After ISLAND celebrates the many outputs produced from the unique opportunity afforded to 70 students, researchers, early-career artists and cultural professionals from across the UK, who participated as Fellows in the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Supported by the
British Council and 29 universities and cultural organisations, the Programme enabled the Fellows to spend a month in Venice at one of the world’s most significant architecture exhibitions, dividing their time between stewarding and mediating the British Pavilion, and conducting their own independent research.
The 16th International Architecture Exhibition, titled Freespace, curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamaraIn, sought an exploration into the nature and quality of open and free space, retaining a sense of humanity at the core of architecture’s agenda. The British Council was proud to present ISLAND at the British Pavilion. The curatorial team, Caruso St John Architects and artist Marcus Taylor, responded to Freespace with the construction of a new public space on the roof of the British Pavilion. This intervention to the building suggested ideas around isolation, voids, climate change, migration and decolonisation. These topics have been further scrutinised and reflected upon in the Fellows’ research and work exhibited.
Through a diverse set of practices including painting, sculpture, video, audio and writing, the work presented in After ISLAND takes inspiration from their experiences of Freespace, ISLAND, and the city of Venice to explore wider questions through the development of their own practice.
Gallery
The Venice Fellows are a vital part of what we do at the Venice Biennale each year.
The Fellows bring the British Pavilion to life – through mediating the exhibition for visitors, stimulating dialogue through their own research and ideas, and sharing the project and experience of Venice with UK audiences. We are excited to see how the research has evolved, and will continue
to be carried forwards into their academic and creative practice.
Genevieve Marciniak
Venice Fellowships Programme Manager
British Council
Exhibiting 2018 Venice Fellows
Haziq Ariffin, Lizzie Atherton, Christina Barton, Hannah Berrisford, Jessica Bishopp, Blair Boyle, Alice Bufton, Gustavo Fijalkow, Jack Foster, Uli Gamper, Adeola Gay, Catalina Ionita Nansi Jones, Vicki Jones, Jordan Keaney, Daniel Kelly, Ari Khoshnaw, Cameron Lintott, Hugo Lopes, Jas Lucas, Rhea McCarthy, Karly McGinty, Ella Merriman, Phuong-Trâm Nguyen, Sandhya Parekh, Tarn Philipp, Calvin Po, Shemol Rahman, Mandalika Roberts, Charlotte Robinson, Madeleine Sinclair, Eniola Sonusi, Fraser Streatfield, Mary Trapp, Nathaniel Welham, Augustus Wray
2018 Venice Fellowship Partners
Queens University Belfast; Birkbeck, University of London; Arts University Bournemouth; University of the West
of England; University of Kent (Canterbury); Central Saint Martins, University of London; Coventry University; University of Derby; Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee; Falmouth School of Art, Falmouth University; Glasgow School of Art; Goldsmiths College, University of London; University of Liverpool; London School of Architecture; The Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design, London Metropolitan University; London South Bank University; Manchester School of Art; Plymouth College of Art; University of Portsmouth; Royal College of Art; University of Salford; Sheffield Hallam University; The Bartlett, University College London; Belfast School of Art, University of Ulster; University of Warwick; Jerwood Charitable Foundation; London College of Communication, University of London; University of Bolton