Namibia Pavilion, curator: controversy rests on weak arguments

After the controversy, comes the curator’s response: in fact, Marco Furio Ferrario, curator of the Namibian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, is not happy about being subjected to the strides of the African country’s cultural personalities who, as we reported on these pages, launched a petition on Change.org under the collective name “Concerned Artists Namibia” (“Concerned Artists Namibia”) to ask the Namibian government to withdraw its approval for Ferrario’s project. The reason? The only artist chosen, RENN, would be unrepresentative of the country, the presentation of the exhibition would rehash old racist and colonialist clichés, and the curator would have little experience and little international credibility.

All of which Ferrario responds to. “I would like to clarify,” he lets our editorial staff know, “that the Pavilion has the support of more than 20 sponsors and more than 50 professionals who have provided their services to the realization of the National Participation either free of charge or at cost price out of pure passion for the works of art that will be on display.”For the controversy over representativeness, Ferrario writes, “it is clear that it rests on a rather weak foundation: any expression requires a choice, and no choice can ever be representative of an entire country, nor was that ever the goal. We have selected works that have an even inescapable relationship with the Namibian territory, because the landscape is an integral part of the works themselves. This is a new form, an evolution of Land Art, where the manipulation of the landscape occurs through the perceptual manipulation introduced by the sculptures.”

As for the claims of discrimination and interest, however, these according to Ferrario “are belied by the fact that the selection of the works took place before we even knew who they were made by, because they were never signed. It was only after the proposal to bring them to the 2022 Art Biennale that they were signed with the pseudonym RENN because the Artist made it a condition that the works were really in the center and that his person did not appear. RENN believes that his works belong to Namibia and to all the people who will want to visit them, so he rejects any personal connotation including gender, except his Namibian nationality.”

“Personally,” Ferrario concludes, “I have enthusiastically embraced this philosophy and am committed to preserving the privacy of the Artist and the centrality of the works. For the organizers of the Pavilion, in line with RENN’s philosophy, the only thing that matters are the works, which will be viewable throughout the duration of Biennale Arte 2022. Anyone who comes to see them will be able to get their own idea about the real contents beyond sterile polemics that, among other things, never talk about the one thing that should be at the center of an exhibition: the work of art.”

Trying to dampen the controversy, the honorary consul of the Republic of Namibia, Petter Johannesen, also intervened just today: “Many are the articles that have been written regarding Namibia’s participation in the Art Biennale 2022,” he began in a letter in which he also spoke on the subject of thecurator’s experience. “Ki I have read all of them very carefully and in spite of myself I must state that they contain a lot of untrue information, probably written by someone who is not aware of the actual facts. The design of the Namibia Pavilion still remains the same as originally proposed. The latter born and conceived with very good intentions and assumptions was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Namibia, which welcomed and confirmed it from the beginning with enthusiasm. Curator Dr. Marco Ferrario (a graduate in philosophy and cognitive science) proposed as the only participating subject some works that are highly valued in Namibia, works that the author skillfully placed in the Kunene Desert. The works were chosen by him before even knowing the identity of the artist, who, I confirm is Namibian. It is clear that it was these assumptions that made it possible to obtain sponsorship from the Namibian government. The content of many of the articles seems to me to have little to do with art. The focus of the Biennial is to highlight art. It will be the visitors and the jury of the Biennial who will evaluate this very same.”

“As is often the case when something important is accomplished,” Johannesen continues, “there are always those who, either for some unknown personal reason or perhaps because they have failed to gain their own visibility, criticize and obstruct the work of others. I would also add that the project was fully funded by more than 20 sponsors who are supporters of Namibian culture. Of these only one withdrew in the process. Another reason that got me thinking was the fact that a person initially involved in the project withdrew even though he was aware of the works and the project from the beginning. In the last few weeks this person had proposed to add some new artists to the chosen artist. Unfortunately, by now because of such a tight schedule, it was not possible to accept his proposal.”

“The criticisms that have emerged in the articles I have read,” the consul concludes, “seem to me to want to discredit the work done. Instead, the goal should be to focus on the beautiful and on the opportunities that may result, for Namibian art, from participation in the Venice Biennale. The message from the artist of the works is to focus on the works instead of the character. I consider this his truly avant-garde and correct thinking. I believe that there should be absolutely no form of discrimination that can affect the authors. When I participate in exhibitions like the Biennale, my attention is captured initially by the artworks and then by the authors.”

Pictured: RENN, Rain for shade

Namibia Pavilion, curator: controversy rests on weak arguments

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