Venice, glorious city of Titian, Casanova and Vivaldi, has welcomed a new artistic powerhouse into the international fold at the Biennale this week. Enter Peckham, downtrodden South London neighbourhood made famous as the setting of Only Fools and Horses. The Peckham Pavilion at the Venice Biennale is a whitewashed studio the size of a small newsagent’s shop. Although it is outside the official competition it is already attracting appreciative visits from some of the art world’s most influential tastemakers.
“It feels very much like where we are in Peckham,” Hannah Barry said yesterday, with a straight face. “The busyness of the place, the selling of food on the streets, the fish — these are all big things in Peckham.” Ms Barry, 25, founded her eponymous London gallery last year with Sven Münder, 30, a Bavarian who had just completed a degree in cultural history. The gallery is now on the radar of some of the most important people in the art world. This despite Peckham’s undeniable, and they believe undeserved, reputation for crime and urban decay. “Peckham’s got a really bad name but we are really grateful to the area for allowing us to do what we do. More people should know that it’s a place where things are really possible.” Ms Barry said. Because of its cheap rents and proximity to Camberwell and Goldsmiths schools of art, Peckham is home to hundreds of young artists, giving Ms Barry and Mr Münder’s gallery and their Venice pavilion a strong local identity.
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