Venice — Arts and Culture Deputy Minister Ntombazana Botha is expected to attend the opening of the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale exhibition in Venice to market South Africa as a tourist destination ahead of 2010.

The South African Violin Tenors will represent the country too and will perform during the exhibition.

Historically, the Biennale provides a platform for countries to show, through architectural practice, the trends, innovations and responses of shapers of the built environment to the context in which they operate.

The exhibition also seeks to examine the staging of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, within the context of the Biennale theme: Out There: Architecture beyond Building.

According to the Department of Arts and Culture, South Africa's participation at the Venice Biennale also offers us an opportunity to market South Africa as a preferred tourist destination ahead of the event.

It will examine how an event like the world cup gives rise to new forms of architecture and urban life in South Africa.

Among other things, the exhibition will present an analysis of the transformation of soccer into a spectacular global event in Africa. It will also provide detail on the space of soccer as an important site for the construction of local identity and popular culture.

South Africa has appointed Mphethi Morojele Architects (MMA), under the leadership of Mphethi Morojele with the curators, Hannah le Roux and Mpho Matsipa to steer this project.

MMA has pioneered various huge projects which include: The Cradle of Humankind and hotel complex, Johannesburg, South African Embassy, Ethiopia, South African Embassy, Germany, Faraday Precinct, Johannesburg and Freedom Park Museum and Garden of Remembrance in Pretoria.

"We believe the exhibition will help to expand possibilities within the field of architecture and explore the unfolding terrain of emerging identities and spatial practices in South Africa," said the department.

The South African exhibition opens on Wednesday and closes on 4 November.