VENICE, ITALY.- Casino di Commercio presents My Private # 5 - Kris Martin, curated by Barbara Casavecchia and Anna Daneri. How do you show and yet not show a private collection? How do you give a public exhibition the dimension of a domestic space, given the collector's obsession for monumental sculptures and installations? And how do you deal with the fact that he wishes to remain anonymous, but not invisible? The exhibit-project MY PRIVATE - conceived by Barbara Casavecchia, Anna Daneri and Paola Manfrin - tries to confront these questions and their multiple paradoxes. In a game of role reversal, the collector is thus transformed into the commander not only of unique works of art, but of unique solo-shows, set up by guest artists once a year. These nomadic and site-specific exhibitions -squat' different places and architectures, with no relation to art. Everything is thought out for a brief opening, as if it were a furtive intrusion into a bank vault. The only evidence that testifies to the event is a bilingual publication in a limited edition, unveiling private aspects of the artist's work and documenting its presence in the collection.

With Kris Martin's exhibition, MY PRIVATE reaches its fifth edition and it lands in Venice, at the Casino di Commercio, at the first floor of Le Procuratie Vecchie in Piazza S. Marco, with three days of opening.

MY PRIVATE was inaugurated in 2003 with a labyrinth intervention by Gregor Schneider inside a building site at via Pasteur 21 in Milan, followed in 2004 by a neon installation, video and light show by Patrick Tuttofuoco developed in collaboration with the electronic group BHF. In 2005, MY PRIVATE moved to an industrial warehouse in the Milanese hinterland, to house the ironic, monumental works of Michael Sailstorfer, who on this occasion invited three young artists from Munich (Anna Friedel, Franka Kaßner and Petra Gregorovic) for a musical performance. In 2006, MY PRIVATE migrated to Turin, in Via Lagrange, hosted under the dome of a recently restored old Baptist church of the end of the XIX century, with paintings and huge installations and two new performances by Pietro Roccasalva.

From November 19, 2005 to 05 February 11, 2006, MY PRIVATE performed its debut in an institutional space, the Centre d'Art Contemporain de l'Ile de Vassivie're, in Limousin, France, under the direction of Chiara Parisi. The group exhibition -My Private Escaped from Italy- involved the artists - Francis Alÿs, Micol Assaël, Kris Martin, Michael Sailstorfer, Hans Schabus, Gregor Schneider, Patrick Tuttofuoco - in a close dialogue with the post modernist architecture of the art space designed by Aldo Rossi and with the untamed nature surrounding it. Michael Sailstorfer's installation Waldputz will remain in the park of l'Ile de Vassivie're as a permanent trace of the event.

For MY PRIVATE # 5, Kris Martin will occupy the XIX century salons of the Casino di Commercio, with a view on the Campanile di San Marco, presenting a new, sharp, menacing, and out of scale work. The experience of time and the desire to comprehend it, whether by marking its passing or transcending the present, plays a significant role in Martin's works. Their subtle presence compels the viewers to question their own position not only in relation to the artwork, but also within the broader framework of existence. As for an example did -Mandi III- (2003), the monumental black information flipboard installed inside St. Johannes Evangelist Church, at the beginning of Auguststrasse; an ominous presence that, with its tireless rattling, engaged the public of the 4th Berlin Biennale - curated by Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni and Ali Subotnik.

KRIS MARTIN Born in 1972 in Kortrijk, Ghent (Belgium), where he works and lives. Solo shows: 2000, Wahnsinn, Gardens of the Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium. 2004, Beaulieu Gallery, Wortegem-Petegem, Belgium. 2005, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen; Sies + Höke Galerie, Düsseldorf; 2006, DEUS EX MACHINA, Johann König, Berlin; 2007 Marc Foxx, Los Angeles (April-May); Sies + Höke Galerie, Düsseldorf (June). Upcoming: in the fall, PS1 + Rockefeller Center NYC, curated by Neville Wakefield; Frieze Art Fair - Special Proiects; Gehen Bleiben, Kunstmuseum Bonn (November). Group exhibitions: 2003, The distance between Me and You, Lisson Gallery, London; Gelijk het leven is, SMAK Gent. 2005, SEE history - der private Blick, Kunsthalle Kiel. 2006, Faster! Bigger! Better!, Signetwerke der Sammlungen, ZKM, Museum für neue Kunst, Karlsruhe; Protections, Kunsthaus + Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz; Of Mice and Men, 4th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art, Berlin; My private escaped from Italy, Ile de Vassivie're. 2007 Absent Without Leave, Victoria Miro Gallery, London; Some Time Waiting, Kadist Foundation, Paris; Troubleyn/ Laboratorium, Jan Fabre's Studio, Antwerp ; Learn to Read, Tate Modern, London (4 May -24 June). Upcoming: Traces du sacre', Centre Pompidou, Paris (2008).