THE BRITISH COUNCIL’S 2024 VENICE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME
We are delighted to be part of the British Council’s 2024 Venice Fellowship programme, and to offer an opportunity for two artists from the North West to spend a month in Venice during the world’s most important art and architecture biennales.
The Fellowships Programme is a key part of the British Council’s presence in Venice, supporting the exhibition programme as well as being a platform for the development of artists and creatives. The Fellowship offers a unique opportunity for early career artists to represent the UK on an international level whilst broadening their perspective, making connections and developing their creative practice.
What is the Venice Biennale?
From May to November, alternating between art and architecture, the Venice Biennale (Italian: La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation.
The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of its kind. The official Biennale exhibition is spread across two venues in the east of the city: the Arsenale and the Giardini. The Giardini, an area of parkland, houses the Central exhibition Pavilion and 29 national pavilions. Each of them, including the British Pavilion, presents its own showcase from a particular country or region.
Artist and film-maker John Akomfrah will represent the UK at the Venice Biennale in 2024. Akomfrah, who was honoured with a knighthood in the 2023 honours list, is known for his art films and multiscreen video installations exploring issues such as racial injustice, diasporic identities, migration and climate breakdown. Next year the Ghanaian-born artist’s work will fill the British pavilion at Venice from April until November.
For more information about John Akmofrah’s exhibition go to Listening All Night To The Rain at the British Pavilion 2024 | British Council
About the Fellowship Programme
The Fellowship programme supports approximately 70 artists and creatives from across the UK to attend the Venice Biennale for one month every year. Fellows spend half their time working at the British Pavilion, acting as Exhibition Ambassadors and interacting with visitors and supporting the exhibition. The other half of the time in Venice is dedicated to artists being able to develop or exhibit their own independent research or creative project and using the Biennale as a platform for artistic and professional development.
Find out more about the Fellowship Programme here: Venice Fellowships 2024 | British Council
MEET our 2024 venice biennale fellows
Amy Townsend-Lowcock
Amy is a multimedia artist and researcher with an interest in memory, identity, and (post)colonial histories. Inspired by documentary techniques, historical archiving processes, and installation art, she creates live performances that invite audiences to re-imagine British identity. Her performance work includes ‘My Fruits’ (HOME Manchester, 2023) and ‘Handle with Care’ (Contact Theatre, 2022).
Read More about Amy Townsend-Lowcock’s work below.
“I applied for the Venice Biennale Fellowship as John Akomfrah is my favourite artist. My practice has been heavily influenced by his experimental approach to exploring diasporic experiences through non-linear, ambiguous, resistant filmmaking. I am thrilled at the prospect of connecting to his work on a deeper level and expanding my understanding through conversations with visitors and other fellows.” – Amy Townsend-Lowcock
Project Title: Mixed-Up
Amy’s Mixed-Up project will investigate how multimedia art can be used to document Black British histories without reinforcing (neo)colonial ideas of the Other. With a particular focus on mixed-race experiences, Amy will be exploring how diasporic artists at the Venice Biennale engage with their transnational identities and offer new perspectives to their nation’s stories. On return to the UK, she will create a short multimedia performance and deliver two workshops, sharing her research about documenting difference with digital artforms.
Connect:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_ajlt_/
Website: www.ajlt.myportfolio.com
Isabella So
Isabella is a multidisciplinary artist based in Manchester. She draws upon her unique cultural identity as both a Hong Konger and Korean to explore themes of identity, memory, and slice-of-life stories with a comedic twist. Raised on the power of storytelling, Isabella approaches her work in performance, directing, and projection design with a focus on uplifting diverse narratives and engaging audiences through immersive techniques. During her theatre studies at Coventry University, Isabella began experimenting with video projections and devised performance pieces that delved into questions of identity and memory. Since graduating, she has continued to hone her experimental, contemporary approach, fusing elements of comedy, technology, and cultural commentary.
Read More about Isabella So’s work below.
Most recently, Isabella has been involved with The Edge’s Social Engaged Theatre Maker programme, developing her practice by collaborating with adults with complex needs to create inclusive, high-quality theatre. This work has further solidified her passion for using the performative arts as a means of connection and empowerment. Beyond the stage, Isabella enjoys exploring other creative outlets like dance, where movement is essential to her process. She is always seeking new ways to merge physicality, technology, and the power of storytelling to forge deep connections with audiences.
“Stepping into the Venice Fellowship Programme has been a transformative experience that has opened my eyes to the incredible power of the arts to bridge divides and uplift marginalized narratives. Seeing the sheer depth of research and unwavering passion that each of my fellow artists brings to their projects has ignited a new fire within me. As someone who has personally grappled with access and opportunity barriers in the arts due to my background, I’m profoundly grateful that this program embraces and elevates voices like mine. I’m brimming with excitement to continue exploring the intersection of my own multidisciplinary practice and socially conscious storytelling through this unparalleled platform. This experience has only strengthened my conviction that the arts hold the keys to revealing our shared humanity, even amidst our diversity.” – Isabella So
Project Title: Dishing Out Memories
As a multidisciplinary theatre artist with a mixed cultural background, Isabella is inspired by Akomfrah’s socially engaged filmmaking to create a cross-cultural verbatim theatre piece that uplifts and humanizes migrant narratives. In Venice, she will conduct interviews with those from diverse origins about their journeys, challenges, and aspirations, focusing on how making food at home changes when you move countries.
Back in Manchester, a city rapidly diversifying with new immigrant communities, she will collaborate with local organizations to develop an evocative, immersive production centred around welcoming and embracing cultural exchange. Live actors will perform the verbatim script while projected interviews captioned in multiple languages complement the narrative by putting relatable human faces to the stories. Her bicultural upbringing provides empathy to sensitively shape the interviews into a dramatic work building cross-cultural bridges.
She will thoroughly document her creative process, sharing methodologies that unite divides. This project is an invaluable opportunity to use her theatre and film skills to amplify marginalised voices while significantly expanding my artistic practice and social awareness. By fostering exchange through the shared experience of food and home, she hopes to reveal our common humanity underneath surface differences. Her mixed identity gives her a unique, multicultural lens to approach this timely, socially conscious project.
Connect:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/issabellaso/
