 |
| Ghana Pavilion |
For Ralph Rugoff, the artistic director of the 58th International
Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, which runs from May 11 to November 24, the
story offers a very provocative metaphor for how so many people fail to notice the
homeless or don’t pay attention necessarily to what the authorities are doing.
“Social discourse is occurring at ever decreasing
bandwidths. The informational landscape is getting smaller and smaller with the
people talking to each other and existing in information silos,” he notes,
adding, “led by the algorithms of Facebook, you’re only presented with the news
that you want to hear, that reinforces your existing bias and beliefs.”
In a world of where political discourse is corroded by
alternative facts and fake news, and opinions on important issues are
increasingly polarized, this year’s Biennale aims to be of the moment, not
focusing on any specific theme, but instead highlighting the social function
art can play both in terms of bringing pleasure as well as prompting critical
thinking.
 |
| Austrian Pavilion |
While art cannot stem the rise of nationalism or help
alleviate the plight of refugees, Rugoff argues good art should raise our
consciousness about these issues and perhaps offer a guide to living and thinking
in these challenging societal times.
Currently the director of the prestigious Hayward Gallery
at London’s Southbank Centre, Rugoff is a former journalist and art critic, and
draws on these diverse careers, while acknowledging, “there is a huge
difference between art and journalism; art really asserts its difference from
the texture of facts in many different ways, but at the same time, the most
interesting artists are paying attention to the world in which they are living,
and their work responds to it in different ways.”
He points out that in the last couple of years, the so called
post-truth era, strong divisions in society often polarised social discourse,
which poses an interesting question for art and so “when governments are
blatantly using make believe and tools of artifice to blur the boundaries
between facts and fiction, the category questioning that artist do needs to
take a new form. A simple oppositional critic is not enough. This is one thing
I want this exhibition to reflect on.”
The title of the Biennale’s International Exhibition,
“May you live in Interesting Times,” sets the tone. Widely thought to be an ancient
Chinese curse it was actually more likely first cited as what might now be
treated as “an alternative fact” in a speech by a British politician over a
hundred years ago and has since taken on a life of its own.
 |
| Icelandic Pavilion |
Rugoff has selected 79 artists who he believes challenge
existing habits of thoughts, opening up usual readings of objects, gestures and
situations with multi-layered and richly ambiguous artworks. Unusually for the
Venice Biennale, they are all living artists, and they include George Condo,
Mari Katayama, Christian Marclay, Lee Bul, Liu Wei, Danh Vo and Handiwirman
Saputra. And with many biennales around the world recycling variations on
similar themes year in and year out, Rugoff says, he wanted to experiment with
the format: as such he has divided the biennale in two, with Proposition A in
the Arsenale and Proposition B in the central Pavilion Giardini.
“Having a split format lends itself to a number of works
that look at this idea of divided social reality,” he says, pointing out, “There
are a number of leitmotifs in the exhibition including works that explore walls
and barriers of different kinds, works that look at forging alternative
identities, works that look at parallel worlds and virtual realities, and works
that look at the way that all of us through our very selected perceptions can
also create divisions in our perception of the world around us.”
Those looking for art ‘trends’ will note a number of
artists are using self-portraits as a way to investigate issues around identity
and social history — for example, Japanese photographer Mary Katayama, who was
born with a malformed hand and had a leg amputated when she was 9, redefines conventions
of beauty with her strikingly powerful photographs in the nude. And while over
the last 60 years painting as a medium has regularly been declared dead, Rugoff
notes it is showing an “incredible zombie-like resilience.” He has selected
works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Julie Mehretu, Avery Singer and Henry Taylor,
amongst others.
 |
| The Irish Pavilion |
There is also a refreshingly high number of female
artists—in the main international exhibition and also in the selection of the
90 National Participations across the city — prompting some to call it the
50/50 Biennale. For its pavilion, Austria has chosen to feature Renate
Bertlmann, an established feminist practitioner, while France will showcase the
work of multi-media artist Laura Prouvost, who regularly straddles the lines
between fiction and reality. Ireland has picked Eva Rothschild, who says she will
create “a sculptural environment which engages with current social changes
through embodiment, presence and materiality,” and for its first ever official
participation, Pakistan has a solo exhibition by the multi-disciplinary artist
Naiza Khan, who will explore contemporary life on Manora Island.
“There is a turning point after the MeToo movement, for
me it’s quite obvious; it’s put the light on the fact that women are victims of
harassment, but also that they are under-represented,” says Martha Kirszenbaum,
the curator of the French Pavilion.
Kirszenbaum adds, “The baby boomers are slowly retiring,
and we’re at a point of generation change amongst curators. There is such a
need of renewal within art institutions.”
AS FIRST PUBLISHED IN PRESTIGE SINGAPORE MAY EDITION
AS FIRST PUBLISHED IN PRESTIGE SINGAPORE MAY EDITION