New Zealand Pavilion at 56th Venice Biennale

Simon Denny

Secret Power

Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana
Monumental Rooms
Piazzetta San Marco 13/A
Entrance next to Gran Caffé Chioggia in Piazzetta San Marco
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10am–6pm

Marco Polo Airport
Arrivals Lounge (airside area—the installation cannot be viewed unless you are arriving on a flight)

Simon Denny’s project for the New Zealand pavilion is split across two spaces—the arrivals areas of the Marco Polo Airport and the Monumental Rooms of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Piazzetta San Marco. The installation at the airport is situated within the airside area, unmissable for passengers arriving within both the Schengen and non-Schengen arrivals halls.

Secret Power addresses the intersection of knowledge and geography in the post-Snowden era. It investigates current and obsolete languages for describing geo-political space, focusing on the roles played by technology and design. The contexts and histories of both venues provide highly productive frameworks for Secret Power, and have been directly engaged with through the work.

This major project follows the opening of the largest US museum solo exhibition of Simon Denny’s work to date. Simon Denny: The Innovator’s Dilemma at MoMA PS1 adopts the architectural typology of the industry trade show, staging literal platforms for content drawn from recent bodies of his work. It is on view 3 April to 7 September 2015.