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8 Biennale VENICE BIENNALE VIVA ARTE VIVA by Olivia Sand


In a crowded contemporary art world driven by gallery exhibitions, museum shows, art fairs, biennials and auctions are taking place all around the globe, the Venice Biennale generally serves as an excellent point of reference to pause and reflect upon where the art world stands in a context that is always more global and more complex. Bringing together 36 countries and 120 artists, the Biennale provides a rather accurate snapshot of the contemporary art world, highlighting its concerns and priorities. As in previous editions, this 57th Biennale was organised around a theme imagined by Christine Macel, curator at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Under the title Viva Arte Viva, she decided to design a ‘Biennale with artists, by artists and for artists, about the forms they propose, the questions they ask, the practices they develop and the ways of life they choose’. Instead of tediously getting artists and their artwork to fit into a theme, Christine Macel’s idea was to let the art


speak established for itself restrictions, the


artwork, per se, coming first. Following the tradition of the Biennale,


Christine Macel curated


the general section in the Padiglione Venezia and the Arsenale as a group show while the national pavilions remain under the responsibility of each individual country. Among the national pavilions in the Giardini, Japan presents an excellent exhibition by Takahiro Iwasaki (b 1975). Known for his Reflection Models that reproduce models of historical monuments completed out of Japanese cypress and his Out of Disorder series, which creates modern landscapes that rely on found and used materials, Iwasaki shows this ongoing endeavour at the Biennale. With replicas of shrines, or pagodas, with their floating image coming from the water underneath, Iwasaki takes us to a still very vivid traditional aspect of Japanese society that interacts with contemporary pieces


from the Out of Disorder


series. Using thread from discarded towels and other plastic material, Iwasaki builds delicate landscapes addressing the issues that come with industrialisation: construction


pollution, affecting an


frenetic idyllic


landscape. His presentation is all the more powerful as the viewer could glimpse the artwork on eye-level from the lower floor to immerse themselves into the Mountains and Sea piece.


Te Egyptian Pavilion is


surprisingly captivating with the pavilion itself serving as the medium for Moataz Nasr’s video Te Mountain. Addressing the issue of fear, as it is experienced by a community in a small village, the video emphasises the importance of centennial traditions and beliefs that without being questioned continue to dictate the way of life of its inhabitants. As Nasr (b 1961) rightly points out, ‘life starts when fear ends’. A quite radical view was the one adopted by the Korean pavilion by taking on the


ASIAN ART NOVEMBER 2017


statement this installation wanted to make. Compared to its previous


participation in 2015, the Indonesian pavilion proves slightly disappointing with 1001 Martian Homes by Tintin Wulia (b 1972) that addresses the idea of virtual homes. Te United Arab Emirates’ Rock, Paper, Scissors brought together five artists, Nujoom Alghanem (b 1962), Sara Al Haddad (b. 1988), Vikram Divecha (b 1977), Lantian Xie (b 1988) and Mohamed Yousif (b 1953), all of whom explore the notion of ‘play’, usually the first concept through which children become aware of differences, respect, tolerance and community. By extent, the notion of play is herein brought one level further, questioning,


for


Liu Jianhua Square (2014) by Liu Jianhua, porcelain, dimensions variable, La Biennale di Venezia, Viva Arte Viva. All photos: Andrea Avezzù, Italo Rondinella, Francesco Galli, Jacopo Salvi. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia


with no pre- with


outside features of a pleasure motel. Both selected artists, Cody Choi (b 1961) and Lee Wan (b 1979), have made it a point to illustrate individual stories using the context of Korea’s national history, the Asian continent’s history, as well as comparing this background to the rest of the world. Although the issues brought forward by the artists are most relevant, viewers lacking any proper explanations often faces some difficulties in grasping the general idea behind the artists’s undertaking. Beyond the Giardini, numerous


national participations are to be found in the former shipyards of the Arsenale. Te Philippines, a country where an interesting contemporary art scene has come about in recent years,


features two artists in Te


Spectre of Comparison, Lani Maestro (b 1957) and Manuel Ocampo (b 1965). Based on the novel Noli Me Tangere by Philippino writer Jose Rizal, both artists deal, each in their own way,


with the notion of


comparison between the Philippines and abroad, which in the eyes of historian Anderson marks the origin of nationalism. Besides installation artist Maestro, Manuel Ocampo’s paintings are in perfect harmony with the pavilion’s theme,


looking at


various issues ranging from a national to a more global perspective. His paintings do not shy away from confronting the viewer with world issues in a most direct and painterly way. As a steady driving force of the Philippino contemporary art scene, Manuel Ocampo representing the Philippines in the Venice Biennale was long overdue. It has now been a number of years that China has retained a regular location in the Biennale with its pavilion towards the end of the Arsenale.


Entitled Continuum -


Generation by Generation, the overall idea of the Chinese pavilion refers to the


principle of I Ching, where


‘changes and renewals are the original source of production and


example, the idea of playfulness in art, its accomplishments and its origins. Going beyond the Giardini and the Arsenale, other national pavilions are located around town. Just steps from the entrance of the Arsenale, Hong Kong has its pavilion with its promising artist Samson Young (b 1979) creating the installation Songs for Disaster Relief, Hong Kong in Venice. Based on the fashion of ‘charity singles’, artist composer Jason Young beautifully


sets up entire


creating various tableaux to revive the plea launched in the 1980s with such songs as We Are the World and Do Tey Know It’s Christmas becoming powerful means to trigger not only compassion, but also action. An important performance artist in


his own right is Tehching Hsieh (b 1950), who is showing in the Taiwanese Pavilion. Bringing together archival documentation recording his key performances after moving to New York in the early 1970s, the viewer can get an overview of the actual meaning of the pavilion’s main title Doing Time, indeed, the five documented performances each lasted one year,


requiring iron


Law of Situation (1971/2017) by Kishio Suga, 10 stepping-stones, mixed media site specific installation


reproduction’. Te artists Tang Nannan (b 1969), Wu Jian’an (b 1980), Wang Tianwen (b 1949) and Yao Huifen (b 1967) have all taken traditional crafts from China one step further, transposing them into the modern age.


Between


traditional painting, paper cuts, and mythological sculpture trees, some works are far more successful than others. Wu Jian’an’s paper-cut collages are based on mythical Chinese characters and their multiple colourful layers bring alive endless stories. Tunisia has established a small


shack in conjunction with its leitmotiv Te Absence of Paths, based on the participation of the visitors at the Biennale. Relying on a sentence by Rumi (‘I did not come here of my own accord, and I cannot leave that way. Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home’)


to raise


awareness towards the refugee crisis, the forced displacement of people and all the bureaucracy coming with it, the shack is issuing a ‘universal travel document’ to anyone who requests it. Te Tunisian pavilion points towards the issue of migration, an issue nations will have to address


globally as a ‘universal travel


document’ is presently not available for immigrants from certain countries. Similar to the Chinese pavilion,


Singapore ventures back into history to tell the story of the first Malay King, Daunt Hyang Sri Jayanasa from the 7th century,


whose


hegemony spread over large sections of today’s Southeast Asia. With a crowd of 20,000 people, he led a sacred pilgrimage for the expansion of Buddhism. With a life-sized imagined ship,


discipline when for example clocking a worker’s clock on the hour, every hour,


Te


accumulation of hundreds of images documenting each performance stands as witness for the monumental action accomplished by the artist based on time. In addition,


the


exhibition features some photographs of Tehching Hsieh’s earlier work in Taiwan has never previously exhibited. A key figure in the field of performance, he has unquestionably taken the discipline to a new level. Another interesting pavilion is the


artist Zai Kuning


(b 1964) resurrects that ancient story while connecting it to the present: with his own singing and drum performance, he draws attention to various Malay cultural traditions that are at risk of getting lost in today’s world. Turkey features a site-specific


installation by Cevdet Erek (b 1974), in the form of a large construction with fences that involves sound, letting the viewer walk into the structure, but it was not open ended. His installation would greatly have benefited from the presence of the artist as many viewers were left not knowing what to refer to or what


Lebanese, located in a huge space that perfectly


fits the installation Sun


Dark Sun by Zad Moultaka (b 1967), who recreated Samas, the God of Justice in Mesopotamian culture, referring to the Code of Hammurabi, considered the first legal code. Beautifully executed with a sound installation, Sun Dark Sun is a powerful piece that raises many questions about the archaic and technology. Te Tai pavilion focuses on a


different vision of Bangkok, bringing together photographs highlighting its glorious past with objects raising the question of their memory, history


and their former their owner.


for an entire year or living outdoors without shelter.


rooms,


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