Venice is, in a sense, a work of art in its own right, but every other year from early June to late November, the Giardini (Venice's gardens in the east of the city), becomes the venue for the
Biennale di Venezia, an international exhibition of contemporary art.
The Venice Biennale began in 1895 and this year sees the 53rd exhibition, housed in thirty permanent national pavilions.
The pavilions were mostly built in the early 1900s (although several were added in the 1950s and South Korea's was added in 1995) and many of them - designed by significant international architects - reflect the architectural styles of the individual countries. For example (and since we are off to Greece in a few days) here is the Greek Pavilion...
None of the pavilions, however, can compare with the richly decorated beauty of the Hungarian's building...
But wherever you wander in the gardens, you get enticing glimpses between the trees and across the flowerbeds, into the worlds of the artists who are exhibiting, such as Miquel Barceló whose paintings and ceramics are to found here in the Spanish Pavilion...
Elsewhere, in the Slovak Pavilion for example, the gardens actually overflow into the interior space and became the 'art' on exhibition...
In fact, within the buildings, you might find almost anything!
Such as...
Egyptian wicker people (and cats)...
Portraits that, occasionally, blinked - unfortunately
I blinked (and missed it)...
Quite a few rude drawings...
And a whole garden of rude flowers...
There were also displays of rather more refined (but no less erotic) glass flowers and foliage by the brilliant American glass sculptor, Dale Chihuly...
Each country had its own voice - although America was offering somewhat conflicting messages...
Germany presented us with a cat and lot of kitchen cabinets...
While the South Koreans made a novel arrangement of Venetian blinds - how appropriate
in Venice...
Whil the French offered us a series of empty golden cages...
It was, sometimes, fascinating - or, more truthfully,
puzzling - what constituted art...
Hmmm!
But there was no question that this exquisitely beautiful spiral film projector that was far more fascinating than the never-ending movie it was showing...
There was art that, frankly, didn't look as if it was quite finished...
And art that didn't look as though it had even been unwrapped properly...
But, like everyone else, we looked and we pondered...
We considered and we cogitated...
Until, eventually, the time came to stop and put the feet up...
Especially after looking at things that gave you spots before the eyes...
Or which had, clearly, sent someone up - or
down - the wall!
Images: Brian Sibley and David Weeks © 2009 unloaded by
flickr.
8 comments:
Wow - what a collection. How long did it take you to get round (and did you spend a bit longer at the Erotica)?
scryle: rude spherical flower art
It took the better part of a hot and humid day and I did about 4/5ths of the exhibits before getting pooped and requiring a long sit down.
Fortunately, I chanced on the Israeli Pavilion which had both comfy armchairs arranged around a table laden with impenetrable modern paintings and AIR CONDITIONING!
So I (literally) chilled out - pretending to be absorbed in the aforesaid impenetrable art books - while David knocked off the rest of the show and brought me back photos to show me what I'd missed!
As for the erotica, it was pretty much hard to avoid it! No one country, it seems, has the monopoly when it comes to rude or suggestive art.
We saw that guy's glass sculptures at Kew a couple of years ago- amazing!
Were the Germans opening an IKEA in their pavilion?
Roger O. B...
LEEDRA: an editorial comment on an art exhibit
Yes, we also saw Dale Chihuly's fantastical foliage at Kew (we probably passed in the Palm Hose without knowing it!) and thought them sensational.
There is a fabulous sculpture by him currently hanging in the atrium of the V&A Museum. You can see it here.
As for the German Pavilion's exhibit: here's what it's all about:
"In Liam Gillick's 'How are you going to behave? A kitchen cat speaks', one meets a kitchen and a cat.
"The kitchen is inspired by the design of the Frankfurter Küche (Frankfurt Kitchen) by the Viennese architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky. Conceived in 1926, the Frankfurt Kitchen with its functional form was intended to optimize household workflows. The first prototypes of today’s built-in kitchen were integrated into more than 10,000 public housing units in Frankfurt, Germany.
"The (animatronic) cat sits on top of the kitchen and fights against the echo in the building and tells us a circular story of misrepresentation, misunderstanding and desire."
I'm sure you understand perfectly now. :-)
I love how Chihuly's glass was set up in that exhibit, as if the works were plants themselves. Great stuff.
And in the Kew Gardens exhibition they were springing up or suspended in the various hothouses as if they were particularly rare and exotic orchids and lilies.
Not surprisingly, I liked the wicker cats best...
Amazing stuff. (and the ArtSpeak about the German kitchen cabinets, well, I suppose it's gratifying to know that it isn't just here where art is described in terms that leave one feeling as if one's head has just been turned inside out, and left that way.) I far prefer your commentary!
The Hungarian Pavilion's exterior decoration is wonderful.
Thanks for sharing!
DALSALIA -- a new breed of erotic glass plant
One of the things that I find fascinating about the Biennale is that the buildings (many of them so obviously very early-1900s) remain the same year upon year (or year upon every-other-year!) but inside there is always something totally different - unexpected, engaging, exciting, bizarre or even downright silly...
We have visited the gardens on the years when the Binanale is not on and the empty national houses sit amongst the trees shut up, forlornly awaiting their next extravagant and exotic tenants.
The concept of nationally-styled pavilions is, of course, one that was featured in many world's fairs and international expositions and is still found, today, in Epcot's World Showcase at Walt Disney World in Florida.
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