The exhibition Venezia, Catalunya 2009. The Unavowable Community, Catalonia's project for the 2009 Venice Art Biennale that has been promoted by the Institut Ramon Llull, received 45,633 visitors over the almost six months it has been on display in the Magazzino del Sale number 3 in Venice. The exhibition, curated by Valentín Roma, has attracted an average of 300 visitors per day, with peaks of more than 1000. October was the busiest month, with more than 9,000 visitors. Notable visits include institutional delegations such as the President and the Table of the Parliament of Catalonia and the chamber's Commission of Cultural Policy.

The Institut Ramon Llull has drawn very positive conclusions from these figures and aims to be able to repeat the Catalan presence at the next Art Biennale in 2011.

Valentín Roma's project for the Catalan pavilion was inspired by the book of the same name by Maurice Blanchot and his interpretation of communism as "that which creates community". Taking this a starting point, he makes enquiries into possible meanings of the nature of community work in the field of art, taking the identity of Catalonia as an object for study. It does this by means of the projects Sitesize by Joan Vila-Puig and Elvira Pujol, Technologies to the People by Daniel G. Andújar, and Archivo F.X. by Pedro G. Romero.

Throughout the six months that the pavilion has been open The Unavowable Community has generated other initiatives. Before the inauguration, on 27th May, Valentín Roma gave a speech to the Querini Stampalia Foundation as part of the Invito al Contemporaneo cycle. Other notable activities were the exhibition Archivo Postcapital (1989-2001) by Daniel G. Andújar at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Beijing or the publication of various materials related to the show. These include the Quadern Pedagògic by Sitesize, which was presented in Venice and Barcelona, and the publication of a monographic work on designing the exhibition, which Valentín Roma wrote for a collection of the Department of Architecture at the Rovira i Virgili University. Future projects include the publication planned for next January of Las correspondencias, edited by Periférica, with the letters to Venetian citizens that Pedro G. Romero exhibited in Archivo F.X.

Starting next February, the Bòlit Centre for Contemporary Art in Girona will host an exhibition featuring material from this project.

Valentín Roma's artistic project for the Catalan pavilion was selected by a committee of experts designated by the IRL in accordance with the Best Practice Guide for Museums and Art Galleries. This international jury, chaired by Manuel Borja-Vilell, Director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, included the following members: Ignasi Aballí, invited artist at the international exhibition of the 2007 Venice Biennale; Daniela Ferretti, conservator at the Palazzo Fortuny in Venice; Marta Gili, Director of Jeu de Paume in Paris; Chus Martínez, currently head of conservation at the MACBA in Barcelona and then Director of the Frankfurter Kunstverein in Frankfurt; and Vicent Todolí, Director of the Tate Modern in London.

Venezia, Catalunya 2009
The exhibition, however, is not the only activity that the IRL organized in Venice as part of the Venezia, Catalunya 2009 project. On 11th September, coinciding with the National Day of Catalonia, the church of San Giovanni in Bragora was the scene of a very special concert by Acadèmia 1750, the Torroella Festival Period Orchestra, accompanied by the Stagione Armonica Choir, interpreting the oratorio Juditha Triumphans by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741).

More recently, on 4th November, there was an academic seminar entitled "The Unavowable Community. From Catalonia to Europe, via America" at the Santa Margherita Auditorium, which was organized in collaboration with the Ca' Foscari University of Venice.