Paolo W. Tamburella represents the Union of the Comoros at the 53rd Venice Biennale

Paolo W. Tamburella's project addresses the problems of cultural erosion and economic and social transformations connected to modernity by focusing on the djahazi, the traditional vessels of the Comoros Islands used until 2006 to transport containers to the docks of the capital Moroni. In 2006, following the modernization of the port carried out by a company of the United Arab Emirates, the use of the djahazi was prohibited, thus interrupting a longstanding tradition of Comorian dockers on the islands. In the words of Octavio Zaya, in his text for the Biennale general catalogue, 'Paolo W. Tamburella has fixed and restored five of the twenty-eight boats forsaken at the port, with the help of workers from Moroni, but not as an antiquarian and nostalgic affectation. On the contrary, in Venice, these vessels, which will be loaded with the regular shipping containers used in most of today's trade, will stand as a metaphor for an ambivalent globality, bringing together hope and despair * emergence and emergency, in a sort of cautionary tale about the new forms of the expendable in a world of uncertainty and transition *.' The boats will arrive in Venice managed by the dockers of Moroni and loaded with containers just as they were until 2006, docking in front of the Giardini della Biennale, where they will stay for the entire period of the Biennale.

Paolo W. Tamburella (Rome, 1973) is an Italian artist living in Rome and New York.With the use of different medias, including video, installation and performance, Tamburella creates documents that investigate globalization and postcolonial conditions connected to modernization.
Among his past exhibitions: Wonder - Singapore Biennale - 2008; Inscriptions - Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Guarene - 2007; Post-Cards - S. Maria Novella Train Station - Florence - 2006; Annina Nosei Gallery - New York - 2003 and 2001 ; Megaptere - Acquario Romano - Rome - 2001. Among his upcoming exhibitions: What remains, toward an aesthetic of disappearance - MUSAC - León - Spain - 2010; How to - 11th Istanbul Biennial - Kumbaraci Yokusu- Istanbul - Turkey - 2009 ; Unsteady Balance - Yautepec Gallery - Mexico City - 2009

Wahidat Hassane, National Director of Culture, Youth and Sport of The Union of the Comoros.

Octavio Zaya, Advisor of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León and of Performa (New York), Octavio Zaya is co-director of Atlantica. Member of the NKA Journal of Contemporary African Art and US correspondent for Flash Art. Zaya was one of the curators of Documenta 11 directed by Okwui Enwezor.

Contact: Alex Auriema 339 253 96 10
info@djahazi.net
www.djahazi.net