The Overview

'Travelling Light' was an innovative Biennale collateral project showcasing 58 international artists and was featured by the British Council on the Artupdate map for the 53rd Venice Biennale. The concept of the exhibition was borne out of necessity: with no official funding and no budget to speak of, the curators devised creative solutions to cover all the costs of both a London preview show and the Venice Biennale itself. Strict size and weight constraints were imposed on the works, both as a way of minimising shipping costs and encouraging lateral thinking from the artists. Works - ranging from site-specific installation, video and sound, to delicate sculptures, paintings & drawings - were posted to London in large envelopes together with a modest submission fee. Ultimately the creative and the financial were conceptually interwoven: in order to both fulfil the 'Travelling Light' dogma and achieve a professionally staged exhibition, the team saved money by transporting all 58 works to Venice in hand luggage and overhead lockers. Travelling Light was an antidote to the usually massive scale of works shown at the Biennale and the exhibition received considerable media interest and critical acclaim.
Curators: Chiara Williams, Debra Wilson, Sophie Wilson.

On the strength of 'Travelling Light' at the 2009 Venice Biennale, WW & Pharos were invited to participate in a conference on curating at the IUAV university in Venice (Starting from Venice: The Biennale Collateral Events, 5th October 2009). Chiara Williams joined a very distinguished panel of some of the biggest international curators and professors from New York University, MIT, Karlsruhe University and SIK-ISEA to discuss and debate collateral events at the Biennale. She presented and discussed 'Travelling Light' with other Biennale curators, notably Angela Vettese (Director of the Graduate Programme in Visual Arts, Iuav University, Venice and President of the Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa), Cornelia Lauf (Art historian & curator, Iuav) Chiara Bertola (curator Fondazione Querini Stampalia and Mona Hatoum's Interior Landscape), Stefano Coletto (curator Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa), Chiara Vecchiarelli (curator) and Giulio Alessandri (Iuav).

Download Venice Biennale Map featuring Travelling Light

The Background

The exhibition showcased a total of 58 artists including: Kate Davis, Maria Chevska, Jarik Jongman, Oona Grimes, Sardine & Tobleroni, Boa Swindler, Lucy May and Eva Lis.   Submissions arrived from all over the globe, which was appropriate not only because of the theme of the 53rd Venice Biennale, ‘Making Worlds', but because the ethos of community-grounded Pharos and WW Gallery is inclusiveness. Many of the selected artists are London-based and hail from as far afield as USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Russia, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Greece, Wales, Scotland and England.

Travelling Light opened in London at WW Gallery from 14th – 28th May.  From there it travelled along the trade route to Venice, a path historically well trodden by merchants and hedonists attracted to the trade and pleasure capital of Europe. From 6th – 10th June it was hung in a palazzo between the Accademia Galleries and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.  Additionally there was a special acoustic performance by Italian born Olivia Chaney at the London private view and by Veneto musician Alberto Grollo at the Venice private view.

Home of the murder mile and notorious for being one of the most crime-affected boroughs in London, Hackney is often synonymous with hoodies, gangs and guns in the imagination of the British public. By contrast, Venice evokes heritage, beauty and culture; with its magnificent architecture and ancient waterways, the capital of the Veneto is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. On the face of it, these places don't have a lot in common. However, two worlds literally collided in Travelling Light, an exhibition which promised to explode London's edgy East End onto the luminescent international art stage when all eyes were upon it: the opening week of the 53rd Venice Biennale Art Exhibition.

The Curators

Travelling Light was a collaborative project between a dynamic trio of female East End director/curators, Chiara Williams and Debra Wilson of WW Gallery and Sophie Wilson of Pharos Gallery. Intending to stretch the imagination of their artists through imposing size and weight constraints, the brief demanded that work arrived by post for the London exhibition before being transported to Venice for the Biennale. The dogma encouraged lateral thinking and some interesting responses: artists used to working on a larger scale had to challenge their usual practice and leave their comfort zone, often to surprising, silly and outright creative ends.

“The journey from London to Venice was one of the inspirations for Travelling Light,” explains Williams, who herself is half Venetian, half Londoner. “The artworks will be transported along trade links used for the exportation of silk, grain, spices and exotic produce when Venice was a major maritime power and centre of commerce. The path was also navigated extensively during the 16th century when Venice was a leisure destination for libertines lured by the promise of the glamorous courtesans, fabled to be the most beautiful in the world at that time.”

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