The 56th international art exhibition, entitled All the World’s Futures , directed by Okwui Enwezor and organized by the Venice Biennale chaired by Paolo Baratta, also celebrates the 120th year since the first exhibition in 1895. The exhibition is, as always, staged in the two main historical sites, the Giardini di Castello and the Arsenale , but also involves prestigious venues throughout Venice, where the representatives of many nations are hosted and where exhibitions and collateral events are set up. All the world’s futures forms a large and unified exhibition path that is articulated from the Central Pavilion of the Gardens to the Arsenale, including the participations of 53 countries.
The Venice Biennale, which has always been a place of confluence of socio-political changes and fractures in the artistic, cultural, political and economic fields; since the first edition of 1895, when it opened in a scenario marked by mass movements born in response to the transformations triggered by the second industrial revolution. The great passages of the last two centuries: from industrial to post-industrial modernity, from technological developments to the digital era, from mass migration to “mass mobility”, from environmental disasters to genocidal wars, have produced ideas and reflections for generations of artists, directors, writers, musicians. But the fractures of our time, marked by the economic crisis, humanitarian catastrophes, social disparities and secessionist policies, are no less evident than those of the past.
Considering that a restless “age of anxiety” is underway, we will investigate how the tensions of the external world stimulate the sensitivity and expressive languages of the artists. The main question posed by the exhibition is the following: how can artists, through images, objects, words, movements, actions, texts and sounds, gather audiences in the act of listening, reacting, getting involved and speaking, at the aim to make sense of the upheavals of this era? More briefly: how does art react to the current state of affairs?
This biennial therefore starts from the urgency of taking stock of the “state of affairs”. Recognizing the current complexity, the curator rejects an all-inclusive theme and proposes an exhibition that brings together a multiplicity of contents, both from a temporal point of view – with works from the past and present, many of which have been commissioned for this occasion – and language . The heart of this vision is the space of the Arena, in the Central Pavilion, which will be the scene of readings, performances, concerts and theatrical pieces, which will offer synchronic and diachronic visions of contemporary society.
The Exhibition in Arsenale
Initiated in 1980, the Aperto began as a fringe event for younger artists and artists of a national origin not represented by the permanent national pavilions. This is usually staged in the Arsenale and has become part of the formal biennale programme.
From 1999, the international exhibition were held both at the Central Pavilion and the Arsenale. Also in 1999, a $1 million renovation transformed the Arsenale area into a cluster of renovated shipyards, sheds and warehouses, more than doubling the Arsenale’s exhibition space of previous years.
Highlights
Room 8
David Maljkovic
New Reproduction, 2013–2015
powder-coated aluminum, MDF, wallpaper
by David Maljkovic
Atlas of Harun Farocki’s Filmography (2015)
All the World’s Futures presents Atlas of Harun Farocki’s Filmography, an anthology of the work of the late artist and filmmaker Harun Farocki. The presentation comprises Farocki’s complete films, which have been restored and are presented in chronological order on separate screens; black screens signify films that have been lost or not yet digitized. Over the course of the exhibition, newly discovered and converted films will be added to the presentation. Every day, a different film from Farocki’s distinguished body of work is continuously screened in the screening space. The daily films follow each other in chronological sequence. The screenings recommence with the first film each time the complete films have been presented. In addition to the complete films, the anthology includes Farocki’s notebooks and issues of the magazine Filmkritik, of which he was the editor from 1974 until 1984.
by Harun Farocki
Regular Places, 2014
single channel HD video, color, sound (14’ 6”)
by Mykola Ridnyi
La Town, 2014
HD video, color, sound, (42’)
by Cao Fei
Lavorare con lentezza (2015)
by Cooperativa Cráter Invertido
Transactional Objects, 2015
various materials
by Rupali Gupte & Prasad Shetty
Arts, Crafts and Facts, 2015
mixed media installation, carpet, eleven embroideries
by Maja Bajevic
NoNoseKnows, 2015
mixed media installation, video, color, sound (approx. 22’)
by Mika Rottenberg
Urban Requiem, 2015
installation with steel ladders, Iroko wooden stamps, ink prints on paper
by Barthélémy Toguo
Erring Hippodamus (2013)
Polis and To Propose a Site for a New Capital City (2015)
by Mariam Suhail
Error in Grid, 2015
four drawings in pencil on printed paper
by Mariam Suhail
A-t-on besoin des ombres pour se souvenir?, 2015
graphite on paper
1000 villages, 2015
drawings on notebook pages and cover, graphite, marker and transfers on paper and tracing paper
by Massinissa Selmani
Clothes for the demonstration against false election of Vladimir Putin, 2011-2015
textile, hand writing, wood
by GLUKLYA / Natalia Pershina Yakimanskaya
The Botany of Desire, 2014-2015
two-channel HD video, color, sound (8’ 23”)
by Hwayeon Nam
German Village (2014 – 2015)
by Peter Friedl
Plan for Greater Baghdad, 2015
two and three dimensional prints, archival materials and model
by Ala Younis
Pixel Interface II, 2015
three looped digital videos of varying lengths with sound, polycarbonate screen, three projectors, three custom steel tables, three LCD screens, three custom-made microscopes with objectives, three digital HD microscope cameras, cables
by Mikhael Subotzky
installation
oil on canvas
by Georg Baselitz
A Trans-African Worldspace, 2015
mixed media installation, four digital slide projections, photographic prints, video, color, sound
by Invisible Borders Trans-African Project
Room 9
Im Heung-soon
Factory Complex, 2014–2015
video, color, sound (95’)
by Im Heung-soon
Transactional Objects, Object 1: Poky Shop, 2015
Transactional Objects, Object 6: Astrologer’s Chair, 2015
Transactional Objects, Object 7: Shop Under Staircase, 2015
Transactional Objects, Object 9: One-foot Shop, 2015
wood, rope, brass, paint
by Rupali Gupte & Prasad Shetty
Room 10
THE PORTRAIT OF SAKIP SABANCI (2014)
9,216 LCD panels configured in 144 modules of 64 LCD panels each
by Kutluğ Ataman
Passengers, 2011
selection of 134 color photographs from a series of 203 mounted on white Sintra
by Chris Marker
Room 11
Toile/Pinceau/Peinture, Leinwand/Pinsel/Farbe, Tela/Pennello/Colore (Canvas/Brush/Painting), 1992/1994/2015
oil paint applied to canvases, 177 primed canvases, 177 oil paints, 177 brushes, oil painting medium, daily schedule, work table, chair, publication Scent and Chemistry. The Molecular World of Odors, olfactory perception of oil paint
by Maria Eichhorn
Blancheur rigide dérisoire en opposition au ciel, 2015
mixed media site specific installation
by Cheikh Ndiaye
Untitled 2015 (14,086 unfired), 2015
raw bricks, wooden stamps, tools
by Rirkrit Tiravanija
A House Divided, 2015
mixed media site specific installation, MDF, plywood, fir, oil based paint
by Gary Simmons
The Sinthome Score, 2014-2015
installation and performance
by Dora García
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 establihed. 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.