Visiting the 59th Venice Biennale by Clint Imboden

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By now, if you are interested in the 59th Venice Biennale, you probably have read articles from well-known art “experts” at various media outlets. I have my favorites, don’t get me wrong. I have read the same articles and agree with a lot that has been said. But for me personally, this year was so much different than in 2019! I am not talking current world events that naturally weave their narrative into contemporary art. I am talking about having experienced the Biennale once before, I could never look at Venice or the Biennale the same way again. I spent much more of my time looking for and at art, than I did the first time. How could I not get wrapped up being in Venice for the first time? This time, getting lost in Venice was no big deal, I felt very comfortable wandering around. This year, I was able to see the trees instead of just the forest.

We changed the way we sought out and experienced art this time. Last time we saw all the big exhibitions at the national pavilions but stumbled upon our favorite exhibitions by accident. This time we purposely looked for those small venues: small spaces, unknown artists. Our hunts for the unknown failed a couple of times: we looked for an Ai Weiwei piece that it turned out was not going to be installed till July.

The Biennale is officially broken into two parts but there are three in reality. There is the Giardini where all the large counties have permanent pavilions. Then there is the Arsenale which houses the themed exhibitions of the biennial; this year it was “Milk of Dreams”. Also, smaller countries have space there for their national pavilions. The third, unofficial part is the ancillary art that happens in vacant spaces around Venice - popup galleries of all shapes and sizes. They may have a line or two in the program and a sign in front of their space. I am going to focus on three off-the-grid spaces.

My favorite accidental art experience was the Edge’s first-ever aerial drone performance “Social Sacrifice.” It explored the swarming dynamics exhibited by a school of fish encountering a predator, the work highlights the tensions that emerge between collective action and individual freedom, as well as how these change in the presence of external threats (so Julia Kagensky says on their website aorist.art). How could we not go see it? There were 15-20 drones that because of the darkness in this huge old building, you could only hear a swarm of angry hornets over your head, until their individual white light came on. That is when the fun really began. In tune with the sweeping music which was playing, the drones washed from side to side of the building in an amazing feat of technology, with none of them came crashing down. Then a single red light flashed on and the school of drones starts to panic and try to get away from the red light. A completely mesmerizing experience. My words do not do the experience justice. Here’s a video of the experience: https://youtu.be/uuM0bhdaNmQ

We were guided to my next find by our flat mates. “Where Once the Waters” by David Cass used small discarded tin containers to have a conversation about global warming. On one wall were 365 small discarded tins with a seascape painted on their fronts. The opposite wall was covered with 600 typed letters; each from a witness to sea level rise from all over the world. The conversation between the two opposing walls could not have been louder. (have pictures).

My third and most bizarre art event was a performance put on by the Republic of Kazakhstan, “LAI-PI-CHU-PLEE-LAPA. Centre for the new genius”. If you had read in the catalog or any of the other guides; you would not have expected this. Kazakhstan is in Central Asia and the contents of their pavilion was supposed to travel through Ukraine. Obviously, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the art did not arrive in time to be installed before the press preview. What we walked into looked more like a very bad backdrop for an homemade sci-fi movie. I can not give this group of young artists more praise for what they came up with, nothing but a bare space to start with.

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Thousands of miles from home, only using locally sourced materials to recreate their national pavilion in seven days. We walked in through a drapery of aluminum foil covering the door way. Once inside we were given a large sheet of heavy gaged gray paper to use as a cloak and a crumpled-up ball of aluminum taped to the top of my cap. We were then led into the temple of the “New Genius”, also completely made out of aluminum foil held together with a lot of scotch tape. The dozen or so of us sat on the floor facing a woman all dressed in black needlepoint. On either side of her were 2 life size cardboard robots also covered in aluminum foil. Then the performance began. Needless to say, another highlight of the unexpected.

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In a footnote. I love mid-century-modern furniture; Eames, Nelson, etc. On our way to the Kazakhstan pavilion, we stumbled into the most amazing furniture exhibition I have ever seen. On the first three floors of the Ca’ Pisani Design Hotel was an exhibition of furniture designed in Italy 1928-49. Truly a once in a lifetime experience. This was the first time the Freak Andò Antiquariato Modernariato Design had shown this much of its collection publicly. Needless to say, I wanted to take most of the exhibit back home. Unfortunately, all I got away with were photos of a bentwood frame bicycle, doll house furniture and a very cool umbrella stand.

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To end with, yes, it was very difficult to not see this whole biennale through Ukrainian colored lenses. Their pavilion was very difficult to experience. The contents of the first floor had been produced as the war raged in their country. Letters written every day since the first day of the invasion, with more added each day. Supersized paintings of volunteers fighting in the war as we looked at them. It was even more disturbing in person.

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I look forward to experiencing all the fun and madness that make up the Venice Biennale again in two years. I expect amazing art and at the same time having no idea what we will stumble across.

The Danish Pavilion at the 2022 Venice Biennale

A kind and well-meaning friend stopped me outside the door or the Danish Pavilion, warning me that as someone notoriously sensitive to the suffering of our animal brethren, I might want to pass this one by.

"Wow, are they hurting animals in there?" I asked. "Well….no…but they are showing animals that look like they are being hurt ". And that, actually, I did want to look at. I personally find looking at it immeasurably easier to deal with than accepting veil of denial that such hurt is usually hidden behind.

My friend’s hurried summary statement ended up proving precisely accurate. Animals being hurt. Terribly hurt. Hurt almost beyond comprehension.  Us humans, and the other animals with whom we share this little planet.

Entering the pavilion visitors encounter a nightmarishly sad vision of our sad earthly reality. The entire pavilion has been transformed into a sordid primordial barn, with half-human-half-horse-like creatures in profound distress.

The first section to great the visitor features a man-animal hanging dead from a chain, with a large ham-like thing hanging nearby, both just meat now. In the other end of the barn is a woman-animal who has just given birth to a bizarre blue infant of undetermined viability.

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Both of these beings are so realistically executed that no one in our group could say for sure that they were not live human performers. (We got much closer than personal space conventions allow, and were still not certain.)

 

 

This small family unit is surrounded by sod and bizarrely morphed farm tools. (Now, transporting large amounts of sod into the galleries happens to be a reoccurring motif in this incarnation of the biennale, and in many cases comes off just as spectacle for spectacle’s sake - Biennale Artists going big because they can.) But in this instance it creates a powerful sensory experience, and feels central to the project's core. The whole place feels like a barn of some collective human memory - evoking our subsistence past, with brutality a daily necessity and survival never assured. The suffering of human and non-human animals literally fused into one terrifying tableau. A tableau smelling strongly of manure.

This barn immediately brought to my mind a Samuel Beckett-like sensibility re our stupefying cruelty to other animals. The fact that this was definitively a contemporary nightmare was confirmed by the neon-blue fluid that either fed or sucked from the life forms even as it illuminated their offspring.

Standing inside this hellish vision I felt the veil of denial re our connections to other animals drift away like a fog lifting over the morning hills. And I was glad. Really happy and glad and rejuvenated.  Because seeing and feeling things fully is the first step forward in taking back our souls and gaining the strength to fight for a mutual future together. I left this installation stronger and more complete than when I entered it. I can think of no higher praise.

More by Anna Salmeron

We wanted to share a little sample of some of the FABULOUS art continues to be submitted for this year's Biennial Project Biennial to be presented on our website and via video projection at the Venice Biennial 2022 Opening week!

ENTER YOUR WORK HERE:

Feast your eyes on a selection of this beautiful work:

Harden_Al_1_539_6___Lorraine_MotelHarden_Al_6_539_6___No_Justice_No_PeaceHarden_Al_3_539_6___Seat_at_the_Table

Lorraine Motel, No Justice No Peace, and Seat at the Table, by Al Harden

Novakov_Anna_1_2727_6___Eternal_FrostNovakov_Anna_3_2727_6___Scents_for_Forgotten_Countries

Eternal frost and Scents for Forgotten Countries, by Anna Novakov

Wold_Eileen_2_2736_6___Arctic_Pending__SurrenderWold_Eileen_3_2736_6___Arctic_Pending__Arctic_Thaw

Arctic Pending: Surrender and Arctic Pending: Arctic Thaw, by Eileen Wold

Herber_Artemis_1_156_6___Gaia_RiseHerber_Artemis_3_156_6___The_PerseidsHerber_Artemis_4_156_6___MelancholiaHerber_Artemis_5_156_6___Rape_of_Medusa

Gaia Rise, The Perseids, Melancholia and Rape of Medusa, by Artemis Herber

Brown_Marcus_2_2809_6___Adinkrahene_and_Cymbal_by_Marcus_BrownBrown_Marcus_7_2809_6___Machine_Noire

Adinkrahene and Cymbal and Machine Noire, by Marcus Brown

Keller_Matthew_2_1076_6___copresenceKeller_Matthew_1_1076_6___John_the_BaptistKeller_Matthew_3_1076_6___A_Glorified_Approach_to_Violence

John the Baptist, copresence and A Glorified Approach to Violence, by Matthew Keller

Villanueva_Maria_3_2822_6___Ofrenda_-_a_walking_projectVillanueva_Maria_1_2822_6___For_The_Forest

Ofrenda - a walking project and For The Forest, by Maria Villanueva

Brown_Wendell_2_1699_6___Memories_of_Family_and_Stories_ToldBrown_Wendell_4_1699_6___Stories_from_the_Photo_Album

Memories of Family and Stories Told and Stories from the Photo Album, by Wendell Brown

The Biennial Project 2022 Biennial Entrant Sampler by Anna Salmeron

Here it is only January, and yet so much FABULOUS art has been submitted for this year's Biennial Project Biennial to be presented on our website and via video projection at the Venice Biennial 2022 Opening week!

Feast your eyes on a selection of this beautiful work:

LLC_Jeannie_Motherwell_3_33_6___Outlier

Outlier, Jeannie Motherwell

Hood_Dee_3_760_6___Fragments_of_Knowable_Truth

Fragments of Knowable Truth, Dee Hood

Diedericks_Christiaan_1_1650_6___Preserving_pain

Preserving pain, Vortex artists Christiaan Diedericks and Shui-Lyn White

Slater_Kelly_1_1635_6___Lavendar_and_Yellow_I

Lavender and Yellow I, Kelly Slater

ENTER THE BIENNIAL PROJECT 2022 BIENNIAL

How Serious Artists Prepare for the Venice Biennale

Let be honest here.

The idea of attending the opening week of the Venice Biennale can be pretty intimidating.

There’s the art of course.

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And as if that weren’t enough, along with the art come throngs and throngs of people. Good-looking, well-dressed people. Most of them are Europeans for god’s sake, with their good health care, bicycling-to-work, and months-off-hiking-in-the-mountains lifestyles.blog14

It was enough to make us want to stay home under our blankets eating Pringles.

But THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN WRONG, I TELL YOU WRONG! We were not about to rest on our considerable laurels when there was so much art to be seen and so many fabulous receptions to be attended!

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We refused to let the scale (or time, or American health care) keep us from our rightful places frolicking with the well-healed and glamorous masses. No, we took control of the reigns of fabulousness, and dedicated ourselves in the weeks and months prior to our Venice pilgrimage to our task with our customary resolve.

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We got rid of the bad skin!

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And those rotten wrinkles!

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We committed ourselves to various scientifically proven replenishing regimes!

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We adorned ourselves with the most glorious embellishments!

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We polished our pearly whites until they sparkled!

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We got the most perfect highlights in our hair!

 

We ironed our seductive yellow attire and painted our digits to match!

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And in one truly impressive case one of us actually did something of substance,

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Losing SIXTY POUNDS in time for the trip!

The Biennial Project’s Biennial Selected Artist List by Anna Salmeron

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                    Alien Sofa by Parisa Ghaderi

WOW – was jurying ever hard this time! A ridiculous amount of great work was submitted, and we could not begin to accept everything that was good. So if your work was picked, congratulations, your work is insanely great.

Lillian Abel

Kirstine Ahumada Torres Meyer

Ali Al Ezzi

Constant Albertson

Pandora Apostoloska Sazdovska

Manss Aval

David R Banta

Hinglaz Bardoloi

Deirdre Barrett

Jean-Claude Bise

Jan Brandt

Richard Buckley

Karen Burgess

Nikyra Capson

Bruno Cerboni

Yvonne Cilia

Emelie Coffey

Sandrine Colson

Chris Costan

Neil Curran

Lucy Dallorto

Francisco De la Barra

Nick Di Stefano

Susan Dietrich

Gary Duehr

Emily Dugie

Sigrid Ehemann

Barbara Eskin

Tom Estes

SARTORI FLORENCE

Faith Gabel

Parisa Ghaderi

Wally Gilbert

Bela Gold

Al Harden

Artemis Herber

Dee Hood

Rainer Otto Hummel

Clint Imboden

Yvette Kaiser Smith

Marjorie Kaye

Matthew Keller

Maegan Kirschner

Walter Kopec

Laura Krasnow

Herman Krieger

Louise Laplante

Charlie Lemay

Patrick Lichty

CHARLENE LISKA

Madeleine Lord

Steve Lovegrove

Maria Luongo

Winicjusz Lysik

Stephen Von Mason

Juliana McDonald

Azita Moradkhani

CAROL MOSES

Jeannie Motherwell

Judith Motzkin

Erica Nazzaro

Caleb Nichols

CHRISTINE PALAMIDESSI

Karen Petersen

Yvonne Petkus

Bo Petran

Sisavanh Phouthavong

Adriana Prat

R Prost

Doug Puller

Ilari Rantala

Tatjana Raum

Larry Roberts

Sherri Roberts

Ginette Rondeau

Lenora Rosenfield

Ruth Rosner

Shubho Saha

Sasho Sazdovski

Dani Schechner

Victoria Schepps

Ellen Schon

George Shaw

Julia Shepley

Melissa Shook

Marlene Siff

Rhonda Smith

Michael St-Germain

Mark Stafford

Kristin Street

Katherine Sweetman

Svetlana Swinimer

Skeffington Thomas

NANCY CHEE-KWAN TONG

Richard Trupp

Sabrina Tso

David Tycho

Paul Valadez

Milica Vergot

Isabelle Kawai Vincent

Norma Watters

Paul Weiner

Deborah Weinreb

Joyce Westrop

Coral Woodbury

X Bonnie Woods

Tami Xiang

Andre Chi Sing Yuen

 

Entry Deadline extended for the Biennial Project Biennial–with High Profile Special Jurors Announced by Anna Salmeron

Your humble servants here at Biennial Project Laboratories are hard at work on making The Biennial Project Biennial at The 2019 Venice Biennale a great big extravaganza of fantastic art from far and wide. Boy are we lucky to be able to be able to get to know so many amazing artists though this contest. We cherish being able to see and share, with you, the fascinating work that these artists create. It definitely beats obsessing 24/7 about The End Of The World As We Know It. But we digress. We have some great news. Some Kick Ass Art People have agreed to be Special Guest Jurors for our show! Each of them will pick their favorite piece from the show to receive recognition with a Special Juror’s Prize. Without further ado, The Special Guest Jurors for The Biennial Project Biennial at The 2019 Venice Biennale are:

Founder and Publisher of  New England’s highly respected and read-by-everyone ArtScope Magazine - Kaveh Mojtabai.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT KAVEH MOJTABAI

 

Carrying on a family tradition of artistic excellence and innovation - the incredible artist Jeannie Motherwell.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT JEANNIE MOTHERWELL

 

And a trio of trailblazing contemporary Cuban artists, activists and organizers of the recent 00Biennial de la Habana - Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, Yanelys Nuñez Leyva, and Nonardo Perea.

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LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR CUBAN JURORS

INTERVIEW WITH CUBAN JURORS

 

Each of these Kick Ass Art People has stupendously good taste – so we can’t wait to see which five artists they single out for special recognition.

Because these five are now on board, we have decided to extend the deadline to enter The Biennial Project Biennial at The 2019 Venice Biennale until March 15th. What are you waiting for?

 

ENTER NOW

 

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