57th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale Arte 2017 13 May, 26 November 2017 Venice
57th International Art Exhibition, Venice
Biennale Arte 2017
13 May, 26 November 2017
Venice, Giardini, Arsenale
Curator Christine Macel
Click here for Italian version
The 57th International Art Exhibition organized by the Venice Biennale ended on November 26th, 2017. Started on May 13th, it has been present in the city of Venice with great elegance, filling many spaces. The presence was constant but with respect to the difficult situation of Venice with its problems of tourist overcrowding and, above all, abused by many rudenesses.
The two main locations have always been the Giardini and the Arsenale. Walking in the two places has always been a journey around the world for the presence of eighty-six nations.
The curator of the 2017 exhibition was the French Christine Macel, Chief Curator at the Pompidou Center in Paris.
The title was a witty and intelligent choice because it pointed out the reality of contemporary art: VIVA ARTE VIVA.
The game of repetition and diversification of the word VIVA identifies the original cultural context of today's art.
The curator in one of her interviews clearly expresses the concept, without hesitation:
"… the art is alive and that art must be considered for itself, for what it brings into our daily lives.
...
Art in everyday life?
Yes. It plays a crucial role in society for me. " (1)
The crucial role of our daily behaviour is immediately understood by the presence of many ordinary objects, tools used habitually every day.
We can observe so many banal articles like beds, chairs, shoes, glasses, books. We remain amazed because the artists use our banality to elevate it to art through a modern, artistic vision; they study the position, the dislocation with other objects. With this manipulation, we understand a different world, the desire to read art even in usual products, those that pass through our hands in the indifference when we eat, when we read, when we sleep.
An example is the pavilion of Thailand located outside, before entering the Giardini. Krung Thep - Thai name of Bangkok - is full of Buddha or elephant statues, common religious symbols. But together we watch full of plastic materials.
The daily problems are also excited with a clever and ironical version of An upturned freight truck
by Erwin Wurm set in front of the Austrian pavilion. We all have had problem of parking in life and the solution of the Austrian artist is sarcastic.
At Arsenale, there is a strong presence of video art installations and the huge balls of wool of Escalade Beyond Chromatic Land by the artist Sheila Hicks. The wool is necessary for our clothes. They come from balls of wools and then become used ugly dirty out of fashion and left on the floor of several pavilions.
The elegance and beauty of the Italian pavilion is a modern classic, while the Korean one shows intense coloured lighting.
My favourites are, as always, the Japanese and Russian pavilions. Japan this year is dominated by the artist Takahiro Iwasaki, born in Hiroshima with Turn Upside Down, It's a Forest, an author able to of magnifying superficial objects, throwing his waste on the earth. In fact, by stretching our head into a hole we can observe the upper part of the world surrounded by garbage.
Grisha Bruskin with Scene Change is the dominant of the Russian pavilion. A myriad of many little men marches in unison threatening. Above them, there is a large winged figure, composed of various gears, a disturbing and intimidating presence not only for the proud walkers.