SZCZECIN.- TRAFO announced that Nicola Samorì, the artist of the current exhibition RELIGO, has been selected to represent Italy at the 56th Venice Biennale.

The official presentation of the exhibition catalogue will take place on the occasion of the public opening of the Biennale on May 9th at 16h at the Palazzo Loredan, the home of the Institute of Science, Letters and Arts in Venice.

RELIGO, Samori’s first ever institutional show in Poland, was designed with the aim of taking advantage of TRAFO’s unique architectural layout by means of a site-specific installation in the main hall. The title, which derives from the Latin word “re-ligare”, means to re-bind or re-connect, and emphasises the religious and art historical roots of Samorì’s artworks.

As part of a collaboration with the neighbouring St. John the Evangelist Church, TRAFO has commissioned an oil painting from Samori to be exhibited within the church hall as a way of encouraging dialogue about the division of religion and high culture in contemporary society.

In close collaboration with the curator and artist, the RELIGO catalogue aims to reproduce the atmosphere unique to TRAFO and the exhibition. Detailed installation shots as well as previously unpublished works are presented in a rich visual layout with text contributions from Friedhelm Mennekes, Mark Gisbourne, Chiara Ianeselli and Marie-Eve Lafontaine.

The catalogue is made possible by the generous support of the Italian Institute of Culture in Warsaw and Baltic Contemporary.

TRAFO would also like to take this opportunity to announce that the exhibition has been extended until April 6th and that a large, previously un-exhibited work, „School of Pan”, has been installed in the main hall to replace those which must be transported now to Venice.