The Venice Biennale opens this week, and two students from ICCE will be working at the heart of this major international art event as British Council Venice Fellows. In this role Bartolomeo Poggi, from BA Arts Management and Luna Salazar Gadea, MA Arts Administration and Cultural Policy will spend a month working at the Cathy Wilkes’ exhibition at the British Pavilion.

Cathy Wilkes’ a Northern Ireland born, Scottish based artist was selected to represent Great Britain at the Biennale Arte 2019 by the British Council. The British Council describe her work as ‘experiments with all kinds of media and materials, and collects treasures and ingredients. Production – or what we see in the end – is the accumulation of all of these constituent parts. Her work recalls inchoate visions of interiors and places of loss, and meditates on the nature of love and the coexistence of life and death.’

While in Venice each fellow will complete an independent research project that responds to the work on show, research that is supported by the British Council and Dr Oonagh Murphy, Lecturer in Arts Management at Goldsmiths.

‘I have always been fascinated with the way art is observed and understood, and by the ways social media and a work of art can interact and enhance the viewer’s experience. My research project at the Biennale will be focused on gathering information from the visitors that digitally record their experience to understand the reasons that bring audience members to share their experience digitally and to discover what it adds to the visitor’s experience.’ Bartolomeo Poggi

‘I’ll be in Venice in November, just after my MA in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy programme finishes. My research will look at the participation of women in the Venice Biennale. Which I think is very in tune with the current debate about women around the world. Because “We live a very interesting time as women”. Also, I hope that some kind of event will be possible with the collaboration and participation of my group when we are there.’ Luna Salazar Gadea

In a recent interview with My Art Guides, Dr Zoe Whitely, Curator of the British Pavilion reflected on how working with fellows is a key part her role as curator of this year’s exhibition. ‘The format for invigilating the Pavilion involves British Council fellows, young students from all over the country, many of whom are actually coming to Venice for the first time, so empowering them to feel ownership over the building and the work as well as inviting other people to engage in the work.’