58TH VENICE ART BIENNALE By

73 / JULY / AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2019 1 JULY — AUGUST — SEPTEMBER 2019 / OFFICE OF DISPOSAL 9000 GENT X - P509314 - X GENT 9000 DISPOSAL OF OFFICE / 2019 SEPTEMBER — AUGUST — JULY 20 58TH VENICE ART BIENNALE by DOMINIQUE MOULIN CULTURAL COMMENTS COMMENTS CULTURAL Too real to be surreal 2019 Deep See Blue Surrounding You, , s Laure Prouvo 20 21 58TH VENICE ART BIENNALE Dominique Moulin It goes without saying that the Venice COMMENTS CULTURAL Art Biennale divides opinion, for that is the very nature of the sometimes-beautiful beast. The 58th edition was entrusted to the American curator Ralph Rugoff and his headline theme, May You Live In Interesting Times, appears a warning to appreciate the world as it is by observing it. And given Rugoff’s decision to only feature living artists, what we end up with are observers of our time. Jumping around the locations, DAMN°’s man on the ground gives his own point of view on the points of view on show. To live in the present time, as Ralph spectra III in the Central Pavilion. It put on a VR headset. For the next Rugoff – whose day job is director is a corridor whose white light daz- eight minutes we are immersed in of London’s Hayward Gallery – en- zles us so much that we protect our- a universe in a gaseous state, with- courages us to do, is also to accept selves with our hands, as though not out any gravity or apparent limits, extreme complexity. And that may to observe the unobservable. This until we realise that we can act on be the reason why he asked Lara excess might suggest the mass of its form with movement – uncon- Favaretto to plunge the Central Pa- information that daily overwhelms scious at first – of the head. We can vilion into a thick fog so as to mask us, sometimes preventing us from create spirals that immediately be- its outlines. Fujiko Nakaya already taking the time to make a personal come self-sustaining as do smoke did this with the Pepsi Pavilion of opinion about the society in which puffs in the enclosed environment the Osaka World Expo in 1970. But we all play a part. The extreme light of interiors. Nothing in our field of fortunately, there is no patent on of this passage inevitably leads to vision indicates reality as we know the use of fog in art. an elsewhere that can also illustrate it, including the absence of a body the inexorable end that we refuse to that is a prisoner in its sitting po- ill s Rugoff asked the 79 participating consider, building the mental imag- sition in the old rope factory of the artists to present two works with es of spaces where the body would Arsenale. The rules of the game very distinct forms to exhibit some be superfluous. having been defined by the artist, in the Giardini and others in the it is a kind of interior spectacle in Arsenale, as if to emphasise the di- It is with the installation En- which we actively participate that versity of points of view, even via a dodrome by Dominique Gonza- is played out to marvel us. It is a single look. Ryoji Ikeda accepted lez-Foerster that we experience state of consciousness modified the challenge by offering two in- the loss of the body by first being by the very images that we initiate stallations, one of which is entitled invited to sit at a table and then to while suspending control. Ed Atkins, Old Food, 2017-2019, 22 23 58TH VENICE BIENNALE Dominique Moulin Immateriality, in the Giardini, is mentioned was the real purpose of trifling mindset that is heading us around the notion of appropriation, be true in this world where colours It cries incessantly with the long not just virtual if one considers the the enforced move: the strengthen- all towards climate dystopia. Char- is as hypnotic as it is deafening. Of come together so perfectly. How- sobs of an adult – as if it could not COMMENTS CULTURAL sculptural installation A Monument ing of Canada’s claim on Artic sov- acters flick through magazines and the 48 films of reconstructed wars, ever, the American artist, whose forgive itself for the faults it prob- for Lost Time by Larissa Sansour ereignty during the Cold War. The scroll through iPhones, nagging in we only perceive a form of synthe- studio looks like a film set, applies ably hasn’t yet committed. It has with Søren Lind in the Danish pavil- film reveals the interplay of power song to music by composer Lina sis that fascinates us, especially almost no effects to the scenes he a strange presence, reminiscent of ion. Why? Because the object we ob- politics, mistrust and manipulation Lapelytė about dog poop on the when we are lucky enough to have shoots, going so far as to play in the polychrome sculptures of cry- serve, even carefully, does not yield – a dynamic that characterises Inu- beach, and no more snow at Christ- only known war through movies, some of them himself. Humour, ing virgins by Pedro de Mena from any information, neither about its it people’s defiant and proud rela- mas. The chilling message that the TV series, documentaries or the which in television as in advertising 17th-century Spain. The use of the shape nor its thickness, and as a wit- tionship with their more dominant encroaching environmental ca- news. Can we, then, appreciate is a source of income, is very pres- three dimensions, in both cases, ness, I can assure you that even con- neighbours. tastrophe seems almost too sunny these times of peace? Something ent. Here, the ‘real’ is only inter- adds a supplementary soul to these torting yourself to another viewing and easy. that not everyone has the luxury to preted as it is done in the theatre, representations of beings in tears. point changes nothing. Is it a disc ‘In the next century, Venice will enjoy when our countries are also making us forget the sad reality of The groans of this infant that noth- or rather a sphere? Never, without probably be submerged,’ exclaims Laure Prouvost partially flooded involved in the arms trade. our sometimes-grey lives. Beyond ing can comfort are those of the rushing the spectator boundary that Rugoff in an interview with The the floor of the French pavilion with the video image, there are neon artist himself. This has the effect keeps us at a distance, will we know. Art Newspaper when he discusses a layer of resin. But the thin layer of For the Polish Pavilion, Roman lights just as colourful and just as of increasing the strangeness of the What we learn is that the object, the consequences of global warm- blue has also frozen time by impris- Stańczak also explores changing compelling as those we find in ur- scene in which a man of a mature the very existence of which oning rubbish, plants and times with an installation age follows. He too is abso- appears to us in suspense, shells among bits of out- set up in stark contrast with lutely sad and seems just as has been covered with a par- The Lithuanian Pavilion, moded electronics – a boon the glittering yachts docked It cries incessantly with the inconsolable. His voice is ticularly matte flat black. for future underwater ar- around Venice for summer. similar, so we imagine him The acrylic paint, eager for Sun & Sea, won the chaeologists if nothing rad- He presents a gutted pri- long sobs of an adult – as if it at different ages of a life light and summoning the Golden Lion for best ical or downright obvious is vate jet that he reconstruct- could not forgiveitself for without redemption. sublime, is Stuart Semple’s done to avoid the worst. The ed inside-out. The once Black 2.0 and available on- national pavilion. perfectly smooth surface of sleek beast, a status sym- the faults it probably hasn’t Other artists at the Bien- line – although famously It revealed that the floor appears to us in bol that could mount the yet committed. It has a nale are particularly fond not to Anish Kapoor. Fel- opposition to the organic skies and scream success, of the aesthetics of com- low artists still bristle over making good art about matter or damaged objects has been unceremonious- strange presence, reminiscent puter-generated images. Kapoor’s exclusive rights climate change doesn’t contained within. The elec- ly grounded, left in a fran- ofthe polychrome sculptures The Canadian Jon Rafman to Vantablack, the ‘blackest tronic remnants of the in- tic ball of exposed wires, is one such artist, who was black of the world’, but this have to be all gloom stallation Deep See Blue Sur- belts, windows, and metal of crying virgins invited by Rugoff to partici- claim – Semple is Kickstart- and fear. rounding You, which in such plates. It’s identifiable, but by Pedro de Mena from pate. His style is somewhat ing Black 3.0 – and ‘colour a short time have lost all of only just. Flight is a proj- hobbyist, as is the trend in feud’ rumbles on. Art, the their useable value, signals ect about possibilities gone 17th-century Spain. the world of art, unlike the sublime, industry and trade, a form of time acceleration. awry and delivers a cutting oh so perfect 3D universe have never gotten along to- They are surrounded by cig- critique of Poland’s capital- of animation films and vid- gether so well. ing both on territories and popu- arette butts that further reinforce ist regime – a system broken into an ban advertisements.

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