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EERIE PAINTINGS AND HEIDLESS MACGREGOR’S PUB: SCOTLANDS TALENTS HAVE SET OUT THEIR STALLS IN VENICE. PHIL MILLER IS THERE.

Today, inside the stately Collegio Armeno in Venice, a hunter crouches alone as he expertly guts the body of a prone deer. The film rolls on, as the sun beats down on craggy Scottish hills, and a gimlet-eyed bird of prey hovers expectantly overhead, poised to pick at the fallen game’s newly opened entrails.

In another room, a drawing depicts a peculiar Scots public house called Heidless Macgregor’s, where a salty old drinker downs another dram under a stuffed and mounted stag’s head, while a team of hard-broiled old women smoke heavily and, curiously, a duck in a top hat walks to his table. In four other spaces within the beautiful marble, stone and plaster palace at the Palazzo Zenobio at the centre of the city, more art is shown: cargo ship crews are expertly documented in dream-like films, while beautiful and eerie paintings hang in rooms looking over a damp Italian courtyard.

These alternately curious, lovely and disturbing images are contemporary Scotland as it presents itself to the world - the world of modern art, that is which is gathering in the city for the largest festival of its type, the 52nd Venice Biennale, as it opens this weekend. The images are the efforts of the six artists - Henry Coombes, Charles Avery, Louise Hopkins, Rosalind Nashashibi, Lucy Skaer and Tony Swain - chosen to represent what has been described as an ongoing renaissance in contemporary art in Scotland.

Of the artists represented in the exhibition - which has cost £250,000 to stage and is curated by Philip Long of the National Galleries of Scotland - four are based in Glasgow, many studied there, and all are represented by Scottish galleries: so why are they in Venice? Because, say artists and curators, if Scotland is really to punch its weight on the international arts stage, there is only one place to be.

Amid the swollen canals and crumbling grandeur of this vulnerable, sinking city, the powerbrokers of the arts world are abuzz with talk about the latest show, the newest talent, the most impressive national demonstration. “It is probably the most important international showcase for contemporary art there is,” said Amanda Catto, the head of Vsual Art at the Scottish Arts Council. “The world is coming here to see what is going on in contemporary art, the critics, the collectors, the galleries, and so it is so important that Scotland is represented here, not only as a platform for (the artists’) work, but also because it is seen by their peers. It is a highly competitive festival and an important audience for them. “If we say we have a thriving contemporary arts scene, which we do, then being here is vital. For the artists, it is priceless: it will open a lot of doors for them.”

Susanna Beaumont, agent for four of the artists and owner of the doggerfisher gallery in Edinburgh, added: “It is such an international platform - everyone in the arts world comes here. And I find that if the world knows you and your art, the local area will pay ore attention to you as well. Yes, art will be sold here, but that’s not the main thing. The main benefit is the recognition and awareness being part of the festival brings.” She added: “I think Scotland has been very clever concentrating on young artists too - young talent is the bedrock of contemporary art. It has been very adventurous: we all want Scotland to look good to the rest of the world. And it does.”

Every other year, more than 50 countries come to Venice and feature one or more artists in exquisite palaces, houses, schools and college buildings throughout the city. This exhibition is in fact the third in the modern series of distinctly “Scottish” pavilions, first established by the Scottish Arts Council in 2003. It is a separate entity from the official British pavillion, which is based inside an imposing palace in the Giardini gardens of the city and which this year features a typically intimate show by Tracey Emin.

Henry Coombes, recent winner of a Creative Scotland Award and creator of the startling deer film, said that for all the artists, appearing in the Scottish pavillion was not only an honour, but an opportunity. Gallery owners see new work and commission it based on a Venice show. Collectors snap up works (some of the Scottish pavillion, notably the work by Avery, has already been bought) and well-heeled aficionados check out new talent from the dozens of countries and exhibitions. “It has been such a great opportunity, not only to be here but to produce some new work and get the reaction from all kinds of people,” Coombes, based in Glasgow, said. “Not really in a ‘careerist’ sense, as I am very happy based where I am, but to expand your practice and to show people what you are doing.”

Sorcha Dallas, who runs a gallery in Glasgow and represents Coombes, added: “Scotland has some of the world’s leading contemporary artists, that’s a fact: Douglas Gordon, Jim Lambie, Simon Starling. But coming from such a small country, small cities, small scene, it’s so important for us to be here and recognised.”

Indeed John Leighton, the Director General of the National Galleries of Scotland, alluded to a shift in the way Scotland viewed itself when he introduced the pavilion at its opening yesterday. “Scotland is not only a country of emerging talent, but also a place where we firmly believe you can base your entire artistic career,” he said. “It is interesting times in Scotland, with a new parliament, a new executive, with independence on the agenda. But, equally, Scotland has always looked outwards, and Scottish art has always been open to new and outside influences. We fully hope to be back here in 2009, even if we have to share a pavilion with the Isle of Man.”

The first of the modern Scottish pavilions in 2003, featured Claire Barclay, Jim Lambie and Simon Starling. Both Lambie and Starling went on to be shortlisted for the Turner Prize, with Starling winning it. However Scottish artists have been making their mark in Venice for many years before that point - indeed they have been involved since the second Biennale in 1897, when works by the Glasgow Boys were shown. Charles Rennie Mackintosh displayed his works in the city, as did Eduardo Paolozzi. So, before the current, more established pavilion, did Christine Borland, Douglas Gordon and Roderick Buchanan.

This year’s pavilion has been backed by three entities: the National Galleries of Scotland, the British Council and the Scottish Arts Council. As well as bringing the six of its artists, it also appears Scotland has brought its own weather - it is miserably grey, cloudy, rainsodden, and at night, alive with midges. Not that that has dampened the optimism of its artists and organisers, who hope to bring the Venetian exhibition to Scotland in the near future. “I am very proud of the artists because they have pulled out all the stops here and produced new work. It’s a diverse and beautiful exhibition, and it’s so important it is here,” Mr Long said. “But we are very aware, equally, that this work shoud be seen in Scotland too, and as soon as I am back in Scotoand, I will start working on showing it somewhere at home. It deserves to be seen by as many people as possible.”