Arsenale. Venice Biennale 2015 (Press Kit) Storie Della Biennale Di Venezia a Cura Di Stefania Portinari E Nico Stringa
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Figure 1 Tania Candiani and Luis Felipe Ortega, Possessing Nature, Pavilion of Mexico: Arsenale. Venice Biennale 2015 (press kit) Storie della Biennale di Venezia a cura di Stefania Portinari e Nico Stringa Retelling the History of the Mexico Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia Carolina Nieto Ruiz University of Washington, USA Abstract This chapter presents a revised history of the Mexico Pavilions in La Bien- nale di Venezia. Official discourse on Mexican Pavilions published in the twenty-first century contain significant inconsistencies and omissions about Mexico’s twentieth century participations. These inaccuracies have been repeatedly published in the press, effectively rewriting history. I argue that a more complete historical narrative is neces- sary for a richer understanding of Mexico’s contribution to the international art scene. First, I examine historical inconsistencies in exhibition publications from 2007-17. Next, I construct a narrative history of the Mexico Pavilions in three stages, in accordance with their aesthetics and contexts of production: post-revolutionary (1950, 1952, 1958, 1968), rupture (1986), and transnational (2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2019). Finally, I offer some concluding remarks and suggestions for further research. Keywords Mexico Pavilion. La Biennale di Venezia. Historical revision. Twentieth cen- tury Mexican Art. Twenty-first century Mexican Art. Summary 1 Introduction. – 2 Inconsistencies in the History of the Mexico Pavilion. – 3 Post-Revolutionary Nationalistic Mexico Pavilions: 1950, 1952, 1958, 196. – 4 The Rupture Pavilion: 1986. – 5 The Transnational Pavilions: 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017. – 6 Concluding Thoughts. 1 Introduction La Biennale di Venezia is the oldest and most important international art ex- hibition in the world. Since the first Biennale in 1895, it has become both a world-renowned international art institution and a critical tool for cultural di- plomacy. The first national pavilion, belonging to Belgium, appeared in 1907 Storie dell’arte contemporanea 4 | Atlante delle Biennali 1 ISSN 2704-9973 ISBN [ebook] 978-88-6969-366-3 | ISBN [print] 978-88-6969-367-0 Edizioni Ca’Foscari Open access 377 Published 2019-12-18 © 2019 | cb Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License DOI 10.30687/978-88-6969-366-3/023 Carolina Nieto Ruiz Retelling the History of the Mexico Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia (cf. Ventimiglia 1996). National pavilions have grown in number ev- er since, increasing to 29 in 1995, and to 70 in 2015. The scholar Edgardo Bermejo Mora (2015) claims that when a na- tion presents a pavilion at La Biennale, it demonstrates economic stability and a strong interest in developing its artistic and cultur- al production. The process requires economic resources, tough ne- gotiations, international logistics, promoting the event at home and abroad, and mediating the voices of many different actors without losing sight of the diplomatic importance of the event. For those in- volved, a national pavilion is a tremendous source of pride. In the case of Mexico, narratives of pride in the national pavilions are some- what undermined by inconsistencies in the historical record of Bi- ennale participation. Starting in 2007, official documentation of the Mexico Pavilions began to omit almost all of the twentieth century pavilions. This may be due to a lack of effort to collect, track, or ver- ify this history. Instead, Mexican art historians have addressed indi- vidual pavilions as part of their work on specific artists, curators, or movements.1 In this chapter, I offer a more complete history of Mex- ican participation in international art exhibitions by shedding light on the repeated omissions of the Mexico Pavilions from official his- tories. First, I will examine historical inconsistencies in exhibition publications from 2007-17. Next, I will construct a narrative history of the Mexico Pavilions in three stages, in accordance with their aes- thetics and contexts of production: post-revolutionary (1950, 1952, 1958, 1968), rupture (1986), and transnational (2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2019). Finally, I will offer some concluding remarks and suggestions for further research [tab. 1]. I gathered evidence for this work through archival research at the Archivio Storico delle arte contemporanee di Venezia in June, 2015; at Biblioteca de las Artes in Mexico City in May, 2016; using the on- line database of the International Center for the Arts of the Ameri- cas, created by the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston; and by review- ing the online digital archives and published materials of Mexico’s National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA). I want to thank my colleague K.C. Lynch from the University of Washington for her enor- mous help revising and editing the manuscript of this essay. In addition, the funding for this research project was provided by the Mexico’s Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología in 2015. This essays was created for the conference Storie della Biennale di Venezia, curated by Nico Stringa and Stefania Portinari (Venice, Ca’ Foscari Universi- ty, Ca’ Dolfin, 6-7 December 2016). 1 See: Carlos A. Molina (2013, 2014) and Alejandro Ugalde (2014) for the Mexico Pa- vilions from 1950 to 1968, García Gomez (2009) for the Mexico Pavilion in 1986 and Ed- gardo Bermejo Mora (2015) for the Pavilion of 2009. Storie dell’arte contemporanea 4 | 1 378 Storie della Biennale di Venezia, 377-397 Carolina Nieto Ruiz Retelling the History of the Mexico Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2 Inconsistencies in the History of the Mexico Pavilion Founded in 1947, INBA has produced all of the Mexico Pavilions to date, and has been responsible for the selection of its contributors (Molina 2014). As Martínez Martínez (2008) states, in 1988 the IN- BA became part of the National Council for Art and Culture (CONA- CULTA), so catalogues from the Mexico Pavilion contain joint press releases from INBA and CONACULTA, including remarks from the di- rectors of both institutions on how Mexico is honoured to be includ- ed in La Biennale. In spite of national pride, the published history of the Mexico Pavilions is incomplete. Mexico’s presence at twentieth century Biennali has been largely omitted from twenty-first centu- ry INBA publications. Mexico Pavilions have been featured at every Biennale since 2007. The same text, written by Mexico’s curatorship team, appears in both the Mexico Pavilion catalogue for 2007 and in Mexico’s section of the catalogue of the 52. Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte: Mexico’s first presence at the Venice Biennale was over 50 years ago at its 25th edition. Fernando Gamboa, a leading promoter of Mexican art and commissioner of the Mexico Pavilion, presented the works of Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros and Tamayo, giving rise to what European critics called ‘The revelation of Mexican paint- ing’ […] The 52th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Bien- nale is a great opportunity for Mexico to reopen an institutional door for its contemporary art to the international forum. Achiev- ing an active of Mexican artists on the world stage is a shared de- sire of Mexican society and its national cultural institutions. (Bi- ennale 52 2007, 88) The language of “first presence”, juxtaposed with “opportunity… to reopen”, implies that there was only one Mexico Pavilion prior to 2007 – effectively omitting five pavilions from the historical narra- tive. Mexican newspapers referencing these texts reproduced the error. For example, the cultural section of La Jornada published an article that states: After more than 50 years, Mexico will officially participate for the second time at the Venice Biennale.2 The inaccuracy is even more pronounced in the official press bulletin for the 2007 Mexico Pavilion, which claims that it is Mexico’s “first 2 Carlos Paul, “México vuelve a la Bienal de Venecia tras una ausencia de más de 50 años”, La Jornada, 6 de junio de 2007. Storie dell’arte contemporanea 4 | 1 379 Storie della Biennale di Venezia, 377-397 Carolina Nieto Ruiz Retelling the History of the Mexico Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia official national representation”.3 This same inaccuracy occurred in 2009, where there were no specific mentions of earlier pavilions in the Mexico Pavilion catalogues, nor in La Biennale’s catalogues of earlier national participations. However, the press bulletin for the 2009 Mexico Pavilion states: Mexico presents its second official national representation at the 53rd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale de Venezia.4 This implies that the INBA is not considering any of the Mexico Pa- vilions of the twentieth century as an official national representation. In the 2011 Mexico pavilion catalogue, an essay by Gastón Ramirez Feltrin states: La primera aparición de México en la Bienal de Venecia se remon- ta a 1914… Lamentablemente, debido a las contradicciones y con- flictos por los que pasaba el país, el arte mexicano perdió su pre- sencia en Venecia por muchos años. Durante la década de 1950 México participó en tres ocasiones, proyectando el arte mexicano en el ámbito internacional. Y en un largo paréntesis de casi medio siglo nuestro país participó cinco veces más; la últimas tres como invitado de las exposiciones del Instituto Italo-Latinoamericano. Es hasta el año 2007 que Méxi- co cuenta finalmente con un pabellón nacional. (Ramirez Feltrin 2011, 109)5 Despite his apparent concern over the ‘lost presence’ of Mexican art, Ramirez Feltrin completely omits the Mexico Pavilions of 1968 and 1986, and diminishes the Mexico Pavilions of the 1950s by referring to them only as ‘participations”, comparable with the works of Mex- ican artists presented in collective international exhibitions within La Biennale. Additionally, Dario Ventimiglia recalls Mexico’s partici- pation in the 1914 Biennale, but not as a pavillion (1996, 76-7). Archi- val research corroborates this: there is no evidence or mention of a 3 ASAC, Mexican Pavilion at the 52nd International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, June 2007.