Lofoten International Art Festival Launches Two-Part Exhibition in Venice

During the 59th Venice Biennale, the Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF) initiated a two-part exhibition project titled Something Out of It, previewing themes for its 17th edition. Curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi and supported by Italian Council, the project occupies two contrasting venues: the parlor of the Giudecca Women's Prison and a private palace, Casa Venezia. At the prison, Pauline Curnier Jardin installed a permanent work featuring a cerulean wall painting with natural and bodily elements, bordered by a red strip, alongside her film installation Adoration, co-written with inmates. The collaborative project involved workshops and references the monastery's 16th-19th century history where nuns performed carnivalesque plays in the parlor. At Casa Venezia, Tomaso De Luca presents Desperate Times, comprising sculptures, photographs, and a video that transforms domestic objects into lethal traps, inspired by a 2019 incident where a Philadelphia real estate developer escaped a guillotine hidden by tenants. De Luca critiques gentrification and brutal economic dynamics. The festival, held since 1999 in Arctic Circle locations, proposes a new model of inclusion and sustainability for biennial production.