contessanally: #BiennaleArte2022 - Giardini - National Pavilions - Highlights - Spain - Venice - Germany

Spain Pavilion - Giardini

Commissioners - Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores -

Union Europea y Cooperación de Espana - AECID
Curator - Beatriz Espejo
Exhibitor - Ignasi Aballi

Correction

The exhibition takes as its point of departure an apparently simple act: to shift the Spanish Pavilion. Located in a corner of the Giardini, the building appears slightly skewed with respect to its neighbours Belgium and Holland. Ignasi Aballi’s proposal endeavours to resolve this dilemma by replicating the building with new internal walls at an angle of 10 degrees, the required amount to align the building with its neighbours. The intervention disrupts spatial memory and modifies the exhibition space, its location at the Venice Biennale’s venue, and its relationship with the city of Venice. Supposing that the current location was an anomaly, why correct a building that was previously approved? Why compare it with its neighbours? What changes does this correction imply? This is where the apparently simple conceit becomes much more complicated.

Correction - Spain Pavilion - Giardini

Venice Pavilion - Giardini

Alloro - Lympha - Installation

"Every image is formed in movement."

Alloro is a journey that deals with change, metamorphosis, through nature and art, which begins in the psyche, in a clean, almost aseptic, perfect place and ends in the warmth of Mother Earth, a journey that is accomplished in movement. Every single step in this movement is punctuated by the rhythm of music, sounds that are not just a background, but are created as a work.The main exhibition project, entitled Alloro, has basically three main themes: the approach of man to nature, the strength of woman and the metamorphosis explained by art. Laurel is the quintessential symbol of metamorphosis. - says the curator Giovanna Zabotti - Metamorphosis in all of its meaning: in its sense of transformation of a being into another of a different nature and as a typical element of myhtological, religious and magical stories. The visitors will not just see the artworks but they will “live” them as they move through the artworks, every single step punctuated by the rhythm of music. A journey that, at first, will make them investigate their inner self, then experience a three-dimension emotional path, and in the end, taste the future-oriented views of young artists." The center of the path, introduced by the painting "Best Wishes" by Ottorino De Lucchi, is the installation Lympha, the myth of Daphne and Apollo represented in a modern key by the artist Paolo Fantin and the group Ophicina and accompanied by a musical composition, entitled Drops of Laurel, by master Pino Donaggio. The exhibition ends in a small "forest" of laurel, outside the structure.

Paolo Fantin - Ophicina - Pino Donaggio - Venice Pavilion - Giardini

Paolo Fantin

Ottorino De Lucchi - Best Wishes - 2022

Alloro - Lympha - Venice Pavilion - Giardini

Germany Pavilion - Giardini

Commissioner - ifa - Institut fur Auslandsbeziehungen
Curator - Yilmaz Dziewior
Exhibitor - Maria Eichorn

Relocating A Structure

In her project, Maria Eichhorn focuses on the history of the German pavilion and its architectural transformation. The Bavarian pavilion, built in 1909, was renamed the German Pavilion in 1912 and was redesigned in 1938 to reflect fascist aesthetics. A new facade, rear extensions, and a raised ceiling contributed to the Pavilion’s intimidating appearance. Despite post-war modifications, the building still embodies the formal language of fascism. Maria Eichhorn uncovers traces of the original pavilion, hidden behind its 1938 redesign. The project also includes city tours to places of remembrance and resistance conducted by Giulio Bobbo and Luisella Romeo and developed with the Istituto Veneziano per la Storia della Resistenza e della Società Contemporanea - IVESER - performances by Nkisi and Jan St. Werner, and a catalogue.

Relocating A Structure - Germany Pavilion - Giardini

Japan Pavilion - Giardini

Commissioner - The Japan Foundation
Exhibitors: Dumb Type - Shiro Takatani, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Ken Furudate, Satoshi Hama, Ryo Shiraki, Marihiko Hara, Hiromasa Tomari, Takuya Minami, Yoko Takatani

Dumb Type

A new work by the artist collective Dumb Type. Mirrors on four stands rotate at high speed, reflecting lasers trained on them to project text onto the surrounding walls. The projected texts are all taken from an 1850s geography textbook, posing simple yet universal questions. The sounds of voices reading the texts are emitted from rotating parametric speakers, becoming highly directional beams of sound that travel around the room. In contrast to the discourses that surround it, the centre of the room is an empty space – a place that exists nowhere, but at the same time a place that could be anywhere. We live in a time of post-truth and liminal spaces. The centre is void.