Jochen Volz has been announced as the curator of the Brazilian pavilion at next year’s Venice Biennale. Volz curated the 32nd São Paulo Bienal, which closes this weekend.
There will be ‘tighter cooperation between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Culture and the Bienal Foundation’ in the production of the pavilion a press release stated. After the impeachment of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff earlier this year, her conservative successor, Michel Temer merged the functions of the Ministry of Culture into a new Ministry of Education and Culture. That decision was reversed however after fierce opposition from Brazil’s artistic community. In a statement announcing the news of Volz’s appointment, José Serra, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, struck a pragmatic note in his assessment of the country’s participation in the biennale. It was, he said, ‘an indispensable aspect of cultural diplomacy… only through the constant and permanent diffusion of Brazilian cultural production will it be possible to reach our prime goal, which is the consolidation of Brazil’s image abroad.’
Now São Paulo–based, Volz has served as director of the Serpentine Galleries in London and as artistic director of the Inhotim Institute in Minas Gerais. You can read ArtReview’s review of his bienal here.
9 December 2016
