Third Part in Central Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2015

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 23 – John Akomfrah

Vertigo Sea, 2015
Three-channel 2 K HD video installation, color, surround sound (48’30”)

Room 24

Chicago Board of Trade III, 1999-2009
Andreas Gursky
C-print, Diasec, framed

Toys’R’Us, 1999-2015
Andreas Gursky
Inkjet-print, Diasec, framed

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (1997)
Andreas Gursky

May Day IV (2000 – 2014)
Andreas Gursky

Tokio, Börse / Tokyo Stock Exchange (1990)
Andreas Gursky

Ocean II (1997)
Andreas Gursky

Nha Tang, 2004
Andreas Gursky
C-print, Diasec, framed

Room 25 – Chris Marker

L’Ambassade, 1973
35mm film transferred to video, b&w, sound (20’)

Room 26 – Charles Gaines

Librettos: Manuel de Falla/Stokely Carmichael, Set 13, 2015
Printed ink stained paper and lightjet print on acrylic

Sound Texts #1: All on Account of the Tariffs (2015)
Sound Texts #2: Steal Away (2015)
Sound Texts #3: La Carmagnole and Mes Fleurs (2015)
Sound Texts #4: Deep River (2015)
Charles Gaines

Room 27 – Hans Haacke

Blue Sail, 1964-1965
Chiffon, oscillating fan, fishing weights and thread

Vergleich von 3 Kunstausstellungs-Besucherprofilen (Comparison of 3 visitors’ profiles of art exhibition), 1973
Hans Haacke
ten bar graphs

World Poll, 2015
Hans Haacke
iPad, Mac Mini airport base station

Room 28

Installation view, 2013-2015
Walead Beshty
mixed media

Room 29 – Jeremy Deller

Hello, Today you have a day off, 2013
Fabric banner made by Ed Hall

Lines upon the Explosion at Witton; near Birmingham and A prophecy for 1973 (1843 – 1873)
by Jeremy Deller
la Biennale di Venezia – Biennale Arte 2015

William Clayton, Iron Workers, Tredegar, 1865
Jeremy Deller
28 carte de visite photographic prints Motorola WT4000, 2013plastic and electronics

Five in the morning, Jone O’ Grinfield and Just What We’d All Like To See 1843/1873
Jeremy Deller

Victoria Bridge in a Saturday Night, 1843-1873
Jeremy Deller
from a book of Manchester songs and ballads compiled by Robert Holt album comprising 424 broadsides

Factory records, 2013
Jeremy Deller
This jukebox is loaded with forty recordings from Britain’s industrial past and present; including the cotton and coal industries. Many were made in the 1980’s as the factories were closing down

Room 30 – Kerry James Marshall

Untitled (Blot), 2015
Kerry James Marshall
acrylic on PVC panel

Room 31 – Marlene Dumas

Skulls, 2013–2015
Marlene Dumas
36 works in oil on canvas

Room 32 – Rosa Barba

Bending to Earth, 2015
35mm film installation, color, optical sound

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.