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| GIANT IN JUBILEE AND IN CHANGES Laima Slava This year Venice biennial was held for the 50th time, and this would have been the third time when Latvia as a conscientious, self-respecting country would have participated in it in order - and let us be frank about it - to look at its events finally with down to earth look. Accumulation of routine experience when the mind is not blinded by sheer rapture of the mere fact of participation but the basis for the pragmatic calculation for the next step is formed will be missed by Latvia this time. It is even more sad because this year's event was very open, democratic presentation with many meeting points for the young artists, with public discussions, possibilities of contact formation for the art curators who had gathered in unusually large numbers at this year's biennial. A particularly communicable and open place was "Utopia Station" with its programme of events, films and discussions. F5 project would have fitted in into the general atmosphere of the new media and I even venture to say that it would have excelled for its professional and aesthetic qualities. The permission given by the biennial organizers to F5 project to participate in the catalogue is another testimony to it. Indeed I would like to see what accepted degree of genius would crown the project that will have the luck to represent Latvia next time! Although there is always a possibility not to participate altogether. Like in the case of Venezuela whose artists expressly refused from the participation protesting against the regime ruling in their country. Even the long-standing non-participant China broke its status of an outsider in order to accentuate its participation with a number of representative events. | |
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Venice and other Arts
But what is Venice for us in Latvia dazed by Eurovision euphoria! What do we care for the aspirations of this distant place over the course of more than a century to create a meeting place for the world's art, to display avant-garde processes by aspiring in its main conception to show of multi-disciplinary cultural panorama since 1930 when the new president of the biennial count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata wished to include in it new events - music, film and theatre. What do we care for the passions and disputes about the right road to be taken, about what really is contemporary art. Owing to Volpi Cup received by Dzidra Ritenberga (1957) at least the film screenings held under the auspices of the biennial mean something to us (since 1932) during which victories have been celebrated on Lido island Palazzo del Casino by Lawrence Olivier's Hamlet (1948), where the first "Golden Lion" was received by Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon" (1951) thus opening for the Japanese film a road to the West (like also the boom of Indian films was started here in 1957 by Satyajit Ray's Aparajito), but the high standard of the value of the European film actors' dream - the Volpi Cup - was strengthened by its first winners Jean Gabin and Vivien Leigh. Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, Alain Resnais and Andrey Tarkovsky started their world famous careers - the 20th century culture personalities who influenced the world outlook of several generations and the art language in general, not only in cinema. At the music festivals their first performances were presented by such 20th century music geniuses like Benjamin Britten, Igor Stravinsky ("The Rake's Progress", 1951, Canticum Sacrum, 1956), George Gershwin ("Porgy and Bess", 1955), while during 1958 theatre festival heated debates were created by Eugene Ionesco's and Samuel Beckett's plays, but in 1991 a special exhibition in the premises of the Contemporary Art History Archives was dedicated to Tadeusz Kantor's stage designs, costumes, machinery and objects. This year, the nucleus of the biennial collection archives, that was open in 1928 as the Institute of Contemporary Art History, hosted at the new Arsenal Gate premises both an interesting exhibition of historical materials (including video projections) under the transparent plastic pedestal of the press conference hall (on which the viewers were offered identically transparent chairs), and a wide programme of events including the meeting cycle 99 tutte le idēe meno una (relatively it can be translated with Blumbergs' favourite phrase "All is one"). The "99 selected witnesses of contemporary reality" - scientists, writers, philosophers, creative personalities - could be met daily at 17.00 by the exhibition visitors in order to share with them their thoughts, to find out something new about reality around us (on July 5 it was, for example, the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt with his ēmigrē experience). In 1980 the Architecture component of the biennial was established. Owing to Gunnar Birkert's "Castle of Light", in 2002 Latvia took part in it for the first time. History, legends, scandals The art biennials have their own legends - about the first national pavilion in the Gardens opened in 1907 by Belgium, about the first internationally known artists (Klimt and Renoir) whose personal exhibitions (like Gustave Courbet's retrospective exhibition) were allocated special exhibition rooms at the Exhibition Palace in 1910, and about the first scandals: the futurist Marinetti on April 27 scattered in St. Mark's square anti-biennial leaflets, but in the same year Picasso was expelled from the Spanish salon and returned to the biennial only after World War II (yet with a respectable retrospection). About the aspirations of the young and progressive biennial director general Vittorio Pica to include the avant-garde art phenomena alongside with the approved values of art, when in 1922 Modigliani's first posthumous retrospection and exhibition of African sculpture were shown at the biennial and created a commotion as a daring step; about the large-scale rebirth of the biennial after World War II (during which, incidentally, the garden pavilions were occupied by Cinecitta) - in 1948 when the attention was not only drawn by Picasso's retrospection but also such 20th century stars of art as Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Georges Braque, Paul Delvaux, James Ensor, Rene Magritte, but also the art patroness Peggy Gugghenheim showed her New York collection which now has found its home place in Venice, in the tourist frequented Ca' Vernier dei Leoni. Also about the Venice biennial prizes - "St. Marcus Lions" or "Golden Lions", which were awarded first in 1949 at the film festival, and later were also presented to the happy winners in the arts events, but after the 1968 student protests they were cancelled only to be presented again since 1980 (in arts since 1986). Whatever the case, but biennial prizes have been received by Georges Braque (1948), Henri Matisse (1950), Raul Dufy and Alexander Calder (1952), Max Ernst and Hans Arp (both in 1954). Also the Latvian artists of the soviet times Eduards Kalniņš and Jānis Osis can take pride for presentation of their works in the only exposition of the USSR in the times of post-Stalinist 1956 thaw, and the biennial catalogue showed in those days by Kalniņš to the students of the Academy of Art was one of the rare opportunities to look at the latest trends in world art. 1960s started new revolutions: in 1962 the non-formalists Fautrier, Hartung, Vedova could display their works at the biennial, but in 1964 "Golden Lion" in painting was awarded for the first time to the American Robert Rauschenberg. In 1972 art biennial for the first time a theme was chosen - Opera o comportamento (Work or the activity), but in 1978 for the first time it was divided into six stations under the title "From nature to art, from art to nature". True, these ambiguous and fairly senseless thematic slogans are consistently criticized (also this year's "Dreams and Conflicts. The Dictatorship of the Viewer" is ironically dissected almost in every review), the national pavilions abide by them or don't, whatever they wish, or simply adapt their interpretation to their needs, and the curators' expositions are quite the same as well. In 1980 the first exposition for the young artists Aperto was put together by the would-be future stars of the curator world Achille Bonito Oliva and Harald Szeemann who would subsequently present their fundamental and prophetic visions of the contemporary art quite regularly. 49th biennial whose curator was Harald Szeemann under the theme "Human Plateau" beat the records both by the number of participating countries (63; this year already 64) and by the numbers of visitors - 243,000. And yes, there is no shortage of scandals either - for instance, Guggenheim Museum which pays for the USA pavilion in the Gardens has demanded the right to choose the participants of at least every third biennial, because this time they would have gladly allocated the place in the classicist style building for Matthew Barney whose "Cremaster Cycle" last year so strongly shocked Europe, thus declaring the emergence of a new genius, but the national commission chose the comparatively unknown Fred Wilson whose politically active concept about the role of the black characters in the culture of Venice - starting from the figures in the candlesticks made of Venice glass or bronze, in the stories depicted in the paintings by the old masters, till the interpretations of Shakespeare's Moor Othello in film and video projections of operas - this year crammed the pavilion rooms. Incidentally, it is him who is considered to be a record holder in organizing his exhibitions from outstanding exhibits of famous museums. Venice biennial intrigue has existed always. It is still the most widely talked about event in the cycle of contemporary art events and as the "Guardian" reporter reminds: "The Venice Biennale is to the art world what the Olympics are to sport - minus the doping scandals - but with all the concomitant baggage of big-money and national pride." Each country's surprises are the testimony of its creative power, strength and ambitions, and also of the political status. At least within the last decade characterized by the growth of the curators' institute, marked by such names as Achille Bonito Oliva, Jean Clair, Germano Celante and Harald Szeemann, the Aperto exhibitions have also become an intrigue - they open to the visitors of the biennial new and new spaces also in the physical sense of the word, and since 1999 these displays, expected with tremulous anticipation are hosted in the Arsenal - sea-port warehouses, ship-building yards and rope factories of the ancient Republic of Venice - those are vast areas with yet unknown horizons of possibility of the new art that have been found by the curator's eye in the primordial still unnamed fields of activity. Although the curator of this year's biennial Francesco Bonami mocks about it in an interview to "The Art Newspaper": "The art world today has opened up to a continuous stream of information and exchange of ideas. It is no longer possible for a curator to protect a small group of artists, or to manipulate them within straitjackets. Every time we think we have discovered a new artist we learn that our "discovery" has already been shown at numerous exhibitions." Curator The centenary biennial in 1995 (the time of the previous biennial was shifted for the jubilee years to match) was made by Achille Bonito Oliva - the father of the Italian trans-avant-gardism, the last art trend of Italian origin, and also at this 50th biennial an Italian curator has been chosen - Florentine Francesco Bonami (1955) who actually lives and works in the USA since 1987 (at present he is the Manilow senior curator of Chicago Modern Art Museum), from 1990-1997 he was the editor of "Flash Art International", USA), and yet he has retained his links with the native country, as an artistic leader has participated in the projects in Turin (Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Fondation) and Florence (Pitti Discovery). Curator's ambitions are combined in him with the talent of a captivating author - he is "Flash Art" editor and reviewer, the author of essays, treatises and several books ("Contemporary Art at the Age of Endless Conclusion", "Cream", a monograph on Maurizio Cattelan and Gabrielle Basilico; Sogni/Dreams (together with Hans Ulrich Obrist)‑- he has proved his erudite, romantic style targeted at the awareness of modern reality. As a curator of international exhibitions Bonami has been involved both in projects in Europe ("Manifesta 3", "Examining Pictures" at the Whitechapel Gallery in London and others), as well as in the USA (Minneapolis Walker Center exhibition "Unfinished History", the second biennial of Santa Fe), and in Asia (Yokohama 2001 Triennial). Bonami is a member of the "Carnegie International 2004" board, and a permanent member of Manifesta board. Although already in 1993 Venice biennial he was one of Oliva's assistants-curators, receiving of the post of Venice biennial main curator was not a simple thing. Initially the Australian Robert Huges was discussed, who is a bright critic with mainly negative assessments of the contemporary art, therefore the late nomination of Bonami was received by many with a sense of relief, and as a genuine expert of the contemporary art processes he was welcome particularly by his former colleagues from "Flash Art". And yet during the times of expectations there was also plenty of peevishness, because primarily Bonami changed the traditional regulations by choosing 11 independent curators for the novelty shows who bore full responsibility for their events. On the other hand, for the historical aspect of the biennial he chose the painting exhibition, calling it "From Rauschenberg to Murakami". It is a medium that in the previous biennials was ignored in their creative plans by other curators over the course of decades as a declining, non-topical. The exhibition of painting retrospection at Correa museum whose curator was Bonami, represented such names as Bridget Riley, Francis Bacon, Lucio Fontana, Renato Gutuzo, Francesco Clemente, Alberto Burri, Andy Warhol, Vija Celmins, Chuck Close, Roy Lichtenstein, Georg Bazelitz, Jean Michel Basquiat and many others, and it reminds of the incessant and continuous vitality of painting in these times of other priorities and makes one forecast the return of this medium in close future. Perhaps it was not exactly what was expected from the curator considered to be a true adept of contemporary art. And yet similar signals could have been felt already for several years from, for instance, UK pavilion, which despite the fairly extravagant searching in the contemporary art that year after year acquire world fame after receiving Turner Prize, choose as their visiting card such artists as Garry Hume (1999) and this year - Chris Offily who has reached the heights of fame. Also France with Jean Marc Bustamante's works makes one remember about light, colours and painting. The American Rauschenberg's name as a key to painting retrospection in its turn could have facilitated indignation of Euro-centric audiences, but emphasis upon Murakami's name indicates at the openness of the process - involvement of entirely new elements in the considerably tattered traditional structure of painting. Bonami factor When on the days unusually hot even for Italian standards the crowds of the accredited journalists and the public "affiliated to the biennial" had swarmed through the huge exhibition rooms which had not only new entrances but also artistic rest places and new toilets (unfortunately yet unfinished) one could feel attempts to introduce a certain sense of consolation, and new exclamations were heard that at the biennial, whose curator was Bonami (or which had "no curator whatsoever"), there is nothing of particular interest at all. And true - such a fast run had no conspicuous obstacles - if only the aggressive "Zone of Urgency" and the extensive final section "Utopia Station" at the very end of the Arsenal complex. The concept of the exhibition was indeed different, and I myself evaluated it better the day "after press" when I leisurely walked through the fairly empty rooms where all the objects at last were in their proper places and worked. Perhaps it had also to do something with the seemingly impossible task on the previous day when I had hunted down and interviewed Francesco Bonami whose queue of interviewers was tamed with an admirable sense of humour by the head of the press bureau Flavia. Exhausted but incessantly polite, answering the questions in a subdued voice but meticulously, Bonami left the impression not only of a pleasant person, but essentially supplemented the general image of the biennial with the democratic character, discreet intelligence and richness of thought of his personality, even with passionate charm. The statement that this exhibition gives floor to the individuality, to the relationship between the spectator and the object did not seem an empty flirtation any more, but it made me slow down my pace. By the way the first object in the Arsenal section, designed by Bonami under the title "Clandestine", to meet the viewer is Jan Toomik's videowork on Estonian artist Peeter Mudist, unvanquished by Parkinson's disease, who tells about his art. It is a simple, human and shattering story. Not about sickness. About force. About art as a contents and meaning of life. This section is introduced in the catalogue by Gilles Deleuze's idea that thinking is the centre of creation and transformation of life. We think not in order to acquire knowledge but to be part of the creative process. Bonami's choice - diversity of curators and his own three large expositions - envisage facilitation of thinking to a much larger extent than feasting of one's eyes, reaction of one's senses and provoking of emotions. Conflicts of the Arab world, wild urbanization of Asia, a human being and his place in a world of wars - yes, the world's largest exposition speaks also about all that. "Post-war biennial" - this is also one of the names given to it. Therefore it is quite logical that we ask about the place and form of art in such a world, which, we, the children of information age, cannot keep on ignoring. Because art is pushed forward not by our trivial duck pond intrigues or common assumptions, not even the curators' wishes but accomplishments of a personality, creative imperative under any conditions. It includes also counter-resistance if the rules of existence set down by destiny challenge it. Not so long ago we took pride in it ourselves. Also the third exhibition organized by Bonami (together with Daniel Birnbaum), the exposition rich in topical names at the Italian pavilion "Delays and Revolutions", for a more observant spectator testify first of all the movement towards unleashing of thought. Because "the significance of an art work is never fixed. Instead, it is always dependent on new readings and translations. (..) The history of art would then have to be understood as a labyrinthine echoe chamber, full of whispering voices and traces of things yet to come." (Daniel Birnbaum) This might be the reason why several critics have accentuated what does not seem the most conspicuous thing for us - not Matthew Barney's effective new work, the first one after "Cremaster Cycle", not Damien Hirst's pill parade or Carol Rama unknown so far -, but the object that cannot be even immediately noticed, the artist Gabriel Orozco's interior replica of the 1952 patio of the Italian Pavilion (architect Carlo Scarpa), built in those times outside for modern sculpture displays. Thus, not quite perceptible and analysable object but mediated, far-reaching object that inspires thinking through past, although it can be specifically used, not even thinking about it. It is a bright model of the individual's situation in the modern world when each thing under your feet, once you pay attention to it, can turn out to be a rich witness of the past or an embodiment of certain regularities or still something else that can be understood by the mental activity. Beyond doubt, Francesco Bonami's concepts, including the widest awareness of the value of art history, a serious intellectual luggage and quite a romantic perception of individual's freedom as an active and responsible force (responsible in face of one's own significance of the world) quite clearly tend to expand the field of impact of art in the utopian direction of "improving the world". What was really there? Certainly one can argue about the perceptibility of the added significance of these concepts, in particular in the short span of time which can be devoted by the visitor in Venice. To all the reproaches expressed to the biennial I support only those that say there was an excessive quantity of works. The programme includes terribly much, and many things remained unnoticed only because it is impossible to find one's ways in the mass of offers. But it is a pity because there were many significant things in the shows of different countries scattered all around the city (the Golden Lion for the best national exposition was awarded to Luxemburg whose exposition was situated in Ca' del Duca), also the extensive theoretical supplementary part seemed particularly interesting. Yes, we could talk about the means of expression the artist employs today, about the language he uses. At least the artist invited to this show (at the Arsenal). Whether it is related to art in general in our traditional understanding, and if something else here is at work then why and whether that is necessary. And after all what is it that interests us in art and how is it related to the surrounding world. This was an open and alive space for diverse discussions, and it seems to me unfair that we did not participate in this melting pot of ideas, that we are not in there with our position, our judgement, our understanding of values. Even if only a single artist takes part in the official exposition, he is followed by an escort of benevolent, evaluative, eager to obtain information (as one could see from occasional encounters with the Estonian colleagues). Therefore self-disassociation seems the most unjust thing when the state refuses from any type of participation whatsoever, because Venice biennial is not only a star show, parade of the national pride but it increasingly becomes a place of thought exchange, identification of the topical intellectual and creative situation whose atmosphere recuperates from parochial syndrome - from the aesthetics self-sufficiency. After what has been seen and heard at the biennial it is clear that no one is going to particularly pull us out into the limelight - preference will be given to those who will enter the scope of vision of curators somewhere in New York, London, Paris - also with a Baltic name, or at least once in a couple years in one of the largest art shows in Venice, São Paulo, Manifesta. Estonia and Lithuania are present in this exposition - the Baltic region has been represented, and if we do not insistently remind of ourselves we will remain the empty Nothingness between our two noticable neighbours. Our artists are unable (and is that really necessary) to move and live closer to the art centres but the duty of the state at least on the necessary occasions is to give them an opportunity to be there. Also with an aim of self-education. | |
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