The 56th International Art Exhibition entitled All the World’s Futures, organized by la Biennale di Venezia 2015 at the Giardini della Biennale and at the Arsenale. 89 National Participations will be exhibiting in the historical Pavilions at the Giardini, at the Arsenale and in the city of Venice. The countries participating for the first time in the Exhibition are Grenada, Mauritius, Mongolia, Republic of Mozambique and Republic of Seychelles. Other countries are participating this year after years of absence: Ecuador, the Philippines (1964), and Guatemala.
The 56th International Art Exhibition forms a unitary itinerary that starts at the Central Pavilion (Giardini) and continues at the Arsenale, with over 136 artists from 53 countries, of whom 89 will be showing here for the first time. Of works on display, 159 are expressly realized for this year edition.
The 56th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, celebrate the 120th year since the first Exhibition (1895). The curator’s International Exhibition will extend into the Palazzo delle Esposizioni at the Giardini (3,000 m2) and in the Arsenale (8,000 m2) and in addition to the outdoor areas.
Bice Curiger brought us the theme of perception, of ILLUMInation, of light as an autonomous and vivifying element, as well as that of the relationship between artist and viewer , focusing on an artistic concept that emphasizes intuitive knowledge and illuminated thinking, as means to refine and increase our perception skills and therefore our ability to dialogue with art.
Massimiliano Gioni was interested in observing the phenomenon of artistic creation from the inside, and turned his attention to the inner forces that push man and the artist to create images and give life to representations, necessary for himself and to talk with others , and investigated the utopias and anxieties that lead man to the essential need to create. The exhibition opened with the image of a utopian Encyclopedic Palace and with Jung’s illustrated book.
Today the world appears to be crossed by serious fractures and lacerations, by strong asymmetries and uncertainties about the prospects. Despite the colossal progress in knowledge and technology, we experience a sort of “age of anxiety”. And the Biennale returns to observing the relationship between art and the development of human, social and political reality, in pressing on external forces and phenomena.
To investigate how the tensions of the external world stimulate the sensitivities, the vital and expressive energies of the artists, their desires, their movements of the soul (their inner song ). The Biennale also called Okwui Enwezor for its particular sensitivity to these aspects.
Curiger, Gioni, Enwezor, almost a trilogy: three chapters of a research by the Venice Biennale on useful references for making aesthetic judgments on contemporary art, a “critical” question after the end of the avant-garde and “non-art” art.
Highlights
The Giardini includes a large exhibition hall that houses a themed exhibition curated by the Biennale’s director.
Room 1
The End (1966)
Fabio Mauri
Schermo fine , 1966
letraset on paper
Leo Castelli (1974)
Fabio Mauri
Leo Castelli, 1974
silkscreen
Installation View (1965 – 1994)
Fabio Mauri
Schermo fine , 1965
mixed media on paper
Fine – Ricami , 1994
embroidery
Disegno , no date
painting on canvas
Disegno fine , 1985
painting on canvas
Il Muro Occidentale o del Pianto (1993)
Macchina per fissare acquerelli (2007)
Installation View (1959 – 1994)
Fabio Mauri
Disegno , 1985
painting on canvas
The End , 1959
collage and oil on paper
The End – Ricami , 1994
embroidery
Room 2 – Christian Boltanski
L’Homme qui tousse (1969)
16mm film, color, sound (3’)
Room 2a – Runo Lagomarsino
Following the Light of the Sun, I Only Discovered the Ground (2012 – 2014)
Runo Lagomarsino
dia projection with sound and framed stamp
Room 3 – Naeem Mohaiemen
Last Man in Dhaka Central (The Young Man Was, Part 3), 2015
two-channel video installation, sound, color (82′ and 17”)
Naeem Mohaiemen
courtesy the artist and Experimenter
In his Dutch flat, Peter underlined and drew exclamation marks on Abu (2014)
Naeem Mohaiemen
In his Dutch flat, Peter underlined and drew exclamation marks on Abu Yusuf Khan’s post mortem (the body is cold) of the November 7th, 1975 soldier’s mutiny. The headlines read: ‘Zia embraced Taher and said “You have saved my life”’; ‘The Officers were frightened and fled Cantonment’; ‘In spite of precautions Taher was seized’; ‘Sirajul Alam Khan had acquired an image for himself’; ‘Why November 7th uprising failed’, 2014
five archival prints on rice paper
Room 4 – Fatou Kandé Senghor
Giving Birth (2015)
video, color, sound (30’)
Room 5
Roberth Smithson
Ashpalt on eroded cliff, 1969
ink and colored chalk on paper
Floating Island – Barge to Travel Around Manhatten Island, 1971
graphite on paper
The Hypothetical Continent of Lemura, 1969
brown ink, crayon, graphite and collage on paper
Island Project, 1970
pencil on paper
Dead Tree, 1969
Robert Smithson
installation dimensions variable
Four Date Drawings , 2011
Runo Lagomarsino
sundrawings and metal structure
La Muralla Azul (2014)
Runo Lagomarsino
Swamp, 1971
Nancy Holt & Robert Smithson
16mm film transferred to video, color, sound (6’)
Untitled (TI3), 2015
Daniel Boyd
oil, charcoal and archival glue on polyester
Untitled, 14, 15.04.1974
Teresa Burga
Series of 13 drawings, ink on paper
Room 6 – Giardino Scarpa
La Ciudad en Llamas (February 17 – March 1, 2015: Cerámica Suro Contemporánea, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico), 2015
Walead Beshty
Ceramica Suro slip cast remnants, glaze, and firing plate
Room 8
Workers (1975)
Inji Efflatoun
Rude Rocks 2015
Elena Damiani
hand carved and polished travertine, copper, stainless steel
The Victory Atlas Series, 2012-2013
collage on found map and Kawanaka paper
Room 9
Nachrichten aus der ideologischen Antike, Marx, Eisenstein – Das Kapital , 2008–2015
Alexander Kluge
three-channel video installation, color, sound (90’, 180’, 90’)
Room 10
Roof Off, 2015
Thomas Hirschhorn
site specific installation
Venice Biennale 2015
The 2015 Art Biennale closes a sort of trilogy that began with the exhibition curated by Bice Curiger in 2011, Illuminations, and continued with the Encyclopedic Palace of Massimiliano Gioni (2013). With All The World’s Futures, La Biennale continues its research on useful references for making aesthetic judgments on contemporary art, a “critical” issue after the end of the avant-garde and “non-art” art.
Through the exhibition curated by Okwui Enwezor, La Biennale returns to observe the relationship between art and the development of human, social and political reality, in the pressing of external forces and phenomena: the ways in which, that is, the tensions of the external world solicit the sensitivities, the vital and expressive energies of the artists, their desires, the motions of the soul (their inner song ).
La Biennale di Venezia was founded in 1895. Paolo Baratta has been its President since 2008, and before that from 1998 to 2001. La Biennale, who stands at the forefront of research and promotion of new contemporary art trends, organizes exhibitions, festivals and researches in all its specific sectors: Arts (1895), Architecture (1980), Cinema (1932), Dance (1999), Music (1930), and Theatre (1934). Its activities are documented at the Historical Archives of Contemporary Arts (ASAC) that recently has been completely renovated.
The relationship with the local community has been strengthened through Educational activities and guided visits, with the participation of a growing number of schools from the Veneto region and beyond. This spreads the creativity on the new generation (3,000 teachers and 30,000 pupils involved in 2014). These activities have been supported by the Venice Chamber of Commerce. A cooperation with Universities and research institutes making special tours and stays at the exhibitions has also been established. In the three years from 2012-2014, 227 universities (79 Italian and 148 international) have joined the Biennale Sessions project.
In all sectors there have been more research and production opportunities addressed to the younger generation of artists, directly in contact with renowned teachers; this has become more systematic and continuous through the international project Biennale College, now running in the Dance, Theatre, Music, and Cinema sections.