CHRISTIE’S SPONSERS THE BRITISH AND NIGERIAN PAVILIONS AT LA BIENNALE DE VENEZIA
London – Christie’s collaboration at this year’s Venice Biennale will include continued sponsorship of the British Pavilion as well as supporting the Nigerian Pavilion for the first time. Christie’s joins the art world in the celebration of La Biennale di Venezia, marking the 60th International Art Exhibition, which will take place from 20 April to 24 November 2024.
John Akomfrah’s commission for the British Pavilion, entitled Listening All Night To The Rain continues the artist and filmmakers investigation into themes of memory, migration, racial injustice and climate change with a renewed focus on the act of listening and the sonic. The installation encourages visitors to experience the 19th century neoclassical building in a different way, transforming the fabric of the space in order to interrogate relics and monuments of colonial histories. Christie's first sponsored the British Pavilion in 2022, with Sonia Boyce awarded the prestigious Golden Lion for Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way.
Signaling Nigeria’s second year at the Biennale, the exhibition Nigeria Imaginary will feature works by a cross-generational group of artists who have lived in both Nigeria and its diaspora: Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Ndidi Dike, Onyeka Igwe, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Abraham Oghobase, Precious Okoyomon, Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, and Fatimah Tuggar. Curated by Aindrea Emelife (Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at MOWAA, the Museum of West African Art in Benin City, Nigeria) and Commissioned by the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, on behalf of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Art, Culture and the Creative Economy, the exhibition will exclusively feature commissioned, site-specific works, which will be installed throughout the historic Palazzo Canal in Venice’s Dorsoduro. Christie’s partnered with Aindrea Emelife on Bold Black British, an exhibition held in London in 2021. In October 2023, this extended to a collaboration with the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) where a selection of works were sold in order to raise funds for their creative district and institutional initiatives, including the presentation at the Venice Biennale.
Orginal Press Releases:
British Council - Listening All Night to the Rain at the British Pavilion 2024