The Pavilion of Armenia
Artist(s): Jean Boghossian, Rafael Megall, Miro Persolja
Curator(s): Bruno Corà, Demetrio Paparoni, Giorgio Grasso
Title: «Fiamma inextinguible», «The panters in my blossoming garden», «Border no Border»
Armenia had multiple locations for their artists. I managed to visit only one of them, which also happened to be less than five minute walk away from my accommodations in Venice. The location I visited was Collegio Armeno Moorat-Raphael (Palazzo Zenobio, Dorsoduro 2596). In this location exhibited Jean Boghossian (exhibition title "Fiamma inextinguible"). Boghossian is Armenian descent but since 1975 he is based in Brussels. Regardless, in this Biennale he is representing his home country with "inextinguishable art."
I did not write much about the art when I was walking through he gallery, I was too busy running from room to the next and taking photos of the art. I was attracted by the simplicity and elegance of Boghossian's art. He used fire and smoke as his medium to paint and draw on various surfaces. Initially I thought he had spent many hours drawing these organic shapes but turns out he uses blowtorch as his paintbrush. He experiments with the surfaces of his materials, which are not just limited to canvases, but includes paper, book, chairs, and other objects. Boghossian is one of very few artists using fire for experimentation and artistic language. For example, burning books can represent both actual past events and, at the same time, the loss of knowledge. His exhibition was curated by Bruno Corà, Italian art critic and President of the Fondazione Burri.
The Pavilion of San Marion
Artist(s): Priscilla Beccari, Giancarlo Frisoni, Giovanni Giulianelli Sisto Righi, Patrizia Taddei, Marco Tentoni, Xing Gang, Lee Kuang Yu, Zhang Wang Zhao Wumian, Yishan, Fu Yuxiang
Curator(s): Vincenzo Sanfo
Title: Friendship project
San Marino is another national pavilion that gets many locations. The Friendship projects is not an "open border" project like other national pavilions have but I suspect it might be based on a similar idea. San Marino is very small so there are not a lot of local artists to choose from. Like other group exhibitions, there are many works to look at. I happened to visit a location that greeted me with aliens. (And if you happen to come across aliens in Venice, it is no-brainer that you have found a location with some art around). As you can see in photographs, the aliens are very entertaining, they look rather cute than menacing and scary. In fact, I wouldn't mind owning one of them. But the aliens are not what attracted me to San Marino exhibition. It was ""Meta-life" Historical Records Neglected by Human Civilization: Earth Stone-Slip Books", a part of the exhibition presented by Xing Gang. This exhibition is based on Gang's life's work researching and collecting a particular type of stone. To him, the stones are the early witnesses and information carriers of the development of civilization. It is a dialogue with nature, embodiment of human faith, relics in the progress of architecture and civilization, among other diverse meanings. For two years Gang traveled with his Earth Stone books to significant cultural locations in China to alert people about artistic practices that could warn about the oncoming destruction of nature. I particularly liked this project because of the extensive research put into it and the idea of a new, or rather very old, book type. Earth carries information that is a lot older than any human being. This work represents that, the spirituality and disconnectedness to nature.
The Pavilion of Cuba
Artist(s): Abel Barroso, Iván Capote, Roberto Diago, Roberto Fabelo, José Manuel Fors, Aimée García, Reynier Leyva Novo, Meira Marrero & José Ángel Toirac, Carlos Martiel, René Peña, Mabel Poblet, Wilfredo Prieto, Esterio Segura, José Eduardo Yaque
Curator(s): José Manuel Noceda
Title: Tiempos de la intuicion...
Cuba's group exhibition contained many wonderful works. And the plane/car hybrid in front of the building that housed Cuban exhibition was great tourist attraction, for sure. At times there was a line of people waiting to take a photo with it. I had two favourites. Aimee Garcia's two channel installation that depicted generational gap through the actions of crocheting a simple red blanket. In the left-side video a woman who's age can't be told but it is clear she is older, judging from her hands. One the right-side video a young woman is unraveling the same blanket. What one generation created and worked for, the younger generations have a tendency to dismiss and change. Often this seems as somewhat bad action, and it can be. It can represent the refusal of one's own culture and traditions. Thinking that the newer is always better is not the best solution to problems. However, in case of Cuba and other countries, it might not be. Maybe unraveling the legacy of the past few decades in oppressed countries can be seen as a positive thing. A time for positive change.
The other work was done by Jose Eduardo Yaque. He transformed an old Venetian library into... a library, only a different kind. The books are replaced by little bottles filled with distilled water and plants that are illuminated from behind. It all looks very magical but the artistic message is clear - preservation of nature and plans like we, human, preserve knowledge and books.
The Pavilion of Montanegro
Artist(s): Ivana Radovanovic and Adin Rastoder
Curator(s): Žana Filipovic
Title: COVJEK UOMO HUMAN
I chose to mention this and the next national participant because of the subject matter, which is the precariousness of human life. Montenegro entire exhibition is dedicated to exclusively human beings. No realistic representations are used but humanoid substitutes are plenty. The two artists work in very different manner, Ivana Radonovic uses new media and video work as her artistic medium. Her two channel video with audio component personifies the burlap and straw "men" she has created. The audio is a voice of the straw men, they talk about the discrimination, torture and death they have experienced. In the other video their death is shown, they burn until there is nothing left. The ambiguity but humanoid appearance allow us to imagine real human beings in their place. There is a lot of symbolism in these two videos but to me it is clear that Radonovic is speaking about the forgotten people around the world. The ones that the privileged, wealthy and powerful have written off as undesirable and not worthy of their attention and compassion. There are many vulnerable people around the world, some don't even live remote and unknown locations but right in our back yard. These people are not seen as people for variety of reasons - convenience, they occupy wanted locations, they pose imagined threats to wealthy societies, etc.
Adin Rasterdor's work is a lot more cheerful. His little people are there to represent the diversity of human beings. They interact with each other in a blur of many colours and patters. While looking at them I noticed one that had the two coins stuck in his head not where ears should be but on top of its head. I thought it was about the evils in societies and influence of corruption by minority but then I started noticing that there are more than one of them. This work is a lot more layered than I thought and it reveals itself the more you look at it. These were fun little guys.
And the last one for today... (And it was a long day running around from location to location while avoiding heat, sun and swarms of tourists. I just noticed that I am starting to write with serious spelling mistakes. Ups... )
The Pavilion of Bosnia & Hercogavina
Artist(s): Radenko Milak in collaboration with Roman Uranjek and international guests (Lamin Fofana, Sidsel Meineche-Hansen, Juan-Pedro Fabra Guemberena, Loulou Cherinet, Geraldine Juárez with Joel Danielsson, Nils Bech with Ida Ekblad)
Curator(s): Christopher Yggdre, Fredrik Svensk, Sinziana Ravini, Ana van der Vliet in collaboration with Hans-Ulrich Obrist
Title: University of Disaster
Like I already mentioned, University of Disaster is representations of human violence and tendency to unnecessary harm others just to be on the "safe" side. Of course all people have a strong sense of self preservation, but situations represented here are anything but reached in attempt of self-preservation. For example, the video by Radenko Milak, an animation 13 minutes long, is done in charcoal (reminds me of William Kentridge) and shows mundane scenes from life combines with text of unnecessary violence. It is dark, sad but accurate. It represents the power of one's ego to destroy many innocent people. There were also large scale ink drawings. The text and visual image combination is jarring. A formula for a bomb combines with images of destroyed buildings, Chernobyl, spies and communism, etc. Complex drawings made by Radenko. This exhibition examines the viewpoint and banality of evil from the perspective of those who suffered the most. This subject matter is no surprise given the history of the region Milak comes from. Not that long ago, in the 1990s, he lived through a war when he was just a teenager. He is definitely an artists I will be looking at more in the future.
A little sample from the animation video.
That is it for today. Overall it was a good day, I saw good work and interesting at that. I explored Venice and even saw big names like Damien Hirst having his solo exhibitions in Venice independently of the Art Biennale. I did not go in though. More art to see tomorrow! I will be visiting the north side of the island.
I added a map so you can see my trusted guide and all the criss-cross locations I was visiting. This is not the whole map but you get the idea.
