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For the first time in more than two decades, New Zealand will not have a pavilion at the world’s biggest art festival, the Venice Biennale.
According to the singer, Creative New Zealand, the organization that provides the country’s pavilion facilities, has decided to discontinue the 2024 edition. However, the organization said the pavilion will return in 2026, 2028 and 2030.
The decision to call for a 2024 pavilion raised concerns about funding for the presentation in its current model after the 2022 report.
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The report, written by Tony Grybowski and Associates, determined that „available resources are inadequate for this significant undertaking,” raising concerns about the workload and funding needed to mount the program.
The New Zealand pavilion is not the first stop for the 2024 biennial. Scotland also canceled plans for the exhibition, citing the „current financial and planning environment” which necessitated the rescheduling of future editions.
But the Scottish Pavilion is a so-called network event, meaning it’s not a national pavilion that takes place in the two main areas of the Biennale, the Arsenale and the Giardini. The New Zealand pavilion, in contrast, has historically been housed at the Arsenale.
Artists who have done the New Zealand pavilion in the past include Frances Uprichard, Lisa Reihana, Simon Tenney and Yuki Kihara, who will be the first Pacific artist to give a presentation in 2022. Artists have not been announced for the planned 2024 edition. .
It is rare, though not unheard of, for national pavilions to cancel their participation in the Venice Biennale. Often, withdrawals from the program come amid financial crisis or political events, as in 2022, Russia pulled out following its invasion of Ukraine.