Denton Corker Marshall chosen to design Venice Biennale pavilion for 2015
Denton Corker Marshall will design the new Venice Biennale pavilion for the Australia Council for the Arts, planned for 2015 completion.
Denton Corker Marshall, whose credits include the Melbourne Museum, Museum of Sydney, the Australian Embassies in Tokyo and Beijing, and the Stonehenge Visitor Centre in the UK, was unanimously selected from a shortlist of six Australian firms.
“Denton Corker Marshall was considered the outstanding choice to undertake this significant project,” says Australia Council chairman James Strong.
Denton Corker Marshall’s concept for the pavilion was a design is “to make a form of the utmost simplicity; a white box contained within a black box”.
The firm hopes the pavilion will be envisaged as an object rather than a building.
The Venice Biennale is the world’s oldest international contemporary arts event, with Australia represented at the event for more than three decades. It attracts a quarter of a million visitors over its five months and last year over 192,000 attended the Australian pavilion’s exhibition.
Australia has had a site in the prestigious Giardini location since 1988 – one of only 29 countries to have a permanent national presence – where Phillip Cox designed Australia’s first pavilion as a temporary structure for the Arthur Boyd exhibition.
The new pavilion is due to be completed for the opening of the 56th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale 2015.
The project, managed by the Australia Council, is estimated to cost approximately $6 million, with all capital funds to be sourced from the private sector. Australia is the first country to redevelop its site in the Giardini.
