Francesca Valentini is a modern and contemporary art historian and critic. She teaches the History of Photography at Ecole Supérieure des Arts de l’Image LE 75 in Brussels where she also supervises academic quality and sustainability. Her reseach interests focus on artist’s publications, the history and socio-political relevance of international exhibitions (with a focus on the Venice Biennale), and art education. Her forthcoming book Art Book, Artist’s Book, Exhibition Catalogue is in perparation (Cologne: König).
Scholarship 2025 - Francesca Valentini, Phd, The alchemy of representation: Sigmar Polke in Venice
Francesca Valentini, Phd, The alchemy of representation: Sigmar Polke in Venice
The Alchemy of Representation: Sigmar Polke in Venice explores the artist’s enduring relationship with the Venice Biennale, focusing especially on Athanor (1986), a site-specific installation that Polke created for the German Pavilion at the 42nd Biennale di Venezia. The project aims to catalog and contextualize Polke’s presence in Venice as well as to assess how Athanor reflects and refracts the concept of national representation across time — from the divided Germany of the 1980s to contemporary critiques, such as Maria Eichhorn’s Relocating a Structure (2022).
Polke’s participation at the Biennale was frequent and significant. He debuted in 1980 with Kartoffelhaus (1967), Grattacielo(1968), and Incontro telepatico (1968), and returned in 1986 as the official representative of the Federal Republic of Germany.
It was in this pivotal year that he unveiled Athanor — a constellation of works named after the alchemical furnace, symbolizing transformation and long-burning experimentation. Positioned within the stern neoclassical structure of the German Pavilion (built in 1938 under Nazi rule), Athanor took on potent political and spatial significance.
One work, Polizeischwein (1986), greeted visitors outside, provocatively displayed next to the freshly added inscription Bundesrepublik Deutschland — a detail charged with Cold War resonance, as both East and West Germany were then exhibiting separately at the Biennale.
Despite fully activating the pavilion with his ambitious installation, Polke was not awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Pavilion. Instead, he received one of the two Golden Lions for Best Artist. This decision by the jury could be interpretated as a subtly reframing of Polke’s work: less as a national statement and more as an individual act of transformation.
His connection with Venice continued well beyond 1986. In 1993, Polke presented three monumental canvases as part of Araldico, alongside Buren, Clemente, and Twombly. He returned again in 1999, 2003, and in 2007 with the remarkable Axial Age series — seven vast canvases installed in the luminous main hall of the Palazzo delle Esposizioni. In 2011, at the 54. Venice Biennale, artistic director Bice Curiger — a long-time admirer of Polke — dedicated a full room to the artist, in the international show at Giardini. She chose five works from 2007 and notably, Polizeischwein from 1986, linking back to Athanor and emphasizing the continuity of Polke’s themes: national identity, irony, and transformation. Curiger’s exhibition, ILLUMInations, explicitly questioned the relevance of national pavilions and invited viewers to consider artists as sources of both intellectual and spiritual light — making her selection of Polizeischwein all the more poignant.
In a 1984 interview between Curiger and Polke, the two exchanged wry, ironic thoughts on national identity — remarks that gain new meaning when considered alongside Athanor and the specific context of the Venice Biennale.[1] From Cold War divides to today’s debates on post-nationalism, Polke’s interventions resonate as both historically grounded and prophetically relevant.
The Anna Polke Stiftung scholarship provides me a meaninful opportunity to deepen and expand my research in multifaceted ways. It enables me to carry out extensive archival work at the ASAC – the Historical Archives of Contemporary Art of the Venice Biennale – with a particular focus on Polke’s multiple participations, and most notably his 1986 contribution, Athanor. I will also gain access to the Anna Polke Foundation’s archives, including materials directly related to Athanor as well as broader documentation of Polke’s involvement with the Venice Biennale over the years.
Drawing on my long-standing involvement with the Biennale, both as an art mediator and a researcher, I intend to contextualize the archival research within the wider history of the Venetian institution, the evolving debates around the concept of national representation and the (historical) relevance of national pavillions. My research will culminate in a critical essay reflecting on the ongoing significance of Athanor, and how it continues to resonate in contemporary discussions surrounding identity, nationhood, and artistic agency. In parallel, I plan to produce a podcast to bring this research to a wider audience, translating complex ideas into accessible and compelling storytelling. In doing so, I hope to not only share Polke’s legacy with a broader public but also to spark dialogue about how art, across time, can illuminate — and challenge — the structures that shape our collective understanding of the world.
[1] “Ein Bild ist an sich schon eine Gemeinheit: Bice Curiger im Gespräch mit Sigmar Polke,” Parkett, no. 26 (1990): 6-16, 11-12; (first published in Art Press, no. 91, Avril 1985).