SaF05

In 2019, the Scotland + Venice partnership presented SaF05, a new single-channel video by 2018 Turner Prize-winning artist Charlotte Prodger for the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

This commission – the artist’s most ambitious to date – was curated by Linsey Young with Cove Park and took place from May – November 2019 at Arsenale Docks in the utilitarian workshop of a boatyard, repurposed for Prodger’s installation.

Much of Prodger’s work looks at subjectivity, self- determination and queerness. SaF05 is the last in a trilogy of videos that began with Stoneymollan Trail (2015) and was followed by BRIDGIT (2016). This autobiographical cycle traces the accumulation of affinities, desires and losses that form a self as it moves forward in time. SaF05 draws upon multiple sources – archival, scientific and diaristic – and combines footage from a number of geo-graphical locations (the Scottish Highlands, the Great Basin Desert, the Okavango Delta and the Ionian Islands).

SaF05 is named after a maned lioness that figures in the work as a cipher for queer attachment and desire. This animal is the last of several maned lionesses documented in the Okavango Delta and is only known to Prodger through a database of behaviours and camera-trap footage logged across several years. These indexes of SaF05’s existence are intersected with autobiographical fragments from Prodger’s own life that fluctuate between proximity and distance. Her voiceover traces a chronology of intimate gestures and interpersonal connections from prepubescence to the present, inscribed with the incidental details of territorial delineation, sovereignty and land use. Central to these fluctuations is a tension between macro and micro, the experienced and the described.

Prodger’s preoccupation with perspective, framing and the physicality of the camera as a sculptural device is expanded in SaF05. Film industry cameras, static camera traps, drones and small handheld devices such as Prodger’s smart phone are each used for their inherent material properties. The effects and affects of these technologies are reverberated in the voiceover’s references to optical devices, while vibrating frequencies – bagpipe drone, cicada mating call, battery alarm – form aural equivalences between animal and human, instrument and machine.

Exhibition Dates

May 11 2019 to November 20 2019

Opening Times

Tuesday to Sunday
10:00 – 18:00

Location

Arsenale Docks
S. Pietro di Castello, 40, 30122

An ex-industrial space dating back to the 1930s, the Arsenale Docks forms part of the historic and recently restored Cucchini Shipyard in Castello, overlooking the Canal di Sant’Anna. It is conveniently located at the top of via Garibaldi, between both the Arsenale and Giardini Biennale locations.

Profile

Charlotte Prodger

Charlotte Prodger was born in Bournemouth, UK in 1974. She studied at Goldsmiths, London and The Glasgow School of Art and lives and works in Glasgow. Selected solo exhibitions include: BRIDGIT/Stoneymollan Trail, Bergen Kunsthall; Subtotal, SculptureCenter, New York (2017); BRIDGIT, Hollybush Gardens, London; Charlotte Prodger, Kunstverein Düsseldorf (2016); 8004–8019, Spike Island, Bristol; Stoneymollan Trail, Temple Bar, Dublin (2015); Nephatiti, Glasgow International Director’s Programme; Markets (with The Block), Chelsea Space, London (2014); Percussion Biface 1-13, Studio Voltaire, London; Colon Hyphen Asterix, Intermedia CCA, Glasgow (2012); Handclap/Punchhole, Kendall Koppe, Glasgow (2011). Read more

21 May 2020 — News

The View from Here


'The View from Here' is a film created by British Council Scotland that captures the thoughts and experiences of the young Scottish artists who worked at the Scottish Pavilion during the Venice Biennale 2019, which hosted the work of Glasgow artist, Charlotte Prodger. Read more

15 November 2019 — News

Scotland + Venice to close early due to flooding

SaF05 Installation view

After careful consideration the Scotland + Venice partnership have decided to close Charlotte Prodger’s 2019 solo presentation of SaF05 early, due to the unprecedented recent flooding in Venice. Our sincere apologies for anyone hoping to visit us over the next week. Read more

7 November 2019 — News

Charlotte Prodger’s SaF05 receives homecoming screening at Aberdeen’s Belmont Filmhouse

Still from SaF05

Aberdeen’s Belmont Filmhouse will host a special film screening this month of new work by award winning, internationally acclaimed artist, Charlotte Prodger. The film, SaF05, was commissioned by the Scotland + Venice partnership for presentation at one of the world’s most prestigious visual arts festivals, La Biennale di Venezia, and has been showing there to critical and public acclaim, since May. Read more

Event

Tickets for UK premiere of Charlotte Prodger’s SaF05.

Tower Arts, Argyll & Bute

Tickets for the UK premiere of Charlotte Prodger’s SaF05 at The Tower Digital Arts Centre in Helensburgh, Argyll & Bute, on Thursday 27 June are available today, with further screenings at cinemas across Scotland’s west coast, highlands and islands until November. Read more

7 May 2019 — News

Charlotte Prodger: SaF05 – Scotland + Venice 2019 official Collateral Event for the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

SaF05 still (Charlotte Prodger)

The Scotland + Venice partnership presents SaF05, a new single-channel video by 2018 Turner Prize-winning artist Charlotte Prodger for the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. This commission – the artist’s most ambitious to date – is curated by Linsey Young with Cove Park and takes place from 11 May – 24 November 2019 at Arsenale Docks in the utilitarian workshop of a boatyard, repurposed for Prodger’s installation. Read more

7 March 2019 — News

The 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia confirms Charlotte Prodger’s Scotland + Venice presentation as official Collateral Event

Charlotte Prodger (Sara Lee)

Today the President of La Biennale di Venezia, Paolo Baratta, confirmed Charlotte Prodger’s Scotland + Venice presentation as one of the official Collateral Events of the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, May You Live In Interesting Times, to take place across Venice from 11 May – 24 November 2019. Read more

11 January 2019 — News

Scotland + Venice Professional Development Programme Opportunity announced


Scotland + Venice and Scottish Contemporary Art Network (SCAN) are looking for one Exhibition Assistant (for four weeks) and one Senior Exhibition Assistant (for ten weeks) to join the team taking part in the Scotland + Venice Professional Development Programme (PDP), for the Venice Biennale between May and November 2019. Read more

4 December 2018 — News

Congratulations Charlotte Prodger – 2018 Turner Prize winner!

Charlotte Prodger. Portrait, 2017. Photography © Emile Holba 2018

The Scotland + Venice partnership is delighted to extend huge congratulations to Charlotte Prodger, who has tonight won the 2018 Turner Prize, as well as to the other shortlisted artists Forensic Architecture, Naeem Mohaiemen and Luke Willis Thompson. Read more

27 August 2018 — News

Scotland + Venice 2019 Project Manager Announced

Emma McIntyre - Scotland + Venice 2019 Project Manager

We are delighted that Emma McIntyre will be joining the Scotland + Venice 2019 team as Project Manager. Emma McIntyre has produced and managed numerous large scale events, festivals and commissions, and has most recently held positions as Associate Producer at Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art and Tramway, Glasgow. Read more

31 May 2018 — Commission Announcement

Charlotte Prodger

On behalf of the Scotland + Venice partnership, Creative Scotland is delighted to announce that Charlotte Prodger has been selected to represent Scotland at the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Read more

Charlotte Prodger

Profile

Charlotte Prodger

Charlotte Prodger was born in Bournemouth, UK in 1974. She studied at Goldsmiths, London and The Glasgow School of Art and lives and works in Glasgow. Selected solo exhibitions include: BRIDGIT/Stoneymollan Trail, Bergen Kunsthall; Subtotal, SculptureCenter, New York (2017); BRIDGIT, Hollybush Gardens, London; Charlotte Prodger, Kunstverein Düsseldorf (2016); 8004–8019, Spike Island, Bristol; Stoneymollan Trail, Temple Bar, Dublin (2015); Nephatiti, Glasgow International Director’s Programme; Markets (with The Block), Chelsea Space, London (2014); Percussion Biface 1-13, Studio Voltaire, London; Colon Hyphen Asterix, Intermedia CCA, Glasgow (2012); Handclap/Punchhole, Kendall Koppe, Glasgow (2011). Read more