Italian Pavilion
The Italian Pavilion has been permanently moved out of the Giardini (where all the permanent country pavilions are) and into the Arsenale as of this year. I wasn't overly impressed with the exhibition, which was designed as a contemporary tribute to Futurism, 2009 being 100 years since the Futurist Manifesto was published (an Italian art movement). However I did like the approach of the Italian Pavilion, in that it was a large themed exhibition featuring a number of artists. There were a couple of interesting works, including the following.
Above: Valerio Berruti's work "La figlia di Isacco" (The daughter of Isaac - I think!). This was a box construction with this gorgeous paintings on the outside (a girl on a chair) and an animation of them being painted on the inside.
Above: Aron Demetz, "Untitled". This artist had a field of similar sculptures and I really enjoyed the rough nature of the carving that manages to convey so much, combined with a type of resin goo dripping over them.Czech Republic and Slovak Republic Pavilion
This Pavilion is one of my favourites of the biennale - the artist (Roman Ondak) has literally brought the gardens into the pavilion. He emptied out the pavilion and opened a second door, creating a meandering path through with trees and shrubs either side. The plants and gravel are exactly the same as those found directly outside this pavilion. It is an incredibly subtle work and our table for the Australian pavilion is along one of its outside walls so consequently we get too many people to count asking us where the Czech/Slovak exhibition actually is. When we say, just behind us, they say "oh but it's empty!". It's very hard trying to explain that the creation of the garden is the artwork and that the pavilion doesn't usually look anything like that. Another case of more signage needed I think (signage seems to be sadly lacking throughout much of Venice).
No comments:
Post a Comment