A report from the 55th Venice Biennale

During our visit to the Venice Biennale, Chair of the Shiga Prefectural Social Welfare Organization, Mr. Kengo Kitaoka noticed with great interest that a number of art brut practitioners were being represented, and he also noted these were artists who are already quite well-known as well as being representative of relatively well-established 'styles'. This served to galvanize our conviction to discover more and more artists from across Japan and Asia. We will endeavor to strengthen our own capabilities of discovering and fostering new talent. Although not pictured here, Mr. Tanaka Masahiro (Director, Inclusion Japan) who was also in attendance was of the same opinion and reaffirmed his commitment to art brut. A meeting was also held with Massimiliano Gioni, Curator of the Venice Biennale to discuss his possible attendance at the Amenity Forum (Japans premier conference of social welfare entities and professionals) next year.

【Chosen for exhibition at the 55th Venice Biennale, Shinichi Sawada】
Artist Shinichi Sawada (whose work is also included in the 'Outsider Art from Japan' touring exhibit of Europe) was chosen to have his work exhibited at the Venice Biennale this year. Featured at Venice is his latest work 'Untitled', among others.
Venice Biennale curator, Massimiliano Gioni personally chose and requested to have Mr. Sawada's works exhibited there.
Mr Sawada's ceramic pieces are causing quite a stir amongst the biennale visitors.

The 55th Venice Biennale
Duration: June 1st, 2013 - November 24th, 2013
Hosted by the Venice Biennale Foundation
Curated by Massimiliano Gioni

※The Venice Biennale tour also made a stop in London to visit the 'Souzou: Outsider Art from Japan' exhibit.
（The London exhibit at the Wellcome Collection is the second destination of our touring exhibit of Europe following the Netherlands.）

【Related Links】

The Amenity Forum Official Blog
http://amenity-forum-shiga.blogspot.jp/

The Wellcome Collection
http://www.wellcomecollection.org/