After a two-year delay due to the pandemic, the 59th iteration of the Venice Biennale international art exhibition opened in April 2022. As the first global gathering of artists since the onset of the pandemic, much of the art on display reflected the urgent issues rippling through communities and brought into sharp focus by the global health crisis. 

Representing Australia at the Venice Biennale is Melbourne-based artist and noise musician Marco Fusinato in an exhibition curated by Sydney-based Alexie Glass-Kantor. 

Entitled DESASTRES, Fusinato developed the work in Naarm/Melbourne during one of the world’s longest lockdowns as a way to embrace the frustration, pessimism and turmoil the artist felt isolated from his community and unable to access his studio. DESASTRES takes the form of a durational experimental noise project that synchronises sound with image and displayed on an enormous LED screen that cuts across the gallery. In a first for Australia at the Venice Biennale, DESASTRES sees Fusinato perform for the entire 200-day duration of the 2022 event. DESASTRES “is about the act of labour and perseverance” says Glass-Kantor.

In 2022 Gatherer was appointed by the Australia Council and PR firms Sutton (London) and Articulate (Sydney) to produce media collateral and an exclusive live-stream of Fusinato’s performance for a select group of global journalists.

Ahead of vernissage, when the biennale opens to the world's media, Gatherer interviewed Glass-Kantor and Fusinato on site and produced a 12-minute video package that alongside a live-performance was live-streamed to a group of global art journalists on April 19. Additionally, Gatherer also live-streamed the official opening of the pavilion in the Giardini on April 20 and Fusinato’s inaugural public performance on Saturday April 23.