Courier Country audiences are to be given a rare opportunity to savour the work which thrilled an international audience at one of the world’s most important contemporary arts events.
Earlier this year, Graham Fagen used the work of Robert Burns as the centrepiece for his innovative Venice Biennale project in the spectacular setting the Palazzo Fontana on the city’s Grand Canal.
Taking his inspiration from the Bard’s work The Slave’s Lament, Mr Fagen collaborated with reggae musician Ghetto Priest, music producer Adrian Sherwood, classical composer Sally Beamish and musicians from the Scottish Ensemble for the Scotland + Venice 2015 event.
The project was curated by Hospitalfield in Arbroath and the renowned Angus arts hub has now unveiled plans for an exhibition of the work at the venue in March.
Mr Fagen, a senior lecturer at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee, will reinterpret the body of work he made for the Venice exhibition.
The sculpture, drawing and moving images which graced the four noble rooms of the Palazzo Fontana will be installed in a variety of rooms at Hospitalfield, the mansion bequeathed by 19th Century artist Patrick Allan-Fraser.
Mr Fagen said the Venice exhibition reflected the impact of reggae music on his own life growing up in Burns’ home area of Ayrshire.
The poem is a statement against slavery and Burns published a volume of works to try to raise money for a ticket to Jamaica to work there, but his writings led to success and he never left Scotland.
Hospitalfield director Lucy Byatt said: “I am delighted to be working with Graham again and to be bringing this exhibition, in its new form, devised specifically for the rooms of Hospitalfield House, back to Scotland.”
“We look forward to hosting the many visitors from the region and from much further afield when they come to visit us.
Simon Dessain, chair of the Governors of Hospitalfield added: “Being selected to curate the 2015 Scotland + Venice project was a significant honour for Hospitalfield, and a sign of its growing international status.
“Bringing Graham Fagen’s work back to Scotland and to Hospitalfield in March 2016, for its first exhibition since the close of the Venice Biennale, provides an opportunity for everyone in Angus and nearby areas to see this remarkable work.’
The exhibition will run from March 19 to April 17.