51st Venice Biennale

me, you & them 2005

One of the major highlights in Hadzi-Vasileva’s artistic career to date has been her participation in the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005, exhibition organised by ArtSway Contemporary Art Gallery in the New Forest.

New Forest Pavilion is an exhibition presented during the vernissage period of the Venice Biennale 2005. It includes work by nine artist based in England, who have all undertaken production residencies at ArtSway. This selection of original new media, screen-based and lens-based work reflects the plurality of contemporary practice. Ranging from highly compelling and vivid video and projected installations to innovative sculptural computational landscapes, the works investigate a variety of current concerns.

Other artist included: Anna Best, Richard Billingham, boredomresearch, Alistair Gentry, John Gillett, Charlie Murphy, Emilia Telese and Kypros Kyprianou & Simon Hollington.

The work was created at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, Ireland where Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva was an artist in residency from January – April 2005.

The work on show, me, you & them, draws ideas from the history of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, where between the late 1600’s and early 1900’s The Royal Hospital was used as a residency for many old, sick and disabled soldiers. Using photography, image manipulation and different technical and timing formats, Elpida has used the architecture of the Museum to investigate notions of absences in time, following the journeys that have happened throughout the Museum’s existence and capturing the passing of time in the Museum courtyard space. Adapted from its original showing, two of the four short films are projected into the corner, joining together to complete an external space, internally. When the viewer enters the space their silhouette becomes part of the visual journey.