The 59th International Art Exhibition will be from 23 April to 27 November 2022 at Cameroon’s First-Ever Pavilion, Venice Biennale.
The floating city of Venice, famous for gondolas, canals, historic palaces and churches, is home to Europe’s Venice Biennale.
The Venice Biennale is one of the most prestigious cultural festivals globally.
It runs from April – to November each year, alternating between art and architecture.
The Biennale began in 1895 and now attracts half a million visitors a year. Each year, the event appoints a different curator to set a theme, and visitors can expect impressive exhibitions encompassing performance, sculpture, and installations.
A true celebration of art and architecture, the Biennale explores politics and contemporary cultural & social issues through performance, sculpture and installations.
This year’s theme is titled The Times of the Chimera, curated by Paul Mahop and Sandro Stagl.
While the event is commissioned by Armand Abanda Maye, the director of arts promotion and development for Cameroon’s ministry of arts and culture, it will also be financed by private sponsors and investors in the DAO.
The Venice Biennale has launched the international careers of leading artists and architects for years. They are prepared to do it again, but something new will be featured in the exhibitions this time.
NFTs (non-fungible tokens) will officially present at the Venice Biennale this year. A crypto-art exhibition featuring a range of international names will take up a part of Cameroon’s debut national pavilion.
The NFT show is organised by Global Crypto Art DAO, a new collective that seeks to raise money to support artists entering the crypto world.
That segment features more than 20 artists from countries including China, Germany, and the United States—though, notably, not Cameroon.
The former will display art by four Cameroonian artists; Francis Nathan Abiamba, Angéle Etoundi Essamba, Justine Gaga, Salifou Lindou and four international artists; Shay Frisch, Umberto Mariani, Matteo Mezzadri, Jorge R. Pombo.
Singaporean NFT artist Shavonne Wong, who is also collaborating, stated NFTs’ existence at the Venice Biennale represents a significant validation for the medium.
“Digital artwork in the context of NFTs nonetheless has nevertheless to obtain a put in the high-quality art planet,” she informed Artnet Information, “so it’s extraordinary to see it currently being acknowledged on a phase like the Venice Biennale.”