VENICE.- The Board of the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, has appointed Bice Curiger as Director of the Visual Arts Sector, with specific responsibility for curating the 54th International Art Exhibition to be held in 2011.

A graduate of the University of Zurich, Bice Curiger is an art historian, critic and curator of exhibitions at an international level. Since 1993, she has been curator at the Zurich Kunsthaus, one of the most important museums in the world for modern and contemporary art, and which has for years implemented a major exhibitions programme of international significance. Bice Curiger is co-founder and editor-in-chief of “Parkett”, one of the most authoritative and innovative contemporary art magazines in the world, published in Zurich and New York since 1984. Since 2004, she has been publishing director of the “Tate etc” magazine produced by London’s Tate Gallery. She is also the author of various publications and catalogues of contemporary art.

On the occasion of her nomination, Bice Curiger declared: “It is a great honour and a privilege to be asked to be the director of the Venice Biennale, one of the world’s most important and exceptional overviews on contemporary art. I am very much looking forward to the great challenge. La Biennale is an exhibition, which is traditionally attracting a wide-ranging public, from professionals to so-called "amateurs" and art lovers. This offers the opportunity to reflect on the highly communicative aspect of today's art, which strongly engages and commits viewers - draughting a contemporary image of the individual in the broad collective and social context”.

For his part, the President of the Biennale, Paolo Baratta, declared: "Bice Curiger can boast great experience in research into contemporary art, in its criticism and exhibition, and has matured a profound knowledge and esteem of the world of artists. These characteristics ensure that among the themes of the next Biennale there can be one – particularly important today – dedicated to the quality and intensification of the relationship between artists, works of contemporary art and today’s public”.