Australia in gondola land

Abstract

The Venice Biennale is one of the world's premier visual arts events where Australia has been intermittently represented since 1958. During the course of this time a vast range of work, artists, venues, criticism and political leverage has been given to the program. This paper aims to map the way Australia has been represented in this international event. The paper will use spatial theory, especially the work of Henri Lefebvre with his work on the spatial dialectic to provide a platform to explore phenomena through three filters or a triad, namely spatial practice, representations of space and the space of representation. Using this triad the paper aims to create an understanding of Australia's representation and to determine whether Australia's representation in Venice has developed a spatial pattern.