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The selection of two socially engaged artists – who together make three – to represent Ireland at this year’s Venice Biennale is in tune with thoughtful, recessionary times, writes AIDAN DUNNE.

EVEN THOUGH IT has long been surpassed in terms of economic importance by innumerable art fairs, the Venice Biennale remains the most prestigious international exhibition of contemporary art in the world, something that may well have to do with the unique beauty of the city itself. More than 70 countries are represented at each biennale and, when the 53rd opens on June 7th, Ireland will be represented by two – no, make that three – artists, Sarah Browne, Gareth Kennedy and Kennedy Browne. The latter is, in fact, a composite of Browne and Kennedy, but they are keen to make it clear that their collaborative work is quite different in character from their individual projects, and amounts to a distinct artistic identity.