Venice Biennale: The United States of America Pavilion – Gloria. In the United States of America Pavilion the artistic collaborative due Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla have developed six new works for the exhibition titled Gloria. These interrelated works, transform the interior and exterior of the U.S. Pavilion into a dynamic, interactive space using sculpture, performance, video, and sound elements. These poetic, monumental works utilize the neo-Surrealist strategies of free association and unexpected juxtaposition in order to pose questions about the relationships among art, politics, and international identity.
Above: Track and Field (2011). Installed in front of the U.S. Pavilion, Track and Field features a massive 60-ton overturned military tank that has been repurposed by superimposing a functioning treadmill above its right track. An athlete affiliated with USA Track & Field, the national governing body for track & field, long-distance running, and race walking—runs on the treadmill at regularly scheduled intervals throughout the exhibition.
The United States of
America Pavilion – Gloria. The
Olympic winning athletes who are the protagonists in the three installations
inside and outside the pavilion line up for the press conference.
The
United States of America Pavilion – Gloria. The artists, Guillermo Calzadilla and Jennifer Allora. The selection of Allora and Calzadilla
represents a number of firsts for the United States particularly in terms of
identity politics and art history. This is the first time the U.S. Pavilion
features a collaborative (one artist was born in Philadelphia and the other in
Cuba) that lives and works in Puerto Rico, demonstrating the complexity and
richness of American identity. From an aesthetic perspective, the selection of
Allora and Calzadilla acknowledges for the first time the historic influence
of collaborative and performative practices, which have been essential to the
breadth and variety of American art since the early 1960s with the advent of
Happenings and the evolution of Performance Art.
The United States of
America Pavilion – Gloria. The
director of The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, who runs the United States of
America Pavilion, Philip Rylands.
Photograph
by Andrew Bordwin
The
United States of America Pavilion – Gloria. Body in Flight (American). Allora and Calzadilla appropriated the forms of
state-of-the-art elite business class seats, reproduced full-scale wooden
replicas stained like polychromatic religious icons. Body in Flight
(American) loosely approximates a
Pommel horse and is used by male gymnasts who performs routines that feature
quick movements and sheer gymnastic power.
Seen
at The Peggy Guggenheim Collection cocktail party for The United States of
America Pavilion. Cinzia Berto, Silvia Iliadis, Luca Massimo Barbero and Fabio
Pacifico.