Simon Denny has been selected to represent New Zealand at the 2015 Venice Biennale, E-Flux reports. The New Zealand pavilion will be curated by Robert Leonard, Chief Curator at City Gallery Wellington. New Zealand commissioner for the 2015 Venice Biennale, Heather Galbraith said “Simon and Robert’s partnership is very exciting, their presentation in the New Zealand pavilion will continue to build on out reputation as a country with a potent and relevant visual arts community.”
Denny’s project addresses relationships between geography, knowledge and power in the context of access to information post-Snowden. The show will analyze how nations collect intelligence whilst considering New Zealand’s role in the international gathering of intelligence. The ideas will be expressed using an installation that combines sculpture graphics and moving image.
Galbraith describes Denny as “One of the most high-profile New Zealand artists working internationally. His intelligent, challenging work is characterized by its fascination with technological advancement and developing modes of communication. We are confident his project will be relevant and compelling.”
Denny was born in Aukland in 1982, he studied at the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland and at Frankfurt’s Städelschule, graduating in 2009. He now lives and works in Berlin. The young artist has been featured in several international museum exhibitions including at the ICA, London; Kunsthaus Bregenz; KW Center for Contemporary Art, Berlin; and at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.