Maori dancers wow Venice

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.

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.

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.