The Works：Venice Biennale I: Hong Kong artist Tsang Kin-wah, Taiwanese artist We Tien-chang & Indi

Initiated by Venice’s city council, the first “biennial national artistic exhibition” was held in 1895. 120 years later, and looking forward in time, the theme of the 56th International Art Exhibition at this year’s Biennale, curated by Okwui Enwezor, is “All the World’s Futures”. It includes works by 138 artists from 53 participating countries. Apart from that central exhibition, the biennale includes work in 89 official national pavilions, 30 of which are located in the main exhibition area, the Giardini. In the first of two programmes dedicated entirely to the biennale, we’re looking at a few of the 44 collateral events, for one reasons or another not presented as official national participations, including artists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and Pakistan.
In the second part of this week’s show, Indian artist Shilpa Gupta and Pakistan artist Rashid Rana present a joint exhibition critiquing the idea of borders. And Taiwan’s Wu Tien-Chang reflects on the limits of patriotism. But we begin with Hong Kong, which first took part in the Biennale with the support of the Arts Development Council in 2001. This year, artist Tsang Kin-wah has been selected to represent the SAR with “The Infinite Nothing”.