Biennale Arte 2019
"May calls yet another Brexit vote in Commons."
We decided that that we would re-visit Venice on our return from Greece as the 2019 Biennale had just started a few days before and it is hard to resist what is probably the biggest and best contemporary visual art exhibition in the world!
By the time we got to Venice the posters for the Biennale had already started to be "improved" with additional stickers (some Brexit related).
To my mind the unsung hero of the
Biennale is the video projector. Most stands have at least one and I counted more than ten on one exhibit.
I saw examples from Panasonic, Sony, Canon, NEC, Benq and Epson, but by far my favorite was this one (an Insight Dual Laser 4K).
It was being used by Ryoji Ikeda for his epic data-verse 1 (2019) displaying data from CERN, NASA and the Human Genome Project.
To give you some idea of the scale of the presentation that is Michele bottom right!
The Biennale proper is split between two sites the Giardini and the Arsenale. Within each site there are country pavilions and themed exhibits by individual artists. In 2019 the theme was "May You Live in Interesting Times. Proposition A" (and Proposition B). In addition there is a Biennale "fringe" with sites scattered throughout Venice some in very strange and occasionally difficult to find places.
If you want to visit each country pavilion and walk briskly thru all the individual exhibits you need at least two days and to walk about 35,000 steps.
Just to give a taste of the Biennale this is the first exhibit in the first country pavilion (Spain) after you enter Giardini. To quote the short guide (Yours for €18.00 the full guide is €80.00) "Though performance, video, and sound Okariz explores the displacement between the subject, the language, and its physical presence."
In case you are wondering the young lady in the video does precisely that (in public).
The Great Britain pavilion by Cathy Wilkes lacked impact (particularly after you seen some of the others).
Yes that is an exhibit ("Wilkes appeals to our courage to reject the notion that knowledge is always something we can possess").
True, very true.
This may also be an exhibit, or alternatively it may not.
Adjacent to the Great Britain pavilion is the French pavilion. Initial attempts to enter the pavilion through the obvious front door failed.
Just as we were giving up we were approached by a furtive French man who whispered "go round the back, turn right at the white chair and..."
...enter through the basement, where it was explained that the French had been digging a tunnel to the British pavilion...
..as an alternative to Brexit (the explanation for the excavations and the odd means of entry varied with the perceived nationality of the visitor!)
Once inside the French pavilion there was a video presentation Deep See Blue Surrounding You.
Some exhibits were easier to understand than others. This one (Sun Yuan and Peng Yu: Can’t Help Myself) features an industrial robot that "displays" restlessly whilst simultaneously ensuring that a thick, deep red liquid (blood?) stays within a predetermined area.
The robot is contained in a transparent cage, like a creature captured and put on show.