Vlatka Horvat has been commissioned to create work for the Croatian Pavilion at the next Venice Biennale – The 60th International Exhibition of Visual Art 2024.
Horvat’s project By the Means at Hand will reflect on diasporic experience, in close dialogue with the theme of the 2024 Biennale: ‘Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere’.
Known for her work across a wide range of art forms, including installation, collage, drawing, photography, performance and publishing, Horvat’s project in Venice will take a typically open and dynamic approach.
The Croatian Pavilion will stage interconnected sculptural elements, images and drawings, with an accumulating exhibition of artworks by a large group of artists who are living around the world ‘as foreigners’. Their drawings and other two-dimensional works will be delivered to the pavilion throughout the Biennale by an informal courier network of friends, travellers and strangers, in a performance of reciprocity and social exchange.
By the Means at Hand refers to improvised transport systems used in Croatia and elsewhere, in which individuals create an unofficial infrastructure of people to deliver items to family, friends and others who live far away from their home city or country.
Through its movement of artworks Horvat’s project evokes ideas of shared experience across countries and continents, of intimacy, solidarity, shared struggle, mutual support, friendship and notions of ‘home’.
The Croatian Pavilion will also act as a temporary studio, with Horvat in residence throughout the Biennale. In a working space visible to the public, she plans to print out photographs sent to her by collaborating artists, and will make drawings reflecting on her time in Venice.
The Croatian Pavilion in Venice is curated by Antonia Majača and commissioned by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia. By the Means at Hand will be produced by MMSU – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka.
The 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2024 will run from 20 April – 24 November 2024
Top image: Vlatka Horvat. Photo: Vanja Babic
