In Venice on Saturday, the biennale will begin, the Czech Republic will be represented by Kolíbal

Prague - The 58th edition of the International Biennale of Contemporary Art will begin in Venice on Saturday. The Czech Republic will be represented by Stanislav Kolíbal in the pavilion shared with Slovakia. The largest exhibition of its kind will last until November 24. Ninety-three-year-old Kolíbal, who was born in the same year that Czechoslovakia opened its pavilion in the gardens of the Venetian castle, has prepared a retrospective of his work for Italy.

The theme of this year's biennale is the old Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times," which refers to times of unrest and uncertainty. Time is also one of the fundamental elements of Kolíbal's work, and different eras have brought different perspectives on the perception of creation in his life.

The Czechoslovak pavilion is one of the oldest in the Venetian gardens, built in 1925 by Otakar Novotný. Since the division of Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic has alternated with Slovakia in preparing the exhibition in the pavilion, so this year, after four years, the exhibition has been organized by the National Gallery in Prague. The opening of the pavilion is traditionally attended by the leadership of the NGP and representatives of the Ministry of Culture; all national pavilions gradually open to journalists and experts three days before the gates open to the public on Saturday.

Following the dismissal of NGP director Jiří Fajt, Ivan Morávek has been appointed as the crisis manager to lead the gallery. The gallery stated in a press release that Morávek has appointed Adam Budak as the commissioner for the Czech and Slovak pavilions. Morávek announced that he would not attend the opening in Venice for work reasons. Minister of Culture Antonín Staněk will attend the opening of the Czech exhibition.

"I regret that I will not participate in this world exhibition of art. Unfortunately, the current tasks and responsibilities aimed at stabilizing the institution and fixing this year's exhibition plan do not allow me to participate either in terms of time or capacity," Morávek stated.

Stanislav Kolíbal is a representative of conceptual art and a significant figure in Czech art over the past few decades. His works are referred to by art historians as emotional geometry; having moved from figurative sculpture to studying natural shapes and minimalistic language of geometry and abstraction. The jury selected his project, which will represent the Czech Republic in Venice, from 23 submissions.

"My participation in this biennale is actually a hint of a small retrospective. The oldest exhibit is from 1963, and two exhibits were created last year. I chose 1963 as the starting point because that was when I began working on architectural tasks with geometry due to collaboration," Kolíbal said at a press conference in January. The curator of the project is the Austrian art historian Dieter Bogner.

The Venice Biennale always attracts over half a million international visitors. It was first held in 1885.