Friday, June 24, 2011

Venice Biennale: Chinese Pavilion - Pervasion

Photograph by Manfredi Bellati

Arsenale: Chinese Pavilion – Pervasion.   Pervasion is the title of the exhibition in the Chinese Pavilion.  Images, sounds and flavors.  Entering the Pavilion we are enchanted by the typical perfume of Chinese culture: tea, lotus flower, wine, medicine herbs and incense mix together with images and sounds to create new intense sensations.  White clouds magically appear in the outdoor gardens.  The Pavilion is curated by artist Peng Feng and the commissioners are Zhang Yu and Yan Dong.
Above: Empty Incense by Yuan Gong.  Twenty sets of ultrasonic atomizers and eight sets of high-pressure water mist system make the Chinese Pavilion and the outside space filled with atomized fragrance.
The Artist.  Yuan Gong.  The Empty Incenses installation releases fog gradually with circulation and when the space is filled with fog and gets saturated, the objective scene of the inside and the outside will disappear transiently and quietly.
 Photograph by Manfredi Bellati
Snow Melting in Lotus – Pan Gonkai. The work is about the border of Western Modern Art.  The screen is based on a large-scale Ink Painting Withered Lotus Cast by Iron by Pan Gonkai.  As an achieved Ink Painter in both traditional and contemporary sense, Pan means to present the most traditional subject of Chinese painting – lotus, will all well-kept ink painting techniques, to mark a remarkable new step forward within the literati tradition of ink and brush paintings and open up new dimensions for future Chinese Ink painting in his unprecedented oversize scale compositions.
The Artist. Yang Maoyuan – All Things Visible
Yang Maoyuan – All Things Visible.   “All Things Visible is an allusion to the secrets concealed within a jar.   Also, this English title basically explains one of the intentions of this work, namely that there are no secrets in this world.   Why I say that?   This aroma is concealed within the vessel like a secret and thus the odor that is perceived through the sense of smell, and the tangible object that is apparent through sense of touch have been inextricably fused together.” Yang Maoyuan.