BIENNALE GUIDE 2011 - The Art Newspaper

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GIARDINI ● NATIONAL PARTICIPATIONS ● COLLATERAL EVENTS ● OTHER EVENTS ● CLASSICS ● FOOD & DRINK ★HIGHLIGHTS Russia: Collective Actions Moscow conceptualist in the Soviet Union in the 1970s, brings with him Collective Actions, with whom he has regularly collaborated over the past 35 years. The group’s performances, which they call Trips to the Countryside, are usually absurd, like pulling a seven-kilometre length of rope through a forest to no apparent end. www.ruspavilion.ru 22 Serbia National pavilion, Giardini Exhibition: Light and Darkness of the Symbols Artist: Todosijevic Dragoljub Rasa ● A tripartite installation from the Belgrade-based conceptualist. One part features his “journal”: objects produced over a long period as experiments with ideas or materials. The second shows installations he has created in recent years, including 50 teapots filled with cement, while the third is a potted history of his career. www.pavilionserbia.org 23 Spain National pavilion, Giardini Exhibition: The Inadequate Artist: Dora García ● Uneasy at being the official Spanish artist, García presents The Inadequate, a © THE ARTISTS biennale-long performance piece. A “backstage” area contains vitrines and tables with props relating to writers such as James Joyce and Robert Walser, which García and various collaborators will use in performances on a central stage. http://theinadequate.net 24 Sweden ★ National pavilion, Giardini Exhibition: Borderless Bastards Artist: Fia Backström Exhibition: Windows, Trees and Inbetween Artist: Andreas Eriksson ● Two explorations of the pavilion’s Giardini context. Backström looks at ideas of nationhood, working with other artists appearing for their countries to create representative figurative sculptures. Eriksson reflects on the parkland setting with paintings of trees and sculptures of birds that died by crashing into the Nordic pavilion’s glass walls. 25 Switzerland ★ National pavilion, Giardini Exhibition: Crystal of Resistance Artist: Thomas Hirschhorn ● In a long and eccentric outpouring describing this installation, Hirschhorn writes that he wants it to be “an indestructible and earthly dwelling of the gods” which recalls, among other things, a B-movie film set, a crystal meth lab and “a cheaply decorated provincial disco”. Love, philosophy, politics and aesthetics are the grand themes. www.crystalofresistance.com 26 Thailand Paradiso Gallerie, Giardini della Biennale, Castello 1260 Exhibition: Paradiso di Navin Artist: Navin Rawanchaikul ● Though not usually a Giardini pavilion, this year the café at the Giardini’s entrance houses the latest in the Thai artist’s Navinland productions. With the artist always at the centre of the proceedings, Rawanchaikul’s colourful oeuvre takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to his personal history. 27 United Kingdom ★ National pavilion, Giardini Artist: Mike Nelson ● Nelson was holed up in the pavilion for three months in preparation for his latest installation. As he proved in a lauded 2001 work on the Giudecca, Venice is the perfect location for his networks of fantastical rooms, creating atmospheric labyrinthine narratives from his quirky historical musings. http://venicebiennale. britishcouncil.org 28 United States of America ★ National pavilion, Giardini Exhibition: Gloria Artists: Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla USA: Allora & Calzadilla 6 THE ART NEWSPAPER VENICE GUIDE 2011 All exhibitions run 4 Jun - 27 Nov 2011 unless stated otherwise © THE ARTISTS ● The Cuban-American duo reinforce their neo-surrealist credentials in a wry look at military, sporting and artistic glory. Gymnasts and athletes will perform routines on wooden versions of the latest in business-class airline seats, while an overturned tank becomes a treadmill outside. A satirical highlight. 29 Uruguay National pavilion, Giardini Exhibition: Un Lugar Común/ A Common Ground Artists: Alejandro Cesarco, Magela Ferrero ● Two Montevidean artists: Ferrero has painted and written over photographs she has taken, a process she likens to writing a map of what she sees. Cesarco’s very different oeuvre leaps between disparate media according to each individual concept, but much of his work is concerned with language and translation. www.labiennaleuruguay. gub.uy 30 Venezuela National pavilion, Giardini Exhibition: Spaces Artists: Francisco Bassim, Clemencia Labin, Yoshi ● Post-pop art dominates the Venezuelan pavilion: Bassim reworks devotional images and the old masters in a lurid cartoonish style and Labina creates soft sculptures from vividly coloured and patterned materials. Yoshi’s origami experiments offer a subtle and intricate counterpoint. 7 THE ART NEWSPAPER VENICE GUIDE 2011 GIARDINI ● NATIONAL PARTICIPATIONS ● COLLATERAL EVENTS ● OTHER EVENTS ● CLASSICS ● FOOD & DRINK ★HIGHLIGHTS ILLUMInazioni: shedding a little light A look at Bice Curiger (left) and her central biennale show, ILLUMInazioni/ ILLUMInations, whose bilingual title plays on nationhood, light, and more ice Curiger was by no means an obvious choice B as artistic director of the Venice Biennale: she is a big player, but hardly the kind of “supercurator” more often tasked with the biennale’s central show. Importantly, this is her first biennial exhibition anywhere. ● There have been two discrete strands to her career so far: her editing of the influential Parkett magazine, and subsequent role as editor-in-chief of Tate Etc, the in-house magazine of the Tate family of galleries; and her role as curator at the Kunsthaus Zurich. In both, she has developed a reputation for a serious approach with a dash of quirkiness. ● In many ways, Curiger’s Kunsthaus Zurich exhibitions prefigure her Venice show: they display strong commitment to central European artists, like Sigmar Polke, Fischli and Weiss and Katharina Fritsch (all in ILLUMInazioni), and over half the artists she has selected for Venice are European. ● She has also shown a talent for original, ambitious themed exhibitions, like “The Expanded Eye” (2006), looking at vision and perception in recent art, and “Hypermental” (2001), exploring the legacy of aspects of surrealism. ● Eighty-three artists feature in the show, and more than threequarters come from Europe or the US. Alongside weighty lynchpins of the European scene such as Rosemarie Trockel and Franz West, there is a deliberate emphasis on relatively young artists, among them wry British conceptualist Ryan Gander and anarchic Swedish multimedia artist Klara Lidén. ● A catchy and translatable title is an essential part of any Venice Biennale, and with ILLUMInazioni, Curiger provides a bilingual punning name for her exhibition, containing its two key themes: light and national identity. ● Curiger conjures a wealth of associations and meanings in explaining her themes. On the one hand, she sees illumination as a key role of the Biennale—it spotlights new developments in contemporary art. It is also central to the role of art itself: its capacity to illuminate thought. ● Then, there are a number of specific cultural references: the Age of Enlightenment; the poetic Illuminations of Rimbaud; the Profane Illuminations of surrealism as seen by Walter Benjamin; medieval illuminated manuscripts; and illuminationism, a school of Persian philosophy ● Light is also key to the show’s most novel idea: the inclusion of three paintings by Venetian master Tintoretto, who Curiger admires for his “febrile, ecstatic lighting and a near reckless approach to composition that overturns the well-defined, classical order of the Renaissance”. He is thus an emblem for contemporary artists. ● The nazioni part of the title is explored through artists’ interest in identity and heritage. Curiger sees them as migrants through culture, who use art to experiment with new forms of community. ● To emphasise the art world’s elastic approach to identity, and subvert the national pavilions, Curiger has asked Oscar Tuazon, Franz West, Song Dong and Monika Sosnowska to create “parapavilions” which house work by artists from different nations. Chinese artist Song’s parapavilion features Parisian Yto Barrada, while Austrian West’s structure houses a slide projection by Indian Dayanita Singh. ● Ever the art magazine editor, Curiger has sent five arch and tricky questions to each artist, including those in the national pavilions. These include: “Is the art community a nation?” and “How many nations are inside you?” The answers appear in the catalogue.
ARSENALE ● NATIONAL PARTICIPATIONS ● COLLATERAL EVENTS ● OTHER EVENTS ● CLASSICS ● FOOD & DRINK ★HIGHLIGHTS Arsenale: from galley to gallery The biennale offers a rare chance to visit this unique naval complex, which is off-limits for most of the year; its crumbling warehouses, towers and gardens make for atmospheric viewing The entrance to the Arsenale 15 17 18 Entrance Corderie CHRISTOPHER SEDDON WC The ancient source of Venice’s seafaring majesty, the Arsenale was once able to produce a galley in a few hours; and now, every biennale, it becomes the city’s most enormous gallery. Owned by the Navy, it is inaccessible for most of the year, only opening its doors to the public for special events. This is reason enough to visit the biennale, because the Arsenale is an extraordinary space. The majority of the art can be found in the former rope factory, the Corderie, a seemingly never-ending procession of brick-built spaces with fat columns running its 316m length. In this sense, the Arsenale is the curator’s biggest challenge: a tough and ragged industrial aesthetic can illuminate art or swallow it up. 16 20 Nappa 19 Tese di San Cristoforo 3 Spazio Thetis 1 Gaggiandre Snacks 5 WC Crane Teatro alla Tese 9 Padiglione Italia Giardino Isolotto 8 delle Vergini Artiglierie WC 10 2 8 THE ART NEWSPAPER VENICE GUIDE 2011 6 12 4 7 9 13 Giardini 11 Torre di Porta Nuova Entrance 14 VICI MACDONALD 1 54th International Art Exhibition: ILLUMInazioni —ILLUMInations ★ Arsenale, various locations (also at Giardini, p3) Artists: Group show of over 80 artists across two sites ● The impact of this part of Bice Curiger’s exhibition is felt long before you cross the threshold into the immense warehouse spaces of the Arsenale. Outside at the canal entrance is French artist Loris Gréaud’s Gepetto Pavilion, 2011, a vast sculpture of Moby Dick with an “isolation room” in its belly. At the other end, Austrian collective Gelitin, having discovered an ancient melting oven, will pour a ton of molten glass over the garden. Among the works within are Oscar Tuazon’s “parapavilion” featuring a slide projection by Basque / Spanish artist Asier Mendizabal, a piece by James Turrell, and, in the final space, a new work created especially for the biennale by Venice-born artist Monica Bonvicini. 2 Argentina Pavilion at Arsenale Exhibition: Ahora estaré con mi hijo Artist: Adrián Villar Rojas ● Villar Rojas says he wanted to imagine work by “the last humans who make art before the extinction of the human race”. The 30-yearold often fashions his fantastical sculptures in clay, which he likes for its capacity for dehydration and, ultimately, decay. 3 Belarus, Republic of Spazio Thetis, Arsenale Novissimo Exhibition: Kodex Artists: Yury Alisevich, Artur Klinau, Kanstantsin Kastsiuchenka, Viktar Piatrou, Dzianis Skvartsou ● Curator Mikhail Barazna is key here: he set the theme of the modern interpretation of text and graphics, and chose five artists who best fulfilled his aims. But there is more than graphic design: sculpture and animation also feature. 4 Chile Pavilion at Arsenale Exhibition: Grand Sur Artist: Fernando Prats ● Prats casts a fresh eye on land art. He often captures Chile’s natural extremes— its geysers, mountains and glaciers—by taking paper into the landscape and gathering nature’s imprint on it. His explorations of his homeland’s wide-ranging environment continue here. 9 THE ART NEWSPAPER VENICE GUIDE 2011 ARSENALE ● NATIONAL PARTICIPATIONS ● COLLATERAL EVENTS ● OTHER EVENTS ● CLASSICS ● FOOD & DRINK ★HIGHLIGHTS Monica Bonvicini All exhibitions run 4 Jun - 27 Nov 2011 unless stated otherwise © THE ARTIST ESSENTIAL VENICE Paolo Ventura Artist, Italian Pavilion ● I love the Ospedale SS Giovanni e Paolo (p22), which is still a hospital, in the centre of Venice. It’s a beautiful old palace that was built in the 1400s—it’s so strange to see it as a hospital, and all the ambulance boats arriving. It’s really absurd. ● The ghetto of Venice is one of my favourite parts of the city. It’s in Cannaregio, and it is unbelievable. At one point there were no Jewish people there any more, but in the past 20 years some have moved back to the ghetto. They have opened a lot of kosher shops and it is really animated and alive again. ● To get away from it all, I go to the Jewish cemetery, which is at the Lido (p35). It is kind of abandoned, but very beautiful, and there is nobody there. ● Alla Vedova in Cannaregio (p16) is the best restaurant in Venice. It’s been the same for years. It’s not fake or touristy; it’s real…A lot of Venetians eat there: a friend of mine from Venice took me there the first time. ● Baccalà mantecato [cream of salt cod] is my favourite Venetian dish—it’s blended with milk until it becomes creamy and then you put it on bread. It’s great with a nice white wine from the Veneto. Gampo di Ghetto Nuovo, in the Venetian ghetto GIOVANNI DALL’ORTO
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