Day 6 - July 6 - Arsenale
First day in Venice and it is beautiful! Church bells wake me up in the morning. Little vendors sell fresh fish and fruits in the middle of the campo Santa Margharita. I lost my way quite a few times but that doesn't surprise me, street signs are not very clear around here. Besides, if I got lost, where would I go? It is an island. However, being on an island has its benefits. In one of my "getting-lost" expeditions I found something: the Bolivian Pavilion. At that time I did not know that there are quite the number of pavilions scattered across the island. It was a pleasant surprise, because I had not expected to see any of the Biennale art until I got to the Arsenale and Giardini grounds. The pavilion with its modern art was a contrast to the setting of old buildings and streets.
This is where I must say I will not be re-writing everything that I noted in my journal. It is a little redundant for me to do that if I provided images that are large enough and clear enough for the text to be readable. Plus there is so much to see and explore that I leave at early mornings and return late at night...I could not possibly do the justice to all the artists and national pavilions. I truly want to speak about each one of them for a long time but such discussion would extend into weeks of discussion. I will show you a ton of photos with little bit of information and anything else I want to add as an afterthought.
The Bolivian Pavilion - I will describe it shortly because it was my very first interaction with the famous Venice Biennale.
Artist(s): Sul Mateo; Jannis Markopoulos; Jose Ballivian.
Curator(s): José Bedoya Sáenz, Juan Fabbri, Gabriele Romeo
The objects in this pavilion represent different countries and cultures. Very noticeable aspect is the very idea behind this exhibition: the fight to regain or the process of losing humanity. Many objects (if not all) were either a pair or composed of two different items. This aspect clearly signifies the artists' wish to represent what could be understood as cognitive dissonance or the fight cultures and humans have to maintain their humanity. The technology is taking over. It has opened borders but prevented human interaction at the same time. It is this process of splitting that is represented in these artworks. Two different directions that create aliens out of modern human beings.
The Seychelles Pavilion (Open Borders)
Artist(s): Group Sez (Alyssa Adams, Tristan Adams, George Camille, Christine Chetty-Payet, Zoe Chong-Seng, Daniel Dodin, Charles Dodo, Allen Ernesta, Christine Harter, Nigel Henri, Alcide Libanotis, Marc Luc, Egbert Marday, Colbert Nourrice, Leon Radegonde, Danny Sopha.
Curator: Martin Kennedy.
I have not yet explored further the case of some national pavilions being full of unrelated art works that are produced by various artists across the globe. There seems to be no rhyme or reason, except that they are curated by one person. Here is the link to full list of national pavilions, their curators and artists: http://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2017/national-participations. This, however, did not help me solve my mystery. Seychelles Pavilion is curated by Martin Kennedy. The best explanation I could come up with is that some countries chose not to send specific artists but invited artists from everywhere to display their works in their pavilions. Hence, the subtitle Open Borders). There a more than few of those around as I will discover later. Here are some of my favorites.
Yeo Chee Kiong (SGP/GBR)
Shih Li-Jen (TWN) - King Kong Rhino
This shiny and giant rhino looked so out of place in Venice.
Gerard Kuijpers (BLG) - Dancing Stones (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=35&v=MI92En1AbBY)
I especially enjoyed the warmth of the surface that had heated up in the sunlight and the precious balance that the stones maintained.
The group of the Giant Land Turtoises are each made by a different artist and they represent many different issues that we can encounter in Seychelles. For example, the red/orange one was made by Charles Dodo and addresses the history of slavery in Seychelles.
During this day I will discover that there are not just national pavilions and artists. Like I read in the Economist before I got here, this truly is the Biennale of the hippies. A mish-mash of art, ideas, concepts and techniques. Of course, when I arrived at the Arsenale I walked straight into the many different pavilions they had dedicated to larger concepts. It was like a library of sorts. If you had a certain concept, an idea you normally work with, you just needed to find the related pavilion and look what the leading artists are doing right now. It was amazing! I started out by spending so much time with each artists, soon I realized I will have to walk through it all a lot faster if I ever wanted to see everything. I made little notes and marked the artists I liked the most. It was fascinating, like walking inside a surreal library or contemporary art.
Here are some works:
The Pavilion of the Common
Lee Mingwei
Maria Lai - books/ pages of books. Not readable but clearly look like like they should be from distance. The action of embroidering the pages. Delicate. Extra thread looks like words (or meaning) spilling out of the books.
Martin Cordiano - "Common Places" Miniature models of rooms/houses. Chalk balls that create tension between them. Clearly represents how much space each person (represented by the chalk balls) occupies in room by their presence.
Pavilion of the Earth
Nicolas Garcia Uriburu - Obsessed with green water. Pours substance in water that turns it green. Considers the connectivity of water, closed ecosystems and pollution.
Shimabuku - Interesting comparison with the very new and the very old. Use the new found materials like the old ones were used. Sharpen them as tools, use in agriculture. A commentary on the impracticality and obsession with the technology that kills the earth. Also the loss of knowledge that could sustain the Earth.
Julian Charriere - Future legacy. This artists compares salt with oil in a sense that, according to researchers, usable salt is actually running out. Usable salt (that we eat) is not a renewable resource. This makes me think… What other resources are running out?
Statues are made out of salt.
Michel Blazy - Ephemeral artwork. The artist allows natural transformations to occur. In the Biennale he showed a stack of paper that is disintegrating by water slowly dropping on it or plants that take over the shoes they are planted in. Man-made objects are not match to nature and its forces.
Pavilion of Traditions
Francis Upritchard - Figurative bodies with ethnic and cultural references. The figures are clear representations of traditions or actual people we know. However, the representations are made hardly recognizable by other cultural intrusions.
Irina Korina - Familiar symbols of modern Russia.Play on materials used by rich and poor. Examines the obsession of bringing dead soldiers back to life in Russia.
Leonor Antunes - Site-specific, delicate, repetitive, play on size and scale. Small objects used to create massive works or art. Looks like lace. Responds to structure and history of the place that hosts it. Incredibly sized “curtains” that are made out of small objects.
Yee Sookyung - This one was fascinating! A tower of vases that are modified, connected and painted on afterwards. Use of defective pottery. Cultural heritage in a modern world, or you could say a cluster of culture forced in an uncomfortable position. This is still a very prominent theme in art – how does past and present meet, interact and transition.
The Pavilion of Shamans
Rina Banerjee - Futuristic realism made in nature (in part). Examines the colonization of Indigenous knowledge. Comments on the practice of exotic. Fantasy meets reality. Colonialism meets obscured information of everyday life. The countless found objects are fascinating. It is like the artists combines what the colonizer thinks is indigenous culture with what it actually is.
The Pavilion of Colours
Takesada Matsutani - A sixteen meter long canvas covered in graphite strokes. The entire surface is thick and shiny graphite. As it was placed in the pavilion, it was still work in progress and the viewer can observe its making. The sack hanging from the ceiling contains ink and water that drips on the ball and creates a drawing of a circle. The works of colour in this Biennale seem to be one of the most labour intensive projects.
Sheila Hicks - Latin American textile tradition combined with science of colour. Balls of intensely coloured textile fabric takes over the Arsenale exhibition space. They look so invites that you just want to run and jump in there. In photographs they also look way smaller than they actually were. This work made me once again consider the evils of textile industries and how they manage to abuse their workers in vulnerable countries.
The Pavilion of Time and Infinity
Edith Dekyndt - This artists plays with the scientific phenomena. The curtain is covered in aluminum foil and in the dampness and light found in the exhibition hall it will slowly oxidize changing its colour. The shadows of the audience affect the amount of light that hits the surface, therefore the people because an unwilling participants in the process. The illuminated square on the floor is only a pile of dust with a spotlight directed on it. There are no special tricks used in this work, it just shines like that. It is like this artist has found the most interesting processes that happen to objects (including dust) around us and used that to create something beautiful.
Liu Jianhua - This artist uses an unexpected material – porcelain. By remaking the decorative motifs the artist has transformed the material completely. A material I never imagined could look like this. It is simple and elegant.
As much as I enjoyed the walk through these different pavilions, I soon realized that if I ever wanted to make it through the national exhibitions I need to move a lot faster. I did not have the time to see all pavilions that remained in other places (especially Giardini) because of lack of time but I did manage to see one more, which was the Pavilion of Humanity. I will write about that later on. But for now, I will dive into the exhibitions many different countries have set up. To be continued...
