Venice
Biennale 2013
The
Biennale was centred on the theme ‘Il Palazzo Enciclopedico’. The title is
derived from Maurino Auriti’s 1955 design for a museum to house all of the world’s
knowledge. His plan was for a 700 metre tall building which, of course, never
happened.
The
exhibition is described by its curator, Massimiliano Gioni, as concerning ‘the
desire to see and know everything and the point at which this desire becomes an
obsession’. The opening room presents Jung’s red book in which he records mystic
collective unconscious images and featuring a large number of mandala. The next
room featured a person lying on the floor with another person chanting. The
room contained totems to give a mystical feel. The wall was lined with
blackboard drawings by Steiner, made in 1923. Steiner was a theosophist and
founder of the schools that bear his name. There were also beautiful bronze
totems by Pichler in a wooden base and a Christ figure.
Room 3
featured work by Roger Hiorns – a ground up altar stone on the floor with a
mandala on the wall by Lesage and circled by Hilda Klint. Based on occult images
from the Masters. Outside there were bronzes by Sarah Lucas, whose connection
was rather lost on me.
Room 4 had
a video of blind people making painting, Pollock-like. Room 5 contained tantri
paintings and objects. Room 6 showed a video by Montaron – A short study on the
nature of things. Room 8 included a film by Harry Smith of a deconstructed
clock and a man.
Room 9 had
some slightly Dali-like paintings by a Russian, Schroder-Sonnenstern. Room 10
was devoted to Enrico David amd contained paintings, tapestry and sculpture,
Room 11 had a video by Victor Alimpiev of chanting and Room 12 contained dolls
by Morton Bartlett. They were disquieting without the crudeness of the Chapmans.
The room also had Carl Andre’s passport.
Room 13
contained a vast collection of clay objects – Kapoor-like and humorous by
Fischli and Weiss. Room 14 displayed geological slices by Roger Caillois. Room
15 was devoted to Jean-Frederic Schnyder with a huge tryptophan and other
religious iconography.
Room 16 had
surreal sketchings by Gnoli and room 17 had sex pictures by Kozlov and photos
by Yoshiyuki of voyeurs in a Tokyo park.
Room 18 had
abstracts by Caivano and Room 19 was devoted to Tacita Dean’s 16mm film – The
Friars doodle. Room 20 had Bakharev’s relationship series of photos and Room 21 had Qureshi’s miniatures of Pakistanis
doing everyday leisure activities.
Room 22 had
Byars’s zen like figures. Room 23 featured Ellen Altfest’s close ups of parts
of the body – Lucien Freud like and Room 24 had Maria Lassnig’s pictures of her
body as she experiences it and Merz’s pictures of women. Room 25 had Cathy
Wilkes’s mannequins and found objects and finally Room 26 had Thierry de
Cordie’s paintings of the furious sea.
The curated
exhibition continued in the first half of the Arsenale. In Room 5 was Matthew
Monahan’s Tin Man, Phylida Barlow’s coal and Ziolkowski’s two heads. Room 9
contained Pawel Althamer’s grey man. Room 11 exhibited disturbing videos by
Ryan Trecartin of US teen hooligans and
the next room had work by Wade Guyton (grey ??) and Channa Horwitz (whit). Room
13 had MarK Leckey’s amusing video of a rocking willy. The next room had Yuri
Ancarani’s robot surgery and Otto Piene’s zen. Room 16 was filled with Walter
de Maria’s row of rods.
The remainder
of the Arsenale was occupied by national ‘pavilions. First was Lebanon’s Letter
from a Pilot. This was referring to an incident in 1982, when an Israeli pilot
refused to bomb a school in the Taahir district of Lebanon that he had been
told to target and instead dropped his bombs out at sea. The exhibition
consisted of two films with a single chair offered to vistors, as if in the
pilot’s seat. The films were made by Akram Zaatari, whose father had founded
the school in question – the Saida Public Secondary School for Boys. The pilot,
Hagai Tamir, was himself an architect and recognised the building as a school
or hospital. The school was bombed by another pilot a few hours later.
The next
space contained Chile’s extraordinary tank in which the entire Giardini emerged
and submerged. It was definitely one of the most memorable exhibits and was
quite riveting. Created by Alfredo Jaar and entitled Venezia, Venezia, the
exhibition also includes a photograph of Lucio Fontana in the ruins of his
studio in 1946.
Kosova had
a tree that one walked through, Tukey had body art, and Bahrain horse
portraits. Indonisia’s exhibit featured six artists, themed under the title
Sakti- the primordial cosmic energy and the personification of the divine
feminine creative energy. The pavilion included a work of 1200 terracotta forms
laid out like a mandala.
Latvia’s
room was dominated by a large suspended tree swinging pendulum-like. This work
was designed to get viewers to focus on the loss of Latvia’s rural identity.
Finally, in
the main building, Latin America had spices and an offering of chewing gum.
Further on,
the Bahamas exhibited a polar ice wire man and China had, in the outside,
bricks with sayings on them. The Italian space contained several exhibits under
the overall title ‘vice versa’. It comprised six rooms and a garden, each
hosting two artists in dialogue.
Over in the
Giardini, Spain exhibited piles of separated building rubble, equivalent to the
material in the pavilion. (Pare alike with island by Venice formed of rubble.
Sacca San matia N???)
Belgium’s
pavilion was filled with a huge tree on its side patched with old pillows and
sacking, all in a very subdued light. Rather like a felled elephant or an old
man. It felt evocative.
Denmark’s
exhibition by Jesper Just, created an unsettling feeling by getting one to
enter through a side entranced to find subdued lighting and the internal walls
partly demolished One room showed a large video of he city of Hangzhou in China
created as a replica of Paris and there were also videos of immigrants with strange music. The whole presentation
went under the title ‘intercourses’
The Dutch
pavilion was the responsibility of Mark Manders and had the overall title room
with broken sentence. He had covered the windows with fake newspaper and inside
were a series of exhibits, such as fox/mouse/belt which comprised ads the title
suggests a model of a fox lying with a mouse strapped to it by a belt. It reminded
me of ??
The Nordic
pavilion had small trees with microphones and speakers inside and a
reconstructed tree outside.
The Swiss
pavilion had a snake going through its entirety with instruments and mosaics on
the wall. Outside was a piaggio bike by Valentin Carron.
The US
pavilion featured Sarah Sze with a work entitled Triple Point.
(www.sarahszevenice2013.com)
France and
Germany swapped pavilions. The French offering (in the German Pavilion) was
called Ravel Ravel Unravel. It was two film works – Ravel Ravel and Unravel. In
the first, two pianists played Ravel’s left hand concerto at different tempos,
ravelling it. In the second a DJ attemopts to play the two recorded pieces on
turntables, correcting for the different tempos and unravelling them. In the French
pavilion, Germany presented four works. The centrepiece was Ai Weiwei’s
installation which consisted of 886 stools slotted together to form a
dominating double helix. The stools refer back to ‘old China’ when each family
had a stool, passed between generations.
Venezuala
presented urban art and sounds.
Russia’s
pavilion was amongst the most memorable. One entered to find a man perched high
above on a rafter. Then one walked through to the main exhibition which
involved watching those women visitors who were up for it being showered with
coins – Danae – that were dropped off a conveyor belt. A good allegory. Danae
were imaginary coins referring to the mother of Perseus who had been
impregnated by Zeus
Japan had a
consideration of 5 people doing things like playing the piano, making pottery,
writing poetry etc., getting one to consider collective acts and sharing
uncertainty. Some of the works went under the banner of ‘precarious tasks’ –
such as the random act of getting a group of friends each to bring a tea bag
and add it to the pot to see what drink results.
Great
Britain’s pavilion was the responsibility of Jeremy Deller – he of the bouncy
Stonehenge. In the pavilion, he had a poke at Prince Harry’s slaughter of a
hawk harrier but the pavilion was dominated by a film (ooh-oo-hoo ah-ha yeah) with
a hypnotic steel band soundtrack (http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/video/2013/may/29/venice-biennale-jeremy-deller-english-magic-video).
Visitors were also offered a cup of tea. The title for the presentation was
English Magic and Deller also referred to Abramovich’s arrogant parking of his
yacht outside the Giardini at a previous biennale with an image of William
Morris preparing to hurl the yacht into oblivion. There was also a room
referring to the death of Dr David Kelly and another featuring an imaginary
invasion of Jersey by UK citizens enraged by Jersey’s tax status. Visitors were
encouraged to make their own ink stamps of some of the images in the exhibition,
including the Abramovich yacht. .
Hungary
exhibited un Exploded bombs under the title ‘Fired but unexploded’ by Zsolt
Asztalos – as the programme describes a collection of objets trouves. Canada’s
presentation by Shary Boyle under the title Music for Silence was described as
exploring “ideas of silence, isolation and solitude”.
Korea’s
pavilion was the responsibility of Kimsoola, whose work was entitled To
breathe: Bottari. The standout was a black room that also absorbs all audio
waves which the audience experienced in contrast to the rest of the pavilion,
bathed in natural light.
. Greece had three films of different
episodes. Romania created a memorable exhibit of people in line while Poland
had hugely amplified sound of two hand-made bronze bells. The work by Konrad
Smolenski, under the title ‘everything was forever, until it was no more’ was
only allowed at specific times. The Venice pavilion was filled with silk and a
tardis and Egypt had a sarcophagus. Serbia had a clever wall made of razor
blades and Austria had a fantasia-like film – I’ve got a feeling you’re fooling.
Outside the
main Giardin and Arsenale, Iraq’s ‘pavilion’ was dominated by a political
cartoonist, Abdul Raheem Yassir, as well as Kadhim Nwir’s paintings. The
exhibition, entitled Welcome to Iraq also featured several artists, including the
painter (Kadhim Nwir) and WAMI – a partnership that make installations of
furniture made out of cardboard. Also an extraordinary film of people who
smuggle alcohol into Iran on horses, made by Jamal Penjweny.
Ukraine had
a monument to a monument.
Wales was
represented by Bedwyr Williams whose piece The Starry Messenger took one
through a series of rooms at Santa Maria Ausiliatrice. Pondering on the silent
contemplation of the nebulae, Williams invites people to consider looking downwards
to what is beneath their feet – the millions of fragments making up a floor. Bedwyr
Williams The Starry Messengerhttp://vimeo.com/69550189.
Visitors pass through a series of installations, starting with a large white
observatory with the sound of a person in distress. Then through a darkened
rock garden, a Stonehenge room, a very dark corridor into a room with a film
featuring a mosaic dentist who gets crushed by rocks among other happenings. He
was influenced by the floor of the building in which his exhibition takes
place.
Thailand’s
exhibition was accompanied by a very tasteful stitched booklet. The exhibition
featured two artists whose works were entitled, Poperomia and Golden Teardrop.
Mexico
occupied the 6th century ex-San Lorenzo Church and consisted of a four metre
tall machine – Cordiox – that produced unamplified sound to reverberate inside
the old chapel.
Portugal’s
exhibition was tied up outside the Giardini. It was an old Cacilheiros – a boat
used to ferry commuters across the Tagus. The boat had been decorated by the
artist, Vasoncelos, with tiles to become an assisted readymade artwork, entitled Trafaria Praia.
It offered visitors a trip down the Grand Canal in an atmosphere of good humour.
Luxembourg
occupied the Ca del Duca and the artist Catherine Lorent presented a sound
installation with guitars suspended from the ceiling and a room of three
pianos. The instruments are set t play by the movement of visitors
Lost in
translation. Themed on the plastic islands forming in the oceans.
Slovenia.
The whole exhibition space by Jasmina Cibic is interior decorated with the
motif of a small beetle that was t be the nationals, icon but for its name-
Anophthalmus hitleri. The exhibition itself consisted of video of Slovenian
bureaucracy and some traditional floral pictures from an official art
collection. The pavilion also included films shot on official state locations.
Montenegro.
Three rooms, each very simple and impactful. The first (further than beyond) with
thin strands shown up by the spotlight, the second (image think) very dark and
covered in black cloth with small pinpricks the third (ecce Mundi) wallpapered
with the tiny motif of a person – like an Hermes tie.
Ireland’s
entry was ‘The Enclave’ – a multi screen film installation of footage shot by
Richard Mosse in the Congo of warfare, using infra-red light. Everything was
real; everything was disturbing.
Azerbaijan
had an installation entitled ‘The Carpet Interior’.
Iceland
presented a sculptural installation called ‘foundation’ in an old laundry,
reached going through the grand entrance of the Paslazzo Zenobio. The artist
had added a platform covered in tiles to the outside of the building and had created
an Alice in wonderland experience with doors and windows at the wrong height
for floors.
The
Maldives presented work by Josephine Starrs and Leon Cmielewski making an
appeal about global warming under the title ‘A global map of nature’. Its theme
was of archipelago endangered by rising sea – SOS
http://maldivespavilion.com/blog/a-global-map-of-nature/
Bosnia and
Herzegovina – The garden of delights
Estonia –
Evident in advance
Cote
d’voire – Traces and signs
Newfoundland
– About turn
Then there
were the following collateral exhibitions I visited;
Pedro
Cabriti Reis. A remote whisper. The top floor
of the Palazzo Falier is used for an installation of aluminium beams and
strip lights.
Hong Hong’s
Lee Kit presented an exhibition entitled ‘you (you)’
Zhong
biao’s visions at the Chiesa Santa Maria della visitazione.
Catalonia’s
25% referred to the Spanish unemployment rate. The work consisted of
prhotgrpahs and film of eight unemployed people with their stories, pictures
(including a large portrait) and a museum object of their choice. Impactful for
their stories, especially that of a Senegalese who had settled in Spain having
fallen for it on his way through to France.
Bart
Dorsa’s Katya, featured photographs of the Moscow girl of the title that had a
slight waif-chic feel. She had moved as a 13 year old from the Far East of
Russia to Moscow and since engaged in various forms of body modification.
Pedro
Cabrita Reis – ‘A remote whisper’.
Macao was
represented by Carlos Marreiros and his exhibition PATO.MEN – an for PAlace Theater Of Memorory ENcyclopaedic.
Ink Brush
Heart was an exhibition by Simon Ma inspired by the rainforest of Xishuangbanna
in Yunnan and included a collaboration with Julian Lennon
For New
Zealand, Bill Cutherbert’s ‘Front door out back’ was a series of light
installations in the eight rooms of the Instituto santa Maria della Pieta. The
artist made use of everyday household objects pierced by fluorescent
lights.
The
Biennale ‘office’ at Ca Giustinian had an exhibition tracing the history of the
biennale with posters, letters etc. under the title ‘amarcord’.
Completed
outside the Biennale was an exhibition of work by Anthony Caro at the Museo Correr.
Caro died during my visit to Venice.
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