July 12, 2009

Venice Biennale


The 53rd insallment of the Venice Biennale, the international art exposition, runs until November 22 this year. It has a curated exhibit that feature art from international artists in il Giardini and Arsenale, and throughout the city of Venice. The exhibit is called Making Worlds, curated this year by Daniel Birnbaum, of art as a representation of a vision of the world, and as a way of “making a world”, in his words.


American conceptual artist John Baldessari's words "I will not make another boring art" greets visitors in the Grand Canal.

In the Giardini, Making Worlds opens with Argentine artisit Tomas Saraceno's installation. It is a renditon of an astronomical constellation based on the architectural structure of a black widow's web. It can suspend heavy weghts through the use of complex geometry. The result is visually stunning. Visitors walk through the structure, making it an interactive work.




Next up is Swedish Artist Nathalie Djurberg's vision of apocalypse. Djurberg is known for her claymation videos, animation with clay figures. In this room she built a surealistic Garden of Eden in which nature has turned into something out of hell.


As you walk through the "garden" with huge carnivoreous plants and watch her films projected on 2 screens, you are confronted with innate fear of what's not understood.


The films depict
disturbing subject matter and are politically charged, exposing the underbelly of institutions and traditions that we hold sacred. It is a very emotionally charged piece. I tried to capture the installation, but the room is dark, and i could not film the whole film sequence.



The next work by Hans-Peter Feldman, Schattenspiel (Shadowwork), with the artist's collection of toys and ordinary objects rotating on platforms lit from behind, cast their shadows on the wall like magic lanterns and looked like shadow puppetry.

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