Survey II artist Cinzia Mutigli, Jerwood New Work Fund artist Phoebe Davies and Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries Fellows Farah Allibhai and Cynthia MaiWa Sitei have been announced as Wales Venice 10 Fellows alongside Paul Eastwood, Heledd C Evans, Rebecca Jagoe, Rhiannon Lowe, Owain McGilvary and Jennifer Taylor.
Wales Venice 10 Fellowship is a unique, 6 month paid opportunity for ten individuals working in the visual arts in Wales. Fellows will spend time reflecting on the potential of developing their practice internationally, make new connections with peers in the Fellowship and with visual artists and professionals working internationally, and explore the opportunities and challenges that the Venice Biennale has to offer. Arts Council Wales 2022 paused their participation in Venice Biennale after nine exhibitions to rethink their approach to the Biennale and to international working, and work with artists on a different way of marking their 10th edition.
The Fellows will receive a grant of £15,000 and will be given the opportunity to participate in a development programme delivered by Artes Mundi. They will undertake self-directed research, training and mentoring and to research and/or engage with the Venice Biennale 59th International Art Exhibition in a meaningful way.
The programme aims to support individuals with a diversity of lived experiences and across a range of points in career, and to provide them with the networks, skills and knowledge to enable them to fulfil their international ambitions and explore new approaches to achieve this.
The selection panel included Amanda Cachia, curator, writer and art historian who specializes in disability art activism; Harriet Cooper, curator and currently Head of Visual Arts at Jerwood Arts and a member of the Arts Council of Wales Venice Advisory Committee; Prabhakar Pachpute, an artist based in India and a former winner of the Artes Mundi prize; Bedwyr Williams, an artist based in Wales who represented Wales in Venice in 2013. The panel was chaired by Louise Wright, Portfolio Manager, Arts Council of Wales.
Cinzia Mutigli
Based in Cardiff, Cinzia Mutigli works across film, writing, sound, performance and printed imagery making work linking her own story to wider cultural histories. Her work is concerned with mental health and wellbeing and their intersection at personal, professional and creative junctures. She considers how domestic, socio-political and popular cultural environment interact to impact our persona, psychologies and sense of self.
Recent projects include: I’ve Danced at Parties, Survey ll, Jerwood Arts (2021); Sweet Wall, Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh (2020); Cheery Like Lorraine Kelly’s Cheery (text) for ON CARE, Ma Biblioteque (2020); My Boring Dreams featuring Kylie, Neneh, Whitney and the Gang for Chips & Egg, The Sunday Painter Gallery, London (2019); and Diana Ross Shaped, Cubitt, London (2018). In 2022 Cinzia was the recipient of the Wakelin Award, awarded by The Friends of The Glynn Vivian for her film installation, Sweet Wall.
Phoebe Davies
Phoebe Davies lives and works in the Vale of Glamorgan. She creates work across moving-image, print and sound. Her practice is formed by long-term fieldwork and is often shaped by collaborative models of working from different social and cultural sectors, including methodologies from athleticism, activism, speculative fiction and organic farming. She regularly works with and in response to individuals, communities and locations. Habitually she uses the lens, body and voice to explore the subtleties and tensions of visceral human experiences and personal politics.
Parallel to her solo practice she is part of the artist duo Bhebhe&Davies, directing performance work spanning stage and screen. Her work has been shown in galleries, educational institutions, and the public realm, including Festival of Voice (Cardiff), Tate Modern (London), Site Gallery (Sheffield), and the Wellcome Collection (London). She is currently a recipient of g39’s Freelands Artist Fellowship in Cardiff.
Farah Allibhai
Farah Allibhai is a Ugandan-born, Gujarati Shia Ismaili Muslim who has lived in Cardiff for most of her life. This gives her a unique international cultural framework and intersectional lens which informs her work and life’s journey. As a multi-disciplinary artist and curator, her work centres around the process of self-discovery, self-realization, self- actualisation and healing the inner-self. Drawing on her lived experience, inspired by diversity, the metaphysical and the spiritual, she questions how we can connect to ourselves, the environment, and the communities in which we find ourselves. Her work is observational, performative and site-specific.
Farah was awarded a Weston Jerwood Fellowship in 2021 as curatorial assistant at Artes Mundi. She was instrumental in setting up the collective 1800hrs and is currently a member of Aurora Trinity Collective and Disability Arts Cymru.
Cynthia MaiWa Sitei
Cynthia MaiWa Sitei is a Kenyan British curator and documentary photographer based in Cardiff. As curator at Ffotogallery, she has been involved on a number of projects including curating two group exhibitions that showcased the exceptional and thought-provoking work of visual artists from Africa. Her work integrates photography and text, and explores themes of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. Cynthia believes, that to broaden the arts sector, we need to involve different and new voices that offer new perspectives which challenge and question.
Find Out More
Find out more about the Fellowship here.
Find out more about the Fellows here.
