Switzerland finally brings Giacometti to Venice Biennale after 60 years

After more than sixty years, Switzerland will finally represent Alberto Giacometti at the Venice Biennale. Curator Philipp Kaiser, former director of the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, announced the project for the Swiss Pavilion well ahead of the Biennale's opening on May 13, 2017. The pavilion's title, 'Women in Venice,' explicitly references Giacometti's 'Femme de Venise' series, which he exhibited in Venice in 1956 — but at the French Pavilion, not his home country's. Giacometti, born in the canton of Graubünden, had a fraught relationship with Swiss institutions, repeatedly refusing invitations to represent Switzerland at the Biennale. He did not want to be labeled by his passport, considering himself an international figure. Even his brother Bruno, the architect who designed the new Swiss Pavilion in 1952, could not persuade him. The list of contemporary artists invited to engage with Giacometti's legacy remains top secret and will be announced by the end of 2016.