Diaspora Pavilion
“Established practitioners can help emerging artists by giving advice and support at a critical stage in their careers. This important and exciting initiative breaks new ground and brings some of the best young artists to international attention in Venice” Sir Nicholas Serota, Chairman of Arts Council England.
Co-founded by Nicola Green, Peter Clayton, David Lammy and David A. Bailey, the Diaspora Pavilion was an exhibition during the 2017 Venice Biennale, staged at the Palazzo Pisani San Marina. The project was the culmination of a 22-month programme in which twelve emerging artists were brought together with ten established artists, delivering mentoring and professional development in order to provide key strategies to enable artists from culturally diverse backgrounds to take up ambitious roles in the arts.
Diaspora Pavilion CATALOGUE
Exhibiting Artists
Remembering Khadija Saye
Bate Bola AT DIASPORA PAVILION
“...As if to prove you can make art that is politically engaged and a joy to experience, the Diaspora pavilion in the Palazzo Pisani features a squad of displaced artists from Britain, young and old, who have created one of the Biennale’s best events.” The Times
“This is a pavilion created because artists of complex, multinational backgrounds and black women artists, especially find that the doors of high art are closed to them. The Diaspora Pavilion had one of the most ebullient opening ceremonies and a kicking party afterwards, with a long queue of jostling hopefuls spilling out on to the street.... But when those who are marginalised and excluded create space for themselves in an environment that would otherwise be inhospitable to their persons and their work, the response is bewilderment at first and then resistance.” M Neelika Jayawardane, Al Jazeera
““The mentoring project bodes well for future British representation at the Biennale in an uncertain Brexit world. In the words of Emma Dexter, chair of the British Council committee that selected Barlow, “Cultural connections between the UK and other European nations are more important than ever.”” Royal Academicians Magazine
