vision

Sponsors:
New Margin Ventures
ShanghArt Gallery, Shanghai
Creative Capital Foundation
Oriental Vista Art Collections
CCAA
N.O. Gallery-CONTEMPORARY ART, Milano
Caja de Burgos

Media partner
DROME magazine
www.ionly.com.cn
art in culture
Art China
Art World
universes-in-universe.de
art.mofile.com

Special thanks:
Cultural Association Aurora Street, Caffè Aurora, Venezia.
Stefano Coletto and the Atelier of Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venezia.
Galleria d’Arte Santo Stefano, Venezia.
Galleria Juris&Perl, Venezia.

Camping Fusina, Artist in residence, Fusina, Venezia
DDM Warehouse
karin.gavassa@gmail.com
biljana.ciric@gmail.com

download the map in PDF format