y B1 The Living Arts MONDAY, JUNE 16, 1997 Vie New Mark Onto

ART REVIEW Another Venice Biennale Shuffles to Life By ROBERTA SMITH

VENICE, June 15- When it comes to big, international art exhibitions, the Venice Blermale has something none of the others can match : the brilliant, seductive artwork that is the city itself . The city's ancient sights and pleasures, as much as the prom- ise of any insight into contemporary art, draw art-world professionals from around the globe to this fabled archipelago in just. happy-to-be-here droves . They have arrived once more, this time for the opening of the 1997 Venice Biennale . They have filled hotels, bars and restau- rants. They have gathered in shifting clus- ters on wide piazzas and in narrow passage- ways, consulting maps, trading opinions and comparing grueling art-show itineraries . Two more big international shows open in Germany at the end of this week - Docu- menta X in Kassel and "Sculpture Projects '97" In Mfinster - and the words "forced march" have been uttered frequently. And of course these curators, collectors, artists and critics gathered in the Giardini di Castello, the gracious, dusty gardens at the tip of Venice that have been home to the Biennale for most of its centurylong life . Few Biennales seemed to need Venice's charms quite as much as this latest version, which opened to the public today with the traditional award ceremonies . This 47th In- carnation, one of the weakest Biennales in recent memory, has been plagued by bu- reaucratic procrastination and a late start that seems to have handicapped its curator, Germano Celant, the powerful, 'well-con. netted Italian critic and impresario. Mr. Celant's appointment was announced only in January, giving him less than five months instead of the usual two years to get things organized . He has clearly made a valiant effort, achieving what almost no one A spectator confronts a Rachel Whiteread sculpture else could have, primarily on the strength of at the Venice Biennale . his considerable savvy and clout. For many attending the three days of previews that began on Wednesday, that the slanting floor - its central trough remain- almost hear the sound of chips being cashed Biennale had happened at all was consid- ing from the building's glory days as a rope In. . ered something of a miracle, and its pulled- factory for the Venetian Navy - has even The Btennale's lackluster effect is extend- together, professional appearance was been leveled, although the spongy gray car- ed by the displays in many of the national widely commented upon . The sprawling pet that finished the job caused considerable pavilions, whose selections are determined Italian Pavilion and the 16th-century Cor- complaint . by their respective countries and are be- derie of the Arsenals have been handsomely But Mr. Celant's miracle is not without yond the overseeing curator's control . This refurbished by the Italian designer Gae obvious costs, "Future Present Past," unusual structure - part curatorial deliber, Autlenti to accommodate "Future Present which represents artists from the 1960's ation, part curatorial randomness - is ca-' Past," a spacious 70-artist international sur- through the 90's, all with recent if not brand. pable of imparting a great deal of valuable vey that Mr. Celant has organized as the new work, is weighed down by big-name, raw information, even when the show, like Biennale's heart. over-the-hill talents, including many artists this one, lacks insight and inspiration. [-he New walls have been built, spaces have with wham Mr . Celant has worked In previ- problem is that Mr. Celant's own show is so been simplified and the Corderie's famous ous exhibitions. Walking through it, one can Continued on Page B4 In Venice, the Blennale Shuffles to Life Again denly starts swinging the flower, Continued From Page BI which turns ouf to be a metalfacsim- ile, through the windows of parked incoherent and arbitrary that it sim- cars, her mounting pleasure shared ply echoes the randomness of the the by a passing policewoman . national pavilions . The art in the national pavilions The Italian Pavilion, which show- and the main exhibition alike reflect- cases the older participants in "Fu- ed the latest swings in the esthetic ture Present Past" is especially em- pendulum : the growing interest In barrassing, running through an un- narrative, often of a mythological even list of the usual suspects that sort, aswell as the widespread use of includes Gerhard Richter, but also film and video and a nearly total lack Jim Dine and Tony Cragg (though of interest in painting . And some- not Bruce Nauman), It seems like a times it seemed that the most Impor- random assortment reflecting art. tant contest in contemporary art ists (or artists' dealers) Mr. Celant right now is that between virtual could count on for favors and others reality and the real kind . who were grateful to be invited . One The ball goes back and forth often has the feeling that the artists across the net a few times at the didn't have time or couldn't be both- NordicCountries Pavilion, which has ered to send their best efforts. mounted a small Aperto of its own . arm BNEw for Thehex York Times This section of the show, however, There, one can peruse a quasi-arche- was strengthened by "Balkan Ba- ological installation piece by Mark A scene from Pipilatti Rist's video installation "Ever Is Over All-" roque," Marina Abramovic's searing Dion, an American artist, featuring a if melodramatic installation, which fascinating and rather beautiful ar- Mr, Celant added after the Republic ray of ceramic, glass and metal frag- cott's bright, luscious paintings; with erupted in the Italian press today of Montenegro canceled her show the menis dredged up from the bottom of their raucous figurative style and when one of the jurors, Maurizio Yugoslavian Pavilion . Involving Venice's canals, or the verdant gar- caustically ribald commentary on Calvesi, an Italian art historian, quit piles of animal bones and a video den, planted around trees that have American racism, turned in one of the jury because Anselm Kiefer . projection, it details a Balkan form always grown through the pavilion's the more solid performances here. whose compressed retrospective at of rodent control rife with harrowing roof, in which Henrik Hakansson of Being the first black artist to repre- t.' :e Correr Museum is affiliated with political implications . Sweden will be breeding butterflies sent the United States at Venice, Mr. the Biennale, was not given a prize. The younger artists, isolated for until the exhibition ends on Oct. 15. Colescott made history just by show- As usual, not all the countries the most part in the Corderie, On the other (land, there's a minia- ing up. could fit into the Giardini . Portugal, achieve a bit more vitality and even ture Greek Classical temple where Also impressive are the efforts of which plans to build its own pavilion, recapture some of the spirit of the one cansit and watch a video by Sven two sculptors : Rachel Whiteread, made the biggest spfash, renting all Aperto (Open) exhibitions. Initiated Pahlsson of Norway that includes who filled the British Pavilion with entire palazzo on the Grand Canal to in 1980, the Aperto shows included eerie, digitally realized versions of her idiosyncratic, contemplative showcase the rather meager figura- emerging artists from around the castings of the negative spaces of tive paintings of Juhao Sarmento. world, countering the territorial na- chairs, tables and bathtubs, and The hard-to-find Irish Pavilion oil the ture of the pavilions with an energet- Thierry de Cordier, whose hulxing Giudecca weighed in with a poignant ic artistic free-for-all. The achievement black moundlike shapes - made of video installation about "the trot ;- But even if Mr. Celant deserves earth, hair, rubber, sticks, beer and bles" by a young woman, Jaki Irvine. credit for bringing hack a bit of is that the show trash - made a dramatic display at Instead of being humiliatingly Aperto liveliness, the Cordorie sec- the Belgian Pavilion . crowded into the rabbit warren of tion of "Future Present Past" is also has gone on at all . Ms . Whiteread won one of the galleries in a back corner of the often bagged dawn by a good-old-boy three Premio 2000 prizes for out- Italian Pavilion as in previous years, atmosphere and regularly punctuat- standing achievement by a young many Latin American countries ed with vapid, overblown statements . artist, as did Ms . Rist and the Eng- were humiliatingly crowded into a This section begins with a large the great mansions of the antebellum lish video artist Douglas Gordon, garden at the Querini Stampalia mirrored figure by Jeff Koons that South. In another small gallery, the also at the Corderie . The two Inter- Foundation, a short walk from the could easily be a weak work by Keith Japanese photographer and per- national Venice Biennale prizes, as Page's Palace, Haring . At midpoint, there is a raw formance artist Mariko Mori seems the Golden Lions for painting and for Meanwhile, back at the Giardini, of enormous wax crosses by Robert to float before the viewer in elabo- sculpture are now called, went to Ms. at least two pavilions dissented from Longo and, at the end, empty paint. rate Buddhist-goddess regalia, re- Abramovic and Mr. Richter, the pressure to bring quantities of ings and bronze sculptures, also leasing little orbs of light, or drifting Inexplicably, 'the award for best art and people into direct contact enormous, by Julian Schnabel. feathers from her fingertips. It isn't pavilion went to. France for an inco- with one another. Disdaining a tradi- The best efforts here were made the artist at all, but rather an exam- herent installation by Fabrice Hy- tional exhibition altogether, Austria for the most part by women with ple of what is said to be the world's bert, who is spending the first week seems to have blown its Biennale cameras. Near the Corderie's center, first three-dimensional video, and for of the Biennale making daily video- budget on a thick catalogue chroni- the English artist Sam Taylor-Wood reasons both technical and esthetic, tapes from broadcast television pro- cling the achievement of the Vien- dissected a typical movie moment, a it's one of the Btennale's standouts . grams. Citations for special merit nese Actionists and Fluxus artists in man breaking up with a woman in a So many of the show's high points went to Mr. de Cordier, the Belgian the late 1950's. The Austrian Pavilion crowded restaurant, in a powerful, were executed in video or film that representative ; Ms . Mori at the Nor- is filled with neat, room-sized piles of three-image video projection that fo- many visitors were calling 1t "the dic Counties Pavilion ; Marie-Ange the publication {think of Carl cuses on the woman's angry, tear- techno Biennale ." At the Canadian Guillemmot, a French installation Andre's brick sculptures to the nuali stained face and and the man's Pavilion, Rodney Graham exhibited artist at the Corderie, and a lk-Joong power) and can be taken by anyone bulky, fidgeting hands. "Vexation Island," a short, ravishing Kang, whose cheerful snapshot-size willing to carry them . An even stronger impression was color film of himself as a marooned, paintings fill half the Korean Pavil- The Japanese installation artist made directly across the way by the amnesiac 18th-century gentleman ion-The Rei Naito, whose New York debut Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist, whose ear who keeps getting knocked uncon- newly instituted Golden Lion last winter left a lot to be desired, for music and eye for color and phys- scious by falling coconuts, only to for Contribution to Contemporary turned the Japanese Pavilion here ical rhythm is turning music video awake, stand up and start shaking Art has gone to the American Mini- into a grandly delicate, tented shrine . . -~:;ou~ all ¬ 01- 311, and a haiiit the tree again. And the Icelandic malist Agnes Martin and the Italian occupied, it seemed, by a semiab- errlyl y one at that. In her "Ever is Over Pavilion provided a bit of historical artist Emilio Vedova, whose pomp- stract goddess made of wire, gauze, All," a beautiful young woman car- context by exhibiting the work of ous gestural canvases are similar to seeds and other ephemera . By allow- i ies a long-stemmed flower known as Steina Vasulka, an American artist American Abstract Expressionism . ing only one person at a lime to enter a red-hot poker through the streets, born in Iceland, who pioneered video Both artists are in "Future Present this calming environment, Ms. Naito like someone a few years late for her art in the late 1960's. Past," their mutually antagonistic dramatized the bewildering pace of First Communion ; an adjacent The traditional art object had only paintings sharing a big central gal- art viewing that the Biennale im- screen shows the flower's red, phal" a few convincing defenders. At the lery at the Italian Pavilion . poses on its visitors, even in an off luslike blooms in close-up. She sud- American Pavilion, Robert Coles- The requisite awards controversy year .