Shrine for Girls, Venice

Solo Collateral Event of the 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia
Curated by Ludovico Pratesi, Presented by Brooklyn Rail Curatorial Projects
Chiesa di San Gallo, Venice, Italy
May 6 – November 22, 2015

Patricia Cronin, Shrine for Girls, Venice
La Biennale di Venezia - 56th International Art Exhibition
Photo : beverly joel

Although the United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, women and girls around the world continue to be among the most vulnerable members of our global society. Often facing violence, repression, and enforced ignorance, this young female populace is subjected to a horrifying existence on earth.

Inside the exquisite sixteenth-century Church of San Gallo, where Bill Viola showed in 2007, New York-based conceptual artist Patricia Cronin has created a shrine in their honor. For over two decades, critically acclaimed artist Patricia Cronin has created compelling works, many with social justice themes focusing on gender. Here, she has gathered hundreds of girls’ clothes from around the world and arranged them on three stone altars to act as relics of these young martyrs. Commemorating their spirit, this dramatic site-specific installation is a meditation on the incalculable loss of unrealized potential and hopelessness in the face of unfathomable human cruelty; juxtaposed against the obligation and mission we have as citizens of the world to combat this prejudice

Works
All Photos by Mark Blower


 

Shrine For Girls (Chibok), hijabs and photograph, 2015

 

Shrine For Girls (Chibok), hijabs and photograph, 2015

 

Shrine For Girls (Uttar Pradesh), saris and photograph, 2015

 

Shrine For Girls (Uttar Pradesh), saris and photograph, 2015

 

Shrine For Girls (United Kingdom), aprons and photograph, 2015

 

Shrine For Girls (United Kingdom), aprons and photograph, 2015

 

For installation views click here

 

Press
For complete press visit shrineforgirls.org


 

"Patricia Cronin and the Body Politic: the American Artist on the Essential Role of Art in Feminism"
Financial Times | May 1 2015

"Venice Biennale Expands Its Scope"
The International New York Times | May 8 2015

"Patricia Cronin: 'A silent protest can be quite powerful' "
studio international | June 23 2015

"Mickalene Thomas’s Adventures in Italy"
The New York Times Style Magazine| June 17 2015

"American artist Patricia Cronin on creating 'Shrine for Girls'"
The Indian Express | June 14 2015

"From Grief to Action: Patricia Cronin on Her 'Shrine for Girls'"
Hyperallergic | May 23 2015

"More Marx than Dante"
The Spectator | May 16 2015

"Venice Highlights 2015: Pavilions and Collateral Events"
Art In America | May 11 2015

"Venice Biennale 2015: Why This Year Could Be More Political Than the General Election"
Independent | May 1 2015

"GliArtivisti"
Marie Claire Italia | May 2015

"Heartbreaking 'Shrine for Girls' Pays Tribute To Young Female Martyrs Around The World"
The Huffinton Post | April 14 2015

"Patricia Cronin : Shrine for Girls"
Orlando Magazine | April 19 2016

"How Should Art Address Human Rights?"
The Atlantic | April 4 2017