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Silvia Bächli will represent Switzerland in the 53rd International Art Exhibition, The Venice Biennale, from 7 June to 22 November, 2009.
Fiona Tan will represent the Netherlands in the 53rd International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, from 7 June to 22 November, 2009.
Press Release
Fiona Tan - Disorient
Dutch Pavilion
53rd International Art Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia
Commissioner / Curator: Saskia Bos
Organised by: Mondriaan Foundation
New York-based Dutch curator Saskia Bos selected Fiona Tan to represent the Netherlands
at the 53rd International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Tan is working on a new
audio-visual installation conceived especially for the presentation in Venice.
Fiona Tan describes herself as 'a professional foreigner, whose identity is defined by that
which I am not'. Her work will never be a straightforward search for truth or identity: she uses
a variety of means to unravel processes of recollection and fill in story lines, sometimes using
found footage with which to confront the observer with informal history. Through professional
analysis and the poetic translation of her observations, she creates images that become
symbols of the fading memory of a fast-changing world. Her installations and films are the
result of her ongoing investigation into representation and the role of images and portraits in
contemporary culture. Sometimes Tan's work refers to what is known in art history as
'provenance'. This was also the title of a recent installation by Tan at the Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam, in which she used surprising means to translate the 17th-century gaze into the
present day.
For the Biennale, a new work by Tan will refer to Venice's pivotal position in the history of
geostrategy in the time before the discovery of new routes to Asia diluted the city's power.
Tan's fascination with geography, travellers and their journeys has led her to explore the
biographies of famous merchants and the desire to acquire new experiences and
possessions. Her project Disorient attempts to bridge the centuries by creating connections
with both contemporary day-to-day reality and with the symbolic past that every visitor to
Venice wants to grasp.
Fiona Tan (b. 1966) has lived and worked in Amsterdam for more than 20 years. The
daughter of a Chinese father and an Australian mother, she was born in Indonesia, but the
country's repressive regime drove her family to Australia. She went on to study in Germany
and the Netherlands, which makes her past comparable to that of an immigrant family or a
child of the diaspora.
Fiona Tan studied at the Rietveld Academie and the Rijksakademie and currently teaches at
De Ateliers in Amsterdam. Her work, which drew attention right from the start, has been
exhibited at many prominent venues, including Documenta 11 in Kassel, the Yokohama
Triennale in Japan, Tate Modern in London and New York's New Museum. Recent
presentations have taken place in Hiroshima, New Orleans, Boston, Stockholm, Eindhoven
and The Hague.
Curator Saskia Bos trained as an art historian and has been the Dean of the School of Art at
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City since 2005.
Until that year, Bos was director of the De Appel Foundation and founding director of the
Curatorial Training Programme (CTP) in Amsterdam. At De Appel, she produced more than a
hundred exhibitions and her many international projects include major exhibitions and
biennales.
Bos was the curator of the 3rd Skulptur Biënnale Münsterland (2003), the 2nd Berlin
Biënnale (2001), the Dutch entry at the São Paulo Biennial (1998), co-curator of Aperto at
the Venice Biennale (1988) and curator/director of Sonsbeek '86 in Arnhem.
From 1999 to 2002, Bos was president of IKT (International Association of Curators of
Contemporary Art). As an author and editor, she has collaborated on many publications.
Since 1995, the Mondriaan Foundation has been responsible for the Dutch entry at the
Biennale di Venezia, appointing a curator for each entry.
For more information, please contact:
INTERNATIONAL PRESS
Goldmann Public Relations, Munich office, Daniela Goldmann, t + 49 89 211 164 15,
info@goldmannpr.de
DUTCH PRESS
Caroline Soons, public relations officer, Mondriaan Foundation, t +31 20 676 20 32,
c.soons@mondriaanfoundation.nl