Sh*t We Liked at The Venice Biennale 55 by Eric Hess

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imageSo it’s been a few months since we, the Biennial Project attended the glamorous preview week of the Venice Biennale.

Only now have we recovered from our hangovers, washed the glitter from our private parts and sorted out our brains from the overwhelming visual stimulus that is The Venice Biennale.

We realize that the art show closes in a month and that many of you still haven’t made plans to go.

TBP are procrastinators too and generally we catch shows the day they close like you.

The Biennial Project thought maybe if we shared with you just a little of what we liked of what we saw of the ‘Superbowl of Art’ we could get your asses in gear to go see the assemblage of creations located in Venezia for the next month.

It would be impossible to cover all we loved in one article so hopefully there will be follow ups leading right up to the closing day.

We loved Turner prize-winning artist Mark Leckey, ‘The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things’. At first we thought this was the sub-theme for the whole Biennale. Somewhat fitting don’t you agree? But it was just some more art mixed in with the other art. Whatever, we liked it. Plus it was from England like our dear friend Tom Estes.

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The Russian Pavilion floored us. And that’s not only because they had a big old hole in their floor. Despite the injustices Vladimir Putin signed into laws against gays in Russia this past summer, we have to say we can separate all that bullshit and still enjoy The Russian representation of this year’s Biennale. Actually the artist Vadim Zakharov, addresses the injustices in today’s Russian society in his piece Danae. Hopefully he doesn’t end up in jail.

In Greek Mythology Danae is impregnated by Zeus who appears to her as a Shower of Golden Rain.

It seems as if pissing on one another was a cheap thrill even in ancient times. Anyhow, our buddy Vadim demonstrates this by dropping 200,000 gold coins continuously from 2 stories up through a hole in the floor (the vagina for those of you who need this spelled out) to the basement.

Only female visitors are allowed on the bottom floor with an umbrella to protect them from the golden shower (of coins, not urine you perverts). A really, really sexy man with a well-fitted suit drops these coins on the women. Around him is the phrase ‘Gentlemen, time has come to confess our Rudeness, Lust, Narcissism, Demagoguery, Falsehood, Banality, and Greed, Cynicism, Robbery, Speculation, Wastefulness, Gluttony, Seduction, Envy and Stupidity."

So what Mr. Zakharov is really doing is acknowledging the fact the Russian society is segregated and treats different groups of people, in this case different genders, in different and unfair ways. Though this doesn’t directly address the outright gay torture the Russian government is inflicting on their gay population, Eric, of The Biennial Project, got a raging boner from the good looking Russian men yelling at him and would let them pee on him any day of the week. Thank you hot Russian men for not eating your asparagus, and fuck you Putin you fucker.




Another Artist we liked a whole lot was WILFREDO DIAZ VALDEZ, who represented Uruguay at THE URUGUAY PAVILION.

We didn’t only like Willy simply because he is kind sweet man with a kind sweet family.

We also didn’t just like him because he gave us a free autographed book or that he invited us to participate in the next Montevideo Biennial.

No, we weren’t even overcome with him simply because his son-in-law is an extremely hot looking, masculine type of Latin Man we all think about when we masturbate.

No - all these reasons were outshined by his incredible sculptures, which were made of found wooden objects modified and made into pieces that seem to impossibly balanced work with unexpected folds and joints.

He studies wood and the human interventions that have transformed it into utilitarian artifacts - at the same time examining how wood and utilitarian objects evolve. He dissects and observes the organic qualities inherent in the wood and its relationship with light—the role of photosynthesis and the effects of the passing of time—at the same time that he contemplates the historical and cultural contexts through which wood is transformed into artifacts for several uses.

Speaking of Uruguayan hotties (I mean aren’t we all always talking about the scrumptious men of Uruguay), we really enjoyed work by artist Martin Sastre - a perfume ad for his scent ‘U from Uruguay’.

At first we felt a little uncomfortable being that we, the Biennial Project, were in Venice to do our own European launch of our scent ‘Star of Venice’.  But then we figured, imitation is the best form of flattery and all he was doing was borrowing our totally original idea and making it his own.

Where our perfume breathes personal artistic success in the creative world, Martin’s fragrance leans towards social activism in the Art World.

Also he had the pretty cool idea to auction off ‘U From Uruguay’, also known as “Pepe's Perfume”.

“Pepe's Perfume” is made with the essences extracted from the flowers grown by the President of Uruguay – “Pepe” – aka José Alberto Mujica Cordano. President Mujica is an icon and global representative of Uruguayan culture. A former guerrilla fighter and member of the Broad Front coalition of left-wing parties, he has been described as "the world's 'poorest' president", given that he donates around 90 percent of his $12,000 monthly salary to charities to benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs. Of the funds raised by Pepe’s Perfume, 90 percent will be designated to the creation of the first National Contemporary Art Fund in support of Latin American artists.

See, not only are Uruguayans irresistibly sexy, they also smell good, and they have the same socialist values we The Biennial Project aspire to.

This is the ad for U From Uruguay featuring the titillating and provocative artist Martin Sastre.

More importantly here is the ad for Star of Venice


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We were also psyched to see the work of Albert Oehlen.

We’ll tell you more about it later, but right now our typing finger needs a little rest.


And we wanted to end this particular post about our discoveries in Venice on a special positive note.

We were very, very happy to see the lovely lady of Charles Ray’s “Fall ’91” again.

We had first stumbled across her, in all her power suit brilliance, in LA in the early 1990s - while on some sort of psychedelic drug (or two).

Now we know we that we really did see her. It wasn’t a mind trick (a common a side effect of hard drugs).

She really exists.

Damn. Venice rules.

 

XXOO,

The Biennial Project

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Who won the 2013 ArtVenice Biennale’s l'Invitation Palme d'Or?

The Biennial Project, as everybody knows, travels in the rarified circles of the World’s Most Elite Artists.

So when we set out to choose the artist who would be honored with the coveted l'Invitation Palme d'Or to participate in the 2013 ArtVenice Biennale, we obviously had a lot of great art to pick from.

We thought about Pussy Riot, friends of ours who have been shaking things up a bit recently in Mother Russia.

But upon considering the difficulty that they might have getting their work to us, we decided to limit our search to artists who are not currently confined to work camps.

This narrowed down the competition somewhat, but still left a lot of impressive art in the running.

But it was clear that there was one artist whose work just had to be part of our Biennale.

We are so very proud to announce that our friend Francisco Bassim was been chosen to receive the 2013 ArtVenice l'Invitation Palme d'Or.

We met Francisco at the 2011 Venice Biennale where he was was representing his country – Venezuela. (Did we mention that we have cool friends?)

In a Biennale in which there was some jaw-droppingly strong work, Francisco’s installation stood out.

Both artistically and politically au courant, brave, honest, gorgeous, sure to piss off the folks at the Vatican among others – Francisco is the total package.

And then there’s his work. Exactly the same. So damned cool.

au

io majestuoso (autorretrato), obra de: francisco bassim

percepcion II

La realidad mata las fantasías, obra de: francisco bassim, de la serie: CARACAS 666

retrato autoII

Autoretrato de lo inevitable, obra de: francisco bassim, de la serie: CARACAS 666

el cristo desnudo

Descanso luego de la crucifixión,  obra de: francisco bassim,  de la serie: Cristo libre

crisss

Cristo de los dos géneros,  obra de: francisco bassim,  de la serie: Cristo libre

miranda en yare

Miranda en Yare, obra de: francisco bassim, de serie: Héroes de la independencia

mona

Mona del barrio con rollos para el bonche de esta noche, obra de: francisco bassim, de la serie: CARACAS 666

crsito escapa con judas

Cristo con polarcitas haciendo picnic con Judas y el Espíritu Santo en un barrio caraqueño luego de la crucifixión,
obra de: francisco bassim, de la serie: CARACAS 666

tambien

No importa que tan famosa puedas ser, si lo dejas también serás una víctima,
obra de: francisco bassim, de la serie: Violencia de género

cristo fue al paraiso

Cristo fue a El Paraíso, obra de: francisco bassim, de la serie: Cristo libre

mona en espera

Mona en espera, obra de: francisco bassim, de la serie: la mona Lisa

tal vez

No hay principes azules ni reinos de cuentos de hadas, obra de: francisco bassim,
de la serie: Violencia de género

papa5

Papa Francisco Videla I y lamentablemente no el último, obra de: francisco bassim

mona2

Una mala historia desde el comienzo hasta el final, obra de: francisco bassim, de la serie: Violencia de género

mariaa

io a lo María Antonieta con polarcita y alucinando, (autorretrato),  obra de: francisco bassim

17io

io (autorretrato), obra de: francisco bassim

9io

io (autorretrato), obra de: francisco bassim

nueva historia 2

?, obra de: francisco bassim,  de la serie: Hitler mon amour 1

CRISTO VIVE 2

Cristo vive,  obra de: francisco bassim, de la serie: Cristo libre

rancho cabeza1

con el rancho en la cabezao, bra de francisco bassim, de la serie: CARACAS 666

SEE MORE ART FROM FRANCISCO BASSIM