View of the exhibition: Limbic Theater section, with Nature morte, 2015 © Filip Markiewicz / Photo: Christian Mosar
Filip Markiewicz is a visual artist, performer, filmmaker and musician. His work combines various genres and mediums to reveal the violence of reality in the political and moral realm. At the Ca’ del Duca, the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, he presents Paradiso Lussemburgo: a documentary, critical and sentimental “portrait” of the Grand Duchy.
With Paradiso Lussemburgo, Filip Markiewicz presents a mental image of Luxembourg combined with a reflection on contemporary identity. Through its title, Paradiso Lussemburgo evokes both the Paradise of Dante, the movie Cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe Tornatore and tax havens.
As the artist points out: “What interests me is, on the one hand, the mythological aspect, close to the fable, and on the other hand, popular appearance. The various waves of immigration recorded since the beginning of the twentieth century in Luxembourg have led to the country being seen as a sort of haven for integration. Again, there is FILIP MARKIEWICZ PARADISO LUSSEMBURGO a strong allusion to the image of Luxembourg given by some foreign media, the tax haven, a theme addressed here head-on but also with a certain irony.”
The work takes the form of a vast «total» theatre that fully occupies six rooms of the pavilion. At once museum, creative laboratory, a place of cultural entertainment combining dance, performance, DJing, reading, architecture and music, Paradiso Lussemburgo presents Luxembourg, in the European and global context, as a national sample in which the various nationalities and cultures constituting the same identity, are combined. It is a journey to the outer limits of a plural and complex identity, in a way that is both critical, political and fantastical.
The Empty Sound of Europe, 2015 © Filip Markiewicz / Photo: Christian Mosar
The Forest section, with The Life and Death of The Forest, 2015 © Filip Markiewicz / Photo: Christian Mosar
Actress Leila Schaus sings “Silence is louder than a revolution” at the Venice Biennale Luxembourg Pavilion Opening / Photo: Sven Becker
Paradiso Lussemburgo by Filip Markiewicz |56. Venice Biennale Luxembourg Pavilion Opening / Photo: Sven Becker
Paradiso Lussemburgo by Filip Markiewicz |56. Venice Biennale Luxembourg Pavilion Opening / Photo: Sven Becker
Filip Markiewicz by Raftside
DURATION: From 9th May until 22nd November 2015
OPENING HOURS: From 10 am to 6 pm Closed on Mondays CLOSED ON MONDAYS.
LUXEMBOURG PAVILION Ca’ del Duca Corte del Duca Sforza San Marco 3052, Venezia
