Edited version of interview with Gordon Dalton

Now that the dust has settled an excruciatingly hot vernissage, the participation of Wales still sticks in the memory from the Venice Biennale. Situated on Guideca in the ex-birrera, the exhibition Further, Artists from Wales, features the work of Paul Seawright, Cerith Wyn Evans, Bethan Huws and Simon Pope. Their work extended out across Venice and beyond through various methods and connections. Although the actual exhibition and artists are to be celebrated, it is the brave selection process and exhibition context that deserves some credit for opening up the possibilities of extending the boundaries for debate surrounding nationality, place and community, as well as highlighting a wide range of practice from Wales.

For Further, Curator Patricia Fleming, who her self is from Scotland, selected 2 artists who are Welsh who reside in Paris and Berlin; an English and an Irish artist who reside in Wales. Throw in a English Commissioner, a selection committee from across Wales and a myriad of possible artists from Wales who could be selected and you start to unearth a wide and diverse range of influences. The selection scratches the surface of practice from Wales, but does provide a glance at practice originating from here.

These methods of extending boundaries, mapping communities, collaborations, creating new networks and equally celebrating and criticizing the existing infrastructure are part of a seemingly new optimism that is visible in artists from Wales. The 'from' is the all-important word here, and one that gives Wales a new flexible freedom whilst still recognizing its recent and more distant history.

From Cardiff, Simon Pope works in and uses new and existing networks, encompassing different communities, technologies and tools of enquiry. "I was initially involved in what became known as 'net.art'. Whilst this was an international network of artists and curators, I knew it through an independent media lab near London Bridge called Backspace. This became the meeting place for hackers, geeks, artists and activists until it was forced to close in 1999. In South Wales, I've met a similar crew of people. There tends to be a physical meeting point for these 'communities'. I obviously travel to keep in touch with artists and to meet with new contacts, so my 'art community' or network is broadly spread across time and place.

Pope's practice manifests itself through projects such as his Venice residency, mapping the city through couples kissing and making paper gondalas; the award winning I/O/D 4: The Webstalker to the more simplistic, but equally useful method of using objects in a supermarket to find your way around. The fact that The Clash song 'Lost in the Super market' initially influenced this work highlights the mix of research and theory with more accessible forms of information.

'That place - somewhere, wherever that is, between academic and popular is where I'm happiest. Too popular and you become just an 'impact statement'; too academic and you end-up with only 5 people ever being able to understand you. In Venice the 'kissing' piece is a 'device' to gather research data of sorts. This idea came from theory - that intimate acts between people are somehow more important than the data collected about cities, which is so biased toward knowing 'where' rather than 'why' or 'how' you are in a city. Rather than the immediate context of the Biennale, Venice is where people come for romance of some sort or another."

Pope views his selection for the Venice Biennale as just one strand of his practice, but agrees that it represents a step forward for Wales. "The selection for the 'Wales Pavilion' doesn't pretend to be comprehensive; it's not a broad survey of artists or types of media for example. It just shows some of the various scales and modes of working that have come from, or are in Wales at the moment. For me it acknowledges that an expanded practice, which encompasses academic work, independent research, writing and curating, is possible for those who base themselves in Wales. The venue just offered me another tangible outcome for my ongoing research."

'If the project had reinforced a 'blood and soil' nationalism I would have had nothing to do with it. My practice, in fact my life, depends on broader and subtler affinities than that.'