Andrea Mancini and Every Island: A Comparative Dialogue Act

A comparative dialogue Act, a project by the Luxembourgish artist Andrea Mancini and the multidisciplinary collective Every Island, has been unanimously selected by an international jury to represent the Luxembourg Pavilion at the 60th International Venice Biennale. Joel Valabrega (Mudam Luxembourg - Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean), will be curating the pavilion.

The Pavilion
Conceived as a shared production space, the Pavilion will host, throughout the duration of the Venice Biennale, a number of guest artists who will produce and perform new sound performances, thereby expanding the definition of a collective artwork. The defining link between their artistic practices is the choice of sound as their medium. The artists will never physically cross paths during their respective residencies: they will share a collection of their sounds before the opening of the Pavilion as a basis for each of their work, and leave one after their passage. Thus, at once tapping into an existing sound library and in turn forming a new one, each of them will produce a soundscape—a synthesis of their own work and the traces left by their peers.

Having their practices strongly rooted in experimentation will make the process of exchange and pollination between each other’s contributions richer and more fluid. The thirty-week duration of the Biennale will be structured around the different cycles of residence and production of each artist. The space will remain continuously accessible to the public. Sound and space are tuned: the spatial elements—floor, walls, ceilings—are turned into sound devices, progressively shaping an immersive experience. The Pavilion is at once the space where the soundscape is produced, and where it is played—the studio and the stage—in a gesture of radical transparency.

Meet the team
Andrea Mancini (b. 1989) is a Luxembourgish artist and musician based in Brussels. Mancini’s practice is multidisciplinary and investigates the relation between space, form and the realm of sound through installations and video environments activated by performance practices. His recurrent work method consists in confronting the intangible materiality of sound, the tension it creates and the texture it unveils. Mancini’s work also uses codes from club-culture, a scene he as been a part of for a number of years under his alias ‘Cleveland’. The artist’s works have recently been shown in exhibitions, festivals and labels such as Rotondes (2023), Kalahari Oyster Cult (2023), Casino Luxembourg (2023) and Cité internationale des arts in Paris (2022), among others.

The collective Every Island was founded In Brussels in 2021 by Alessandro Cugola, Caterina Malavolti, Damir Draganic, Juliane Seehawer and Martina Genovesi. Their spatial research focuses on the role of performativity in architecture, which translates into volatile building projects and installations. Their projects develop spaces that are open to different uses and consequently abandon inherited binary and conventional models. Space becomes a design tool that defines an alternative common ground. By provoking a confrontation between the spectator and the work, Every Island ‘arrives at scenarios in which seeing, acting and imagining become fundamental’. The work of the collective has been shown in several institutions and performative arts festivals, including Mudam Luxembourg (2022), Santarcangelo dei Teatri (2022), VIERNULVIER (2022) and BOZAR (2023).  

Joel Valabrega (b. 1991) is Curator of Performance and Moving Image at Mudam Luxembourg. She holds a master’s degree in Architecture (Milano and Venice). Valabrega has worked within institutional contexts as well as in independent spaces. Valabrega is part of the curatorial team responsible for programming of MEGA, a Milanese project space. In the past she has worked as visiting curator at the V-A-C Foundation in Moscow & Venice (2018-2019). Recent exhibitions, performances and commissions include projects with Tarek Atoui, Alexandra Bachzetsis, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Cecilia Bengolea, Trajal Harrell, Ligia Lewis, Ari Benjamin Meyers and Nora Turato.

The jury
Adam Budak, Director, Kestner Gesellschaft Hannover
Michelle Cotton, Head of Artistic Programming and Content Department, Mudam Luxembourg
Hélène Doub, Head of the Visual Arts Department, Kultur | lx - Arts Council Luxembourg
Hélène Guénin, Director, MAMAC | Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain de Nice
Stilbé Schroeder, Curator, Casino Luxembourg- Forum d’art contemporain
Bettina Steinbrügge, Director, Mudam Luxembourg, President of the Jury
Joel Valabrega, Curator, Mudam Luxembourg

For the 60th International Venice Biennale, the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture has appointed Kultur | lx - Arts Council Luxembourg commissioner, and Mudam Luxembourg curator of the Luxembourg Pavilion.

Commissionner appointed by the Ministry of Culture Luxembourg:
Kultur | lx - Arts Council Luxembourg

Curator: Mudam Luxembourg - Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Joel Valabrega
Exhibitors: Andrea Mancini & Every Island

Date and venue: 60th International Venice Biennale 
Luxembourg Pavilion, Arsenale. Sale d’Armi 1st floor,
Sestiere Castello, Campo Della Tana 2169/F, 30122 Venice
April 20–November 24, 2024