Photograph courtesy Hogan
Casa Artom: Wake Forest University - BIG Bambu. The Big Bambu installation by the Starn twins at Casa Artom on the Grand Canal was hosted by Stefano Tonchi, Alexia Niedzielski, Charlotte Casiraghi, Andrea Della Valle and Elizabeth von Guttman.
Photograph by Manfredi Bellati
Big Bambu. The first exhibit of the identical twins Mike and Doug Starn’s Big Bambu series was on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York last year and was ranked the fourth in the world for total attendance of a contemporary art exhibition. The Venice location, next door to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, was last used in the Biennale in the 1964 triumph of American Art when Rauschenberg won the Grand Prize.
Mike Starn states,
'it is a sculpture, but not a static sculpture. It's something that exists through the presence of the people inside it. It’s an organism that we, and the crew of rock climbers, are just a part of-helping to move it along. We are constructing an ongoing tower, growth and change remain invariable, and they are a constant.'
Doug Starn, adds,
'We have a philosophy of chaotic interdependence; of how every complex thing grows and evolves (animal, social structures, etc…),
and 'big bambú' actually physically presents it, it is philosophical engineering. Everything depends upon one another and the loads
are distributed throughout; the interdependence is natural and fluid. There is not too much weight applied to any one thing.'
Andrea Della Valle and his son Leonardo
Afef Jnifen and Franca Sozzani
Gianluca Passi di Preposulo, Stefano Tonchi, JJ Martin and Elizabeth von Guttman
Alexia Niedzielski and Jean Pigozzi
Alain Elkann
Lucilla and Lucrezia Bonaccorsi di Reburdone
Photograph by Manfredi Bellati
Big Bambu. The central aspect of the ongoing sculpture is a 50’ tall hollow tower of bamboo, with a trail spiraling up and reaching to a 20’ wide roof lounge. The work embodies a contradictory nature: it is always complete, yet remains unfinished, the sculpture is never at rest. The Starns’ crew of eleven rock climbers continued to lash together bamboo, sustaining the spiral upwards until closing day.
Elizabeth von Guttman and Karla Otto
Fiona Swarovski
Marta Marzotto and Micol Sabbadini
Rula Jebreal
Carla Sozzani and Francois Berthoud
Edsel Williams
Courtney Love and Jefferson Hack arriving by water taxi
Big Bambu. In addition to the 2,000 fresh cut bamboo stalks harvested from a farm in France, the current installation utilizes several fragments salvaged from last years exhibition at the Metropolitan, poles from both locations will be used again at stem cells in future projects or as
stand alone sculptures, while others will be stored in Europe or the United States.