la Biennale di Venezia
The Board of Directors appoints the Directors of the Sectors
Massimiliano Gioni for Visual Arts
Ivan Fedele for Music
Àlex Rigola for Theatre
Ismael Ivo for Dance

Venice, 31 January 2012 – The new Board of Directors of the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta and composed of Giorgio Orsoni  (Vicepresident), Luca Zaia, Francesca Zaccariotto and Emmanuele Francesco Maria Emanuele, met today in the offices of Cà Giustinian and appointed the Directors of the Visual Arts, Music, Theatre and Dance Sectors.

The appointments were decided as follows:
·         Massimiliano Gioni was appointed by majority Director of the Visual Arts Sector with the specific responsibility for curating the 55th International Art Exhibition to be held in 2013
·         Ivan Fedele was appointed Director of the Music Sector for the four-year period 2012-2015
·         Àlex Rigola, Director of the Theatre Sector for the years 2010-2011, has been confirmed for the two-year period 2012-2013
·         Ismael Ivo, Director of the Dance Sector from 2005 to 2011, has been confirmed for the year 2012.

Massimiliano Gioni (Busto Arsizio, 1973) is a curator and contemporary art critic. In 2010 he directed 10.000 Lives, the eighth Gwangju Art Biennale in South Korea being its youngest and first European director ever of this contemporary art biennale; the edition he curated attracted 500.000 visitors. He was the curator of the section entitled “La Zona” within the 50th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia. His experience as the artistic director of biennials and other international exhibitions includes the organization of Of Mice and Men – the fourth Berlin Biennale (2006) – and the fifth edition of the travelling art biennale Manifesta (2004). He is the Associate Director of the New Museum in New York and the Artistic Director of the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi in Milan.

Ivan Fedele (Lecce, 1953), one of the finest composers on the contemporary scene, also has an impressive career in teaching at the most prestigious musical centres in the world: the universities of Harvard and Barcelona, the Sorbonne and IRCAM in Paris, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the Chopin Academy in Warsaw, the Centre Acanthes in Avignon, the CNSM in Lyon and the CNR in Strasbourg, in addition to the Conservatories in Milan, Bologna and Turin. Ivan Fedele has been asked for the next four years (2012-2015) to develop the educational-teaching and research activities that are the focus of the Biennale College. From workshops for the invention, practice and production of music, to ateliers for chamber music theatre, which will encourage collaboration with the other performing arts sectors, to studies of new technologies alongside the masters, with the contribution of renowned institutions.

Àlex Rigola will continue a work cycle focused on educational activities based precisely on the success of his experience in 2010-2011. During the preceding two-year period, the Catalan director fulfilled the aspirations of the Biennale by combining a festival of great directors with an international training and specialization workshop that encompassed all the aspects and complexities of the performing arts (stage technique, lighting, dramaturgy, movement, …). His experiment with this new “festival-workshop” has brought Venice to the centre of the debate on contemporary theatre art, not just because of the participation of the national and international press, but because of the significant participation of young people, professionals and theatre lovers.

Ismael Ivo was asked to stay for another year with the commitment to pursue the activities of the Arsenale della Danza which began in 2009, in order to ensure the necessary continuity in the educational activities of this Sector which has become an important element for the future of the Biennale College. Ivo himself has contributed to rebuilding and perfecting the Arsenale della Danza during its first three years, by means of exchange programs with internationally renowned institutions and academies, workshop that have involved other artistic disciplines, and performances starring the young dancers of the Arsenale della Danza. The most important result for an institution which responsibly raises the question of the future was the invitation to one of its dancers from the Arsenale della Danza to join Marie Chouinard’s company, and to another dancer to participate in two consecutive yearly sessions of the Alvin Ailey school in New York.

Each Director was given responsibility not only for the activities of the exhibitions and festivals, but in particular for the activities that constitute the Biennale College. The specific programmes for each individual Sector will soon be presented.

At the conclusion of the meeting of the Board of Directors, Paolo Baratta emphasized how “the Biennale is moving in the direction of pluralism and continuity. For Dance we have asked Ismael Ivo to stay for another year (his eighth) after he so effectively planned and developed the Arsenale della Danza, which requires organizational continuity. For the Theatre we have confirmed Àlex Rigola to complete, over a second two-year term, an equally productive experience in which he reconciled workshop and performance activities. The Board of Directors thanked Luca Francesconi for his artistic direction, which over the past four years has enriched the Music Festival with original inventions in innovative venues involving various realities in Venice. It is pleased to begin a new four-year commitment in the Music Sector with Ivan Fedele, one of the most significant composers on the international scene, who has also been entrusted with the task of developing workshops for the Biennale College. In the Visual Arts, after acknowledging the success of Bice Curiger’s edition, it has chosen to appoint the new Director far in advance, and among the possible solutions in the international field, has selected Massimiliano Gioni as a young personality who has already accumulated a number of important appointments, which he has honoured so well as to win the esteem of artists and critics around the world”.

Michela Lazzarin
International Press
Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia
Ca’ Giustinian, S. Marco 1364/A
tel. +39 041 5218861
fax +39 041 5218815
e-mail foreignpress@labiennale.org

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Massimiliano Gioni è stato nominato direttore per l’edizione del 2013. Una nomina che racchiude in se alcuni primati: mai un direttore -al netto delle riconferme- ha avuto così tanto anticipo per organizzare la sua rassegna; inoltre si tratta del più giovane direttore della storia della Biennale. Battendo peraltro un record recente: Daniel Birnbaum diresse la biennale a 46 anni e piazzò il primato; Gioni, nato a dicembre del ’73, la dirigerà a 39 anni.
Un italiano torna alla guida della kermesse dopo dieci anni, da quando l’onore toccò a Francesco Bonami, che nel 2003 coinvolse in un ruolo centrale proprio il giovanissimo Gioni, responsabile della sezione La Zona. “La Biennale – ha dichiarato il presidente Paolo Baratta – ha voluto nominare con congruo anticipo il nuovo Direttore, e fra le possibili soluzioni in campo internazionale ha individuato in Massimiliano Gioni una personalità, giovane, che ha già accumulato importantissimi incarichi che egli ha svolto in modo da conquistare autorevolezza tra gli artisti e i critici di tutto il mondo”.
Sulle qualità di Gioni, e sulla sua capacità di affrontare l’impegno al meglio, non c’è alcunché da discutere: si tratta probabilmente del curatore italiano attualmente meglio inserito nei gangli più vitali del sistema globale del contemporaneo, forte di una posizione di prestigio come Associate Director del New Museum di New York, e di moltissime esperienze analoghe, dall’organizzazione della quinta edizione della biennale d’arte itinerante Manifesta (2004), alla quarta Biennale di Berlino (2006), fino all’ottava Biennale d’Arte di Gwangju in Sud Corea, nel 2010. È Direttore Artistico della Fondazione Nicola Trussardi di Milano dove ha appena curato una recente mostra di Pipilotti Rist.
L’incarico a Gioni, votato a maggioranza, dopo che il consiglio ha esaminato una rosa di nomi papabili, non è l’unico deliberato nell’odierna seduta del Cda della Biennale: Ivan Fedele è stato infatti nominato Direttore del Settore Musica per il quadriennio 2012-2015, Àlex Rigola, già Direttore del Settore Teatro negli anni 2010-2011, è stato confermato per il biennio 2012-2013, Ismael Ivo, già Direttore del Settore Danza dal 2005 al 2011, è stato confermato per l’anno 2012.