MACCARONE
Back in March, it was announced that curator Philipp Kaiser would helm the Swiss Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale. But, painfully, no information was released about the artists that would make the actual work for the show.
Now Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, which oversees the pavilion, has revealed details of the planned show. It will be titled “Women of Venice.” It will include Carol Bove, who was born in Geneva and is based in New York, and the duo Austin, Texas–based duo Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler. And it will address the “legacy and universe of Alberto Giacometti.” (Hubbard was born in Dublin, and Birchler is from Basel, like Roger Federer.)
The Swiss Arts Council notes that Giacometti repeatedly declined to show in the Swiss pavilion, which was designed by his brother Bruno, though he did eventually show with work under the name “Women of Venice” in the French pavilion in 1956. All of which just goes to show that, if you are a world-famous artist, you can decline an invitation as many times as you want during your lifetime, but after you’re dead, that is not going to prevent curators from cooking up a project about it.