Máret Ánne Sara to the Venice Biennale
Dáiddadállu's initiator, Máret Ánne Sara, is once again sending art straight from Dáiddadállu to the world's largest art exhibition. This time to Italy and nothing less than the Venice Biennale.
Three years ago it was Documenta 14, now it is La Biennale Di Venezia, which is referred to as the world's largest contemporary art exhibition. The biennale started in 1895, and is thus the world's oldest art biennale.
At the Venice Biennale which due to covid-19 is postponed from 2021 to 2022, there will be a Sami pavilion for the first time when the Nordic Pavilion at the Giardini is transformed into a Sami pavilion. Curator Katya Garcia Anton has invited three artists to represent Sápmi; Paulina Feodoroff, Anders Sunna and Dáiddadállu's own Máret Ánne Sara.
Máret Ánne, how does it feel to be selected to exhibit your art at the world's largest art exhibition?
- Wow, it's almost unbelievable. I can hardly understand how lucky I am and how big this is. In 2017 I was at Documenta with my art, and then I had the same feeling as I have now. It is absolutely incredible, scary, funny and exciting. My art is what it is and I think about how people will receive the art and how they interpret it this time. What will it bring to the audience, society and mindset? It's always rewarding to see.
How did this start?
-Curator Katya Garcia Anton contacted me, explained her curatorial thought and asked if I would like to participate. Of course I answered yes! It is a great honor to be asked. Since then I have been working on my concept for the biennale and am already well underway with the production. I myself think that this is a very new art for me that I am now working with. It is very special in my own eyes, and I can't wait to share it with others.
What kind of work do you send to Venice?
- This time the art is different from what we saw at Documenta 14 in 2017. My art has always closely followed the pulse of society and life itself. Much has happened, which has influenced life, which in turn has influenced thoughts and art. I still believe that people will recognize my art in terms of both form and substantive discourse. It will always go hand in hand.
What expectations do you have for the Venice Biennale, and what will this mean for you and for Sápmi?
-Oi, I honestly don't know what to expect. I hope that the art world welcomes our art with an open mind and with contextual understanding. Otherwise, it is easy to judge indigenous art as primitive or stereotypical, as we have often experienced. Furthermore, I hope we will be able to highlight the issues close to our hearts and open up conversations and discussions that can hopefully contribute to improvements for the country, life and society, says Máret Ánne. .
Symbolic and historical
The three Sami artists Feodoroff, Sunna and Sara represent the three Nordic countries Finland, Sweden and Norway that stand behind the Nordic Pavilion, while Garcia Anton challenges to see the Sami Pavilion and Sápmi as the pre-national and borderless presence in the Nordics.
-The transformation of the Nordic pavilion into the Sami pavilion is an act of indigenous sovereignty that highlights the artists and their relationship with their homeland Sápmi; an area that pre-dates the concept of the Nordic region, and presents a pavilion that encompasses the land and people of what was originally a borderless region. It is a symbolic reversal of colonial demands that have tried to erase Sami land and culture. It is historic in the history of the Venice Biennale that a pavilion presents exclusively Sami artists, and that a pavilion recognizes the Sami as a nation in an international pavilion, says curator Katya Garcia Anton.
