No Reflections heads to Venice

When Glasgow artist Martin Boyce was selected to represent Scotland at this years Venice Biennale there was an assumption that his work – created specifically for the show – would be big.

Martin’s previous shows have dominated the vast space of Glasgow’s Tramway and an installation ‘Our love is like the earth, the sun, the trees and the birth’, (2002) consumes a whole room in Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art.

The work which Martin Boyce has created for Venice is no exception; several installations will fill seven rooms of the fifteenth-century Palazzo Pisani, a site specifically selected by Boyce at the start of his commission.

His presentation, entitled No Reflections, will convey the idea that the “outside world has somehow blown inside the building” and includes vast structures such as 17 huge concrete stepping stones (each weighing 100 kilos) as well as more fragile intricate pieces such as 10,000 paper leaves which will be scattered within the exhibition space.

Much of the work was created at the well known Glasgow fabricators, Scott Associates and earlier this month the team began the mammoth task of packing up and transporting the work to Venice. This will be no easy task as explained by Katie Nicoll, Producer of Scotland and Venice: ‘The work will fit into one 18 tonne truck which will be leaving for Venice in mid May.  On arrival in Venice the work will then have to be transferred into two boats before being hoisted up to enter the palazzo through a second floor window!’

The work will be on show in Venice from June 7 to November 22 and is the fourth Scottish presentation at Venice by the Scottish Arts Council with partners the National Galleries of Scotland and the British Council.  The presentation is curated by Dundee Contemporary Arts and is the first solo show to be presented by the partnership.

Following the six month-long Biennale, the work will return to Scotland in December 2009 to be re-presented at Dundee Contemporary Arts, marking the culmination of the venue’s 10th anniversary year

Martin Boyce, No Reflections
Curated by Dundee Contemporary Arts
Palazzo Pisani (S.Marina), Calle delle Erbe, Cannaregio 6103
7 June – 22 November 2009
closed Mondays