Estonian minister of culture to meet with several counterparts during visit to Italy

TALLINN - Estonian Minister of Culture Tiit Terik will be on a visit to Italy from Tuesday to Friday where he will take part in the opening of the Estonian pavilion at the Venice Biennale Art Festival and meet with several states' ministers of culture.

Terik will meet at the biennale with Minister-President of Flanders Jan Jambon, Finnish Minister of Culture Antti Kurvinen, Danish Minister of Culture Ane Halsboe-Jorgensen, Icelandic Minister of Culture Lilja Dogg Alfredsdottir and Latvian Minister of Culture Nauris Puntulis. Terik will also take part in the opening of the pavilions of Estonia, Ukraine, Finland, Latvia, Iceland, Denmark and the Netherlands.

"This year's Venice Biennale is special for Estonia. In addition to being at the heart of the biennale for the first time at the Rietveld pavilion at the invitation of the Netherlands, works by Estonian artist Anu Poder will be displayed at the main exhibition of the biennale. Due to the war in Ukraine, the biennale carries a special meaning -- the entire world except for Russia has come together, not to forget the horrors [of war] amid art but to notice and draw attention to the brutal aggression by Putin's regime," Terik said.

The minister of culture will also take part in the international launch of A Shade Colder, a new English-language art magazine published by the Estonian Center for Contemporary Art.