VENICE.- Venice’s island of Giudecca today announces that it will become the city’s first permanent art quarter. Building on its significant contemporary art legacy, and its proximity to the Biennale, the newly established Giudecca Art District is a new initiative that will both create and link existing contemporary art spaces to establish a permanent art district on the former industrial island of Giudecca.

The Giudecca Art District will launch at the 2019 Venice Biennale and will encompass 11 art galleries and art spaces and 3 national pavilions including Estonia, Iceland and Nigeria as well as launching a new contemporary art space Giudecca Art District Gallery and Garden. Opening in May over 60 artists from 30 countries will be included in 20 exhibitions on the island for the launch of the art district. Founding art directors of the Giudecca Art District include Venetian art directors Pier Paolo Scelsi and Valentina Gioia Levy. Art spaces including the newly established Giudecca Art District Gallery and Garden will be central to the Giudecca Art District as well as additional collaborations with established art galleries and spaces including Chiesa delle Zitelle, Starak Foundation, Galleria Sant’Eufemia, Spazio Bullo, Spazio Raunich, Sudiolacittà, and Spazio Silos with more art galleries to be announced next month.

Over the past 50 years the island of Giudecca has hosted a series of significant historical exhibitions including Marina Abramovic’s first performance in 1976 and a 2017 Zuecca Project Space exhibition, Damien Hirst’ first Venice show and Ai Weiwei’s 2013 Art Biennale show Disposition, making Giudecca synonymous with both emerging and cutting edge contemporary art talent.

While over 60 artists will be exhibited as part of the international launch of the Giudecca Art District, Body as Home by acclaimed artist Aleksandra Karpowicz with October! Collective will be the flagship installation for the launch of GAD and a focal point for this new dedicated space for independent contemporary art.

Curated by Miguel Mallol, Body as Home is a three channel film presented in tryptic that documents a journey of self-discovery, identity, migration and a search for the meaning of home. Filmed in 4 different cities; Cape Town, London, New York and Warsaw, Body as Home captures 3 protagonists in each city - a local, a visitor and the filmmaker herself in order to explore the concept of home in regard to geographical location, one’s placement within society, and personal identity. The film explores how notions of physical selfhood and our sense of home overlap. Body as home looks to address the relationship between human physicality, sexuality and identity and urge viewers to accept and feel at home in their own bodies.

Other major installations and exhibitions opening with the launch of the Giudecca Art District include the Take Care of Your Garden exhibition which will see work by 8 international artists exhibited in a large outdoor garden. Works include Te Veo, Me Veo at the Chiesa delle Zitelle by artist Lidia Lèon (DOM), Tu vs Everybody a collaboration by six Italian artists, We are Humanity by Lilli Muller (USA) and Randi Matushevitz (USA), There Are No Titans by artists Waseem Marzouki (SIR), Gip Depio (USA) and Tanner Goldbeck (USA).