The 58th International Venice Art Biennale
May You Live in Interesting Times
GIARDINI - Central Pavilion
The 58th International Venice Art Exhibition, titled May
You Live In Interesting Times, until November 24, is curated by Ralph Rugoff and its title is a phrase of English invention that has long been
mistakenly cited as an ancient Chinese
curse that invokes periods of uncertainty, crisis and turmoil;
"interesting times", exactly as the ones we live in today. All the 79
artists exhibit different works at the Giardini
and the Arsenale, in order to
highlight their artistic practice rather than a single work. It is also trying
to highlight the fact that just as art has many levels, each artist’s practice
has many different dimensions and aspects to it. The artists are trying to defy
whatever categories and whatever conceptual boxes we might want to put them
into.
Shilpa Gupta – Untitled – 2009
MS Mobile gate which
swings side to side and breaks the walls
Curator Ralph Rugoff and Paolo Baratta
President of La Biennale di Venezia
“I bring in even more physicality to an image
- moving or not - to exaggerate the underlying affective relationship we have
with it”
from an
interview by Rachel Wetzler -
rhizome.org - Apr 2012
Antoine Catala – It’s Over - 2019
“My curiosity about all sorts of strange
things, or Sun Yuan’s
strong feelings for the material world can’t
be expressed
by painting alone. We have to develop a more
direct way to connect
with both our spiritual and material worlds.”
Peng Yu
Sun Yuan and Peg Yu – Can’t Help Myself – 2016
“Being a queer woman is the air that I
breathe, and it’s inescapable, and it’s going to be part of the work.”
From an interview by Debora Solomon - The New York Times - 2016
From an interview by Debora Solomon - The New York Times - 2016
Nicole Eisenman - Going Down River on the USSJ-Bone of an Ass
2017
“Teresa Margolles’ wall comes from the city of Juarez in Mexico; she
has reframed it as sculpture. It was a wall in front of a school where a number
of young people were assassinated in drug-related violence. From 2006 to 2015 over 15,000 teenagers were killed in
Mexico in
drug- related violence.”
Ralph Rugoff
Teresa Margolles – Muro Ciudad Juarez – 2010
“Sound is a property of physics; vibrations
of air. Music is, in essence, a property of mathematics; without mathematical
structures, sounds are merely sounds.”
From an interview on MoMA PS1 Blog
From an interview on MoMA PS1 Blog
Ryoji Ikeda – Spectra III – 2008-2019
“Many works in the exhibition, including Gonzalez-Foerster’s
virtual piece, deal with the impact of new technologies in creating
parallel worlds.
The diorama is really one of the earliest virtual reality technologies.
The space on the other side of the window becomes a virtual space that you enter imaginatively.
Ralph Rugoff
The space on the other side of the window becomes a virtual space that you enter imaginatively.
Ralph Rugoff
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Joi Brittle – Cosmorama - 2018
“In my works, I try to refer to actual
processes taking place in society and in the world. Often, through art, I draw
the viewer’s attention towards one problem or another, and I try not to give a
clear position, leaving the viewer with enough ‘space’ for their own interpretation.”
From an interview by Anna Savitskaya on www.artdependence.com - Oct 2015
From an interview by Anna Savitskaya on www.artdependence.com - Oct 2015
Zhanna Kadyrova – Second Hand – 2015
“Spirituality is everything. It’s ultimately
more important than anything else. We’re clearly spiritual beings because we can’t
locate where life exists in someone’s body.”
From an interview by Paul Dallas on www.extraextramagazine.com
From an interview by Paul Dallas on www.extraextramagazine.com
Kahlil Joseph – BLKNWS - 2018/ongoing
“I think objects and images are tools to
reveal social or natural phenomena, and my works focus on the relationship
between them, the object and the image, but there is also the body – ‘pre-born’
or ‘already- dead’, human and animal, whole and in fragments, declined,
allegorical etcetera.”
From
an interview on - Elephant - Apr
2016
Jean- Luc Moulene – La Faucheuse – Paris – 2015
“I wanted to know what causes a given kind of
work
to be regarded by women as embarrassing,
to be regarded by women as embarrassing,
both in the past and in the present:
whether this has to do with the way the
material is handled
or whether it really lies in the material
itself.”
Rosemarie Trockel – Group of Articles – 2019
“I map the movement of my
own face to that of the CGI model. It’s
my face contorting, performing behind
this immaterial mask -
attached to my
traumas and losses, whatever they are.”
From an interview by Timo Feldhaus on www.ssense.com
- Jan 2019
Ed Atkins – Bloom 6 – 2018
“Without a doubt, without a doubt, without a
doubt, Detroit has damaged me. I’m very much influenced by that place, but
on a level that I’m still barely coming to terms with.”
From an article by Rachel Corbett - www.artnews.com - Feb 2015
on a level that I’m still barely coming to terms with.”
From an article by Rachel Corbett - www.artnews.com - Feb 2015
Michael E. Smith – Untitled – 2019
“I think of each work
as a documentation of a transformative performance. I am interested in every facet of what it means to be ‘genuine’, especially when performing in a role society would never cast me in.”
as a documentation of a transformative performance. I am interested in every facet of what it means to be ‘genuine’, especially when performing in a role society would never cast me in.”
Gutierrez - Demons – 2018
“Masculine/feminine, culture/nature,
order/chaos, evil/good, are mere discursive constructions to disguise,
perpetuate and legitimize domination. And so, if this discourse was behind the
metaphysical paintings I was studying, what was left out of their reductive
avantgarde? Infinite possibilities.”
From an interview by Gaby Cepeda – Rhizome - Feb 2106
From an interview by Gaby Cepeda – Rhizome - Feb 2106
Ad Minoliti – Mural – 2019
"I think of the art as dead when it leaves my
studio. I don’t even own it anymore. Installing in a museum or a show that’s
coming up, I’m not allowed to touch my own work ever. It just seems strange to
me.
If somebody puts me in front of my drawings, I’d put more text in it. It’s never finished, but none of my work is ever finished.”
From an interview by Josh Lucas - www.interviewmagazine.com
If somebody puts me in front of my drawings, I’d put more text in it. It’s never finished, but none of my work is ever finished.”
From an interview by Josh Lucas - www.interviewmagazine.com
Kaari Upson – View From The Interiorized; You are a Pervert
2016-2019
Apichatpong Weerasethakul – Ghost Teen – 2013
“I’ve
been painting since ever; it comes natural to me.
I can’t pinpoint a precise moment when it all started.
Painting has always been around me.”
From an interview by Stefano Pirovano on www.conceptualfinearts.com
I can’t pinpoint a precise moment when it all started.
Painting has always been around me.”
From an interview by Stefano Pirovano on www.conceptualfinearts.com
Nov 2018
Jill Mulleadry – Interior – 2019
Lara Favaretto – Thinking Head – 2019
“I think every day we’ve got to be
accountable. I would like to think I’ve represented some people. It’s not like
I’m making a conscious e ort, but I do feel like I’m a sincere artist.”
From an interview by Duro Olowu - www.interviewmagazine.com - Mar 2017
From an interview by Duro Olowu - www.interviewmagazine.com - Mar 2017
Henry Taylor – Hammons Meets a Hyena on Holiday – 2016
“You’re no longer listening to what you say,
but how you say it. And this kind of shift really complicates the idea of free
speech. Before we thought the freedom of speech also extended to the form the
speech takes, but it seems it’s not really as simple as that.”
Lawrence Abu Hamdan – Walled Unwalled - 2018
“In lieu of what, let’s rather turn to how we
should remember or forget.
We
believe in resuscitating history,
And we use this word ‘resuscitation’
deliberately: putting one’s lips onto the subject matter, onto history, onto
language,
and breathing in and out of it.”
From an interview by Deena Chalabi - Liverpool Biennial - 2018
Slavs and Tartars – Tranny Tease – Pour Marcel – 2009-2016
“I spent a lot of time at doctor’s surgeries
and hospitals this year and it got me thinking about what it means to be
wounded, or sick, or otherwise ‘defective’ - and what it means to submit
yourself for healing.”
Jesse Darling – Epistemologies – Shamed Cabinet – 2018
“Socio-political elements are a part of
prejudice, control, power and people interacting with each other. To ignore
this aspect of culture in my work would be like trying to ignore the impact of
death and sex on life.”
From an interview - Artuner
From an interview - Artuner
Michael Armitage – Untitled – 2017-2019
“Working in fashion for many years was a training
for sculpture – fashion’s living sculpture. Art doesn’t have the same
functional qualities as fashion, but something that’s worn on the body is very
much sculptural.”
From an interview - www.thegentlewoman.co.uk
From an interview - www.thegentlewoman.co.uk
Alexandra Bircken – Angie – 2009
Nabuqi – Do Real Things Happen in Moments of
Rationality? – 2018
“I don’t like complaining, showing crying
people – hopeless, vulnerable and desperate refugees. I prefer to focus on the
good parts of really di cult situations.”
From an interview by Amanda Ribas Tugwell - www.exberliner.com
- Sept 2016
Halil Altindere
“If you’re going to make an original
statement in painting,
you also have to address its history. All artists, but especially painters, have to deal with the issue of art in the age of mechanical reproduction.”
From an interview by Rachel Small - Dec 2017
you also have to address its history. All artists, but especially painters, have to deal with the issue of art in the age of mechanical reproduction.”
From an interview by Rachel Small - Dec 2017
Avery Singer – Sensory Deprivation Tank – sad face – 2018
“I consider myself an ontologist with a
heuristic methodology.”
Gabriel Rico - Veinticuatro – 2018 – detail
Photograph and copyright Manfredi Bellati
“Representation matters. People want to see
themselves. It’s what makes you feel you matter in the society you exist in.”
From an
interview - Financial Times - Women of
the year 2016
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
“You are worthy. You count. Nobody has the
right to undermine you—because of your being, because of your race, because of
your gender expression, because of your sexuality, because of all that you are.”
Zanele Muholi – Inkanyiso I – Paris - 2014
Poetry makes sense of the parts of human experience that are confusing and not decodable in any
other way. It makes accessible the inaccessible. I think if art has one
underlying value, it’s that.
It reminds us that there are things we don’t know, and in that not knowing, we find strength.”
It reminds us that there are things we don’t know, and in that not knowing, we find strength.”
From an interview by Matt Mullen - www.interviewmagazine.com-
Mar 2017
Tavares Strachan – Four Hundred Meter Dash – 2018
“I’m not “working” with marble, I’m
conversing with it;
I’m in a relationship with it.”
From an interview by Izabella Scott - www.studiointernational.com - Nov 2018
From an interview by Izabella Scott - www.studiointernational.com - Nov 2018
Andreas Lolis – Untitled - 2018
Swatch - Joe Tilson Venetian Watch – The Flags –
2019
The Flags – 2019
24 bespoke double-sided
flags – site-specific installation
Originally associated with
British Pop Art in the early 1960s, Tilson continues to evolve and push the boundaries
of his practice. The Flags depict
enlarged details from the artist’s latest Stones of Venice series of
paintings. These works draw upon Tilson’s
love and knowledge of the city that has inspired him for over sixty years.
Joe Tilson
Illy Caffe
Quotes Courtesy - VENEWS
The Bag Biennale Arte Guide – 2019