The permanent pavilion, designed by Denton Corker Marshall was officially opened by Minister for the Arts Senator George Brandis with actor-director Cate Blanchett on Tuesday afternoon, Venice time.
Already nicknamed ‘the black box’ It is a two level concrete and steel structure, clad in granite, designed as a white box within a black box. It replaces a temporary exhibition space designed by Philip Cox and shipped to Venice in 1988 which had been nicknamed ‘the dunny’.
Australia holds one of only 29 coveted permanent sites in the renowned Venice Biennale exhibition gardens and this pavilion has the distinction of being the first 21st century structure added to the precinct.
Australian Commissioner Simon Mordant, who donated $2 million towards the project said the design was exactly what he had wished for.
‘We asked for a building that was distinctive…durable, resilient, and breathtakingly simple. It was key that artists could claim the space. The architects have delivered this brief perfectly,’ he said.
The pavilion opened with Fiona Hall’s exhibition Wrong Way Time, described by Mordant as ‘an immersive multisensory installation that envelops viewers in Fiona Hall’s minefield, where the beautiful and grotesque merge in a poignant display of highly charged, emotive objects.>/p>
