'The View from Here' is a film that captures the thoughts and experiences of the young Scottish artists who worked at the Scottish Pavilion during the Venice Biennale 2019.
The Scottish Pavilion is produced by Scotland + Venice, a partnership between British Council, Creative Scotland and the National Galleries of Scotland, which takes new work from Scotland to the prestigious Venice Biennale art festival. In 2019 the Pavilion hosted the work of Glasgow artist, Charlotte Prodger.
In February 2020 we published a blog describing a learning and evaluation event held with the young artists who took part in the 2019 Scotland + Venice professional development programme at the Scottish Pavilion.
This was an opportunity to share a documentary film made by one of the participants, Frances Driscoll, and give some insight into the learning experiences of the whole group.
As Creative Scotland’s Amanda Catto reflects in The View from Here, the team on the ground in Venice fulfil a vital role in looking after the artwork and audiences, while the participants describe the reciprocal benefit as nothing short of ‘life changing’.
Recording the participants’ experiences in their own voices, this short film provides an authentic and captivating insight into the value derived from being a part of the professional development programme.
The young people talk about the impact on their own art making and development as practitioners, of the social bonds established through their time in Venice, the opportunity to gain insight from the professional art world and to immerse in art work that is, in the words of one young person, ‘dynamic, controversial and intriguing’.
Essentially though, the international dimension of living and working in a different country, is clearly something highly prized by each of the participants, as they discuss the influence of experiencing local Venetian culture and engaging with new people from across the world.
Watch the film now.