Ralph Rugoff, from the Hayward Gallery in London to the 58th Venice Biennale

Ralph Rugoff is the first Curator from the United Kingdom to direct the Venice Biennale of Art

Ralph Rugoff, 60 years old, born in New York, director of the Hayward Gallery in London, curator of the 13th Biennale de Lyon, writer, contributor to the Financial Times, Artforum, Frieze and Flash Art, is the artistic director of the 58th International Art Exhibition, titled May You Live In Interesting Times.

Less than a month after the end of the 2017 edition of Viva Arte Viva, which counted 615 thousand visits, celebrating the success of the French Christine Macel, President Paolo Baratta declared that: “Ralph Rugoff’s nomination confirms the intention of the Biennale to consolidate the Exhibition as a meeting place for visitors, art and artists“.

Who is Ralph Rugoff

Although not a novice of the Biennials – in 2002 he was a selector for the Sydney Biennial, in 2010 he was on the selection committee of the British Council for the Venice Biennale and in 2015 he was the artistic director of the 13th Biennale de Lyon entitled La Vie Moderne – Ralph Rugoff, in his new role, has to step up to a successful 2017 Biennale in terms of both public and visibility.

A prolific art writer, an independent curator since the early 1990s and now the director of one of the most important public galleries in the UK, Rugoff has developed an international reputation for original exhibitions and programs that attract a broad public. He has organized important exhibitions such as The Painting of Modern Life (2007) and Psycho Buildings (2008), around the themes of light, foreign art, humour and Brutalist architecture. He has directed the solo exhibition of artists such as Ed Ruscha, Tracey Emin, Carsten Höller, Martin Creed, and after overseeing the restoration of the 15-year-old Hayward Gallery, he reopened in 2019 with a major retrospective exhibition of the German photographer Andreas Gursky.

During the gallery closure, Rugoff organized an “off-site” video-art event titled ‘The Infinite Mix’, involving artists such as Cyprien Gaillard, Ugo Rondinone and Rachel Rose to compose soundtracks that related to the visual element of their work in always different ways.

Thoughts on the next Art Biennale

“I am absolutely thrilled for this new role” said Rugoff. “The Venice Biennale is the oldest and most prestigious exhibition of its kind on an international level.”

During the nomination President Baratta declared that “the appointment to Ralph Rugoff confirms the Biennale’s intention to consolidate the Exhibition as a meeting place for visitors, art and artists. An exhibition that engages individual visitors in a direct confrontation with the artworks in which the memory, the unexpected, the possible provocation, the new and different can stimulate the vision, the mind and the emotion of the observers, giving them the opportunity for an intense and direct experience.”

The 58th International Art Exhibition, titled May You Live In Interesting Times, opens to the public on Saturday 11th May 2019 at the Giardini and Arsenale venues. The Exhibition will develop from the Central Pavilion (Giardini) to the Arsenale, and will include 79 artists from all over the world.

The awards ceremony of the 58th Exhibition takes place on Saturday 11th May 2019 at the headquarters of La Biennale di Venezia at Ca’ Giustinian.

The exhibition will be open until Sunday 24th November 2019 (Closed on Mondays except 13 May, 2 September, and 18 November).

As always, Venezia da Vivere will be present during the opening with a live streaming on Instagram covering the days of the Vernissage with the hashtag #ArtBiennaleExperience.

Biennale Arte 2019
58th International Art Exhibition

Pre-opening: 8, 9, 10 May
Awards ceremony and inauguration: Saturday May 11th 2019

Info www.labiennale.org

Photo by Mark Atkins.