LONDON, ENGLAND.- The British Council is delighted to announce that Tracey Emin has been selected to represent Britain at the 52nd Venice Biennale, 2007. The artist will produce new work especially for the British Pavilion. Born in London in l963, but brought up in Margate, Emin's work draws with ineffable candor on her life and times. Using a wide variety of media - from needlework, photography and video to drawing, painting, sculpture and neon - Emin both pricks pretensions and tells a story with a unique and increasingly compelling voice. Shortlisted for the Turner Prize in l999, she has had several solo exhibitions in Europe, among them at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2002.

The Venice Biennale will provide an opportunity to see new work by Emin following her recent highly acclaimed exhibition 'When I think about sex' (White Cube, London, 2005). The British Council is the UK’s international organization for educational opportunities and cultural relations. They operate in 220 towns and cities in 110 countries worldwide. They build relationships and understanding between people in the UK and other countries and increase appreciation of the UK’s ideas and achievements overseas. The areas we focus on are creativity, education and civil society. They are a non-political organization which operates at arm’s length from government. Their income in 2005/06 was £517 million, of which our grant-in-aid from the British government was £189 million.