![]() ![]() At that moment, M¤etamm’s exhibition began to make sense. ![]() When the sentence, “It could only be solved by killing my wife and children,” appeared on the screen, my mother gasped out loud. After a cursory look at this piece, I moved into the next gallery, which projected M¤etamm’s silent film essay about the struggle he experiences between being an artist, spending time with his family, and holding the position of dean at the Estonian Academy of Arts. A pink stork with a noose draped around its neck is attached to a pole on one edge of the table, and an open trapdoor in the middle allows for the addition of a pile of red sand and a black plastic rake on the floor. In the first gallery was “Sandbox,” (pictured above)a curious sculpture constructed as a wheeled table in sleek consumerist fashion. The Estonian exhibition, Loser’s Paradise, displays the work of Marko M¤etamm. The bag stated, “I love my family” in red letters, and as soon as my mother saw it, she insisted we find the space. I was lured to the Estonia exhibition, an obscure space located outside the Giardini’s collection of national pavilions and the Arsenale’s vast galleries, by their promo bag. ![]() For instance, a special edition of Germany’s Vogue magazine, published exclusively for the biennale, featured on its front cover the standout work from the German pavilion: Isa Genzken’s sculpture of a silver skull with a gold Venetian mask. In a direct comment on consumerist culture, the artist exposed the public’s hesitance to consume the one product that was truly consumable.īranding techniques were an integral aspect of much of the work at this season’s biennale, and were often used to champion specific artists and works on display. Intriguingly, visitors were much more reluctant to take pieces of wrapped black licorice arranged on the floor of gallery. In the middle of the gallery were two stacks of posters labeled “veterans day sale” and “memorial day sale.” Many of the vernissage attendees collected these posters, rolling them up and tucking them under their arms before leaving the gallery. In these images, and, as the artist seemed to suggest, in American culture, identity is carved in stone. Inside the gallery, black-and-white photographs depicted the pedestals of monuments carved with words that connoted the identity of the structure above them. The late Felix Gonz¡lez-Torres, whose work was chosen to represent America in the United States Pavilion, riffed off the building’s neoclassical architecture and commented on aspects of the American consciousness with understated minimalism. Those who come to Venice with a big visual appetite and an attentive focus are rewarded with a truly transformative experience marked by images that leave a lasting impression.Īlthough “identity” has become a precarious term in a world in constant flux, the concept remains fundamental to the premise of the biennale, where every nation is represented by an architecturally distinct pavilion housing the work of one or more artists. Even aside from Storr’s challenge, the Venice Biennale-a kind of international art-viewing endurance contest-is by its very nature demanding, requiring both enthusiasm for contemporary art and the self-discipline to move purposefully through its labyrinth of exhibitions while still immersing oneself in the aesthetic moment. Storr’s serpentine title demands visitors engage actively with the work on display and examine the process by which they make value judgments. The 52nd Venice Biennale is titled Think with the Senses-Feel with the Mind: Art in the Present Tense and is the first to be artistically directed by an American: Robert Storr, dean of the Yale School of Art. The following are her selected impressions of this gargantuan collection of exhibitions. Filmmaker and University Art Museum Acting Curator Natalie Sanderson traveled to Venice this year with her mother for the biennale’s vernissage, a ritual installation/opening event originating in the grand salons of 19th-century Paris. More than 100 years old, the Venice Biennale is the world’s best known and most prestigious fine arts fair. ![]()
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