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Join us as we get a glimpse into Alice’s adventures around the planet.
Today’s destination: The Venice La Biennale
Postcard addressed to: Elena
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Dear Elena,
The 59th International Art Exhibition, generically known as Venice La Biennale, ends on Sunday November 27, 2022.
It has been the most significant forum for contemporary art in the world since 1895.
Titled “The Milk of Dreams,” from a children’s book by Leonora Carrington and curated by Italian Cecilia Alemani, 213 artists from 58 countries exhibit in the Central Pavilion (Giardini with 28 national pavilions) and the Arsenale, since April 23.
Additionally 1,433 works represent 80 national pavilions and various exhibitions (Amselm Kiefer, Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley, Bosco Sodi, Marc Quinn, Bruce Nauman, Marlene Dumas, and Louise Nevelson ) transformed the Venetian palazzos into amazing backdrops for art, pushing our imagination. The best way to view art in the greatest open air museum as Venice.
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Israeli artist Ilit Azoulay (pictured above) turned the stark Israeli Pavilion in Giardini into QUEENDOM, creating a series of large-scale panoramic photomontages with a collaborative sound installation, rewriting this history of KINGDOM.
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Giardini is reminiscent of a world’s fair, housing dozens of national pavilions each sympolizing a given country’s national ideals. Here Simone Leigh’s Sovereignty pays homage to a long history of Black femme collectivity, communality and care. Considering the neo-classical US Pavilion itself as a sculpture, Leigh installed a thatch roofing that resembles a 1930s West African palace, challenging a new perspective on the history of architecture.
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In “Re-enchanting the World” — displayed in the Poland Pavilion and inspired by the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara — artist Matgorzata Mirga-Tas inserts her Roma culture into twelve large-format textile installations, reversing the stereotypical narrative. Hers is a non-violent process to change the world’s errant paths and help regain a sense of community and rebuild relationships with others.
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Katharina Fritsch born in Essen in 1956 was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Her elephant is exhibited in the central pavilion of the Biennale at the Giardini. It is a life-size sculpture made in 1987 on the model of a stuffed animal, in polyster. It represents matriarchy of wise elephants who guide their flock on their migration.
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As Albert Einstein once said: “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead and his eyes are dimmed.”
Until the next one,
Alice
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PHOTO CREDITS
All photos, unless otherwise noted, courtesy of Alice Lonfat-Chu; The lead-In photo is a partial image of Matgorzata Mirga-Tas’ tapestry.
