BBC Homepage World Service Education
BBC Homepagelow graphics version | feedback | help
BBC News Online
 You are in: Entertainment: Arts
Front Page 
World 
UK 
UK Politics 
Business 
Sci/Tech 
Health 
Education 
Entertainment 
Showbiz 
Music 
Film 
Arts 
TV and Radio 
New Media 
Reviews 
Talking Point 
In Depth 
AudioVideo 

Thursday, 7 June, 2001, 13:02 GMT 14:02 UK
Maori dancers wow Venice
Maori dancers
Maori dancers pose in St Mark's Square
A group of Maori dancers performed in St Mark's Square in Venice on Thursday to celebrate New Zealand's participation in the 49th Venice Art Biennale.

The 12 Maoris, in traditional dress and the men armed with spears, danced the Te Hae o te Ata at dawn.

Despite the early hour - the ceremony took place at about 0600 - about 100 spectators lined the square.

Maori dancer
The cermony began with a conch horn
The prestigious art festival, which celebrates the best in international visual arts every two years, is due to open officially on Saturday.

The exhibition will take place in a space called Platea dell'umanità or Plateau of Humankind, which is filled with pavilions showing individual country's contributions.

Britain is represented by Mark Wallinger, who has placed a Union Jack in the colours of the Irish tricolour over his exhibition.

Wallinger, 42, is a conceptual artist who featured on the Turner Prize shortlist in 1995 but is best-known for his sculpture for Trafalgar Square in London.

Ecce Homo - a Christ-like statue that graced the plinth in the square where Rachel Whiteread's Plinth now stands - was a great success in 1999.

Mark Wallinger
Wallinger's Ecce Homo will be on display in Venice
Wallinger makes videos, sculptures, installations, and once bought a horse which he raced under the name A Real Work Of Art.

The Biennale has already made headlines with the news that the Belgian artist Francis Alys has appointed a peacock as his representative.

The peacock will act as Alys's ambassador at the events, exhibitions, openings and parties that feature throughout the festival which continues over the summer.

But Alys will have hot competition from other pavilions - the Danish entrant is showing a cage of budgerigars with the title: "All the cage is a stage."

Other featured artists at the event are US sculptor and minimalist Richard Serra and US-born painter Cy Twombly.

Both will receive a Golden Lion Master of Contemporary Art.

Search BBC News Online

Advanced search options
Launch console
BBC RADIO NEWS
BBC ONE TV NEWS
WORLD NEWS SUMMARY
PROGRAMMES GUIDE
See also:

21 Jul 99 | UK
Christ comes to Trafalgar
30 May 01 | Arts
Turner Prize 2001: The artists
07 Jun 01 | Arts
In pictures: Venice Biennale
01 Jun 01 | Arts
In pictures: Summer Exhibition
Internet links:


The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

Links to more Arts stories are at the foot of the page.


E-mail this story to a friend

Links to more Arts stories