Lots and lots of art! I have never seen so much art in three days. It has been an overload of inspiration, opinions, differing viewpoints and a huge variety of materials being utilized. How this large-scale event works is that there are around 120 artists from different countries around the globe. The artists are given a pavilion, which is a unique exhibition space that was created, by differing architectures. So not only is the art inside intriguing but so is the architecture that houses the installations. The Biennale is located in a variety of locations. The largest are the Arsenalle and the Gardini, which are old shipyards, transformed into an artists haven full of pathways and outdoor spaces connecting each countries pavilion. Other countries pavilions lie within the heart of Venice in different buildings scattered throughout.

To add even more to the craziness of trying to see all the pavilions there are additional “off-site” artists and projects being presented in conjunction with the biennale. They include a resurfacing of Damien Hirst, an amazing show at the Polazzo Fortuny, and a Mark Tobey exhibition at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. It’s a city that is currently housing some of the most informative works of historical work fused with the ideals and conversations within the contemporary art scene. Hirst’s show was a commentary on just that. As controversial as Hirst and his work may be, his show Treasures of the Wreak of the Unbelievable at the Palazzon Grassi was very intelligent and critical. He created huge sculptures ranging from a three story high figurative sculpture to fake golden coins displayed in museum like cases. It was all supposedly found from an ancient ship wreak of the vessel ‘Unbelievable’ that he then resurfaced all the precious cargo. All of the items in the Hirsts show were of a fictional Alus Calidius Amontan who was a freed slave taking the items to the temple of the sun. The show included videos and images of the works “being discovered”. If I didn’t have a strong background in art and prior knowledge of Damien Hirst’s work, I may have thought this story he had woven about the sculptures being displayed was real. When really all of the work he created and then organized and choreographed the discovery and all of the historical displays of these “artifacts.” This show strongly felt like a critique of museum culture and the public’s fault in how they are quick to believe what is shown to them. I spent a lot of the time laughing in how believable it all was and found humor in that so many of the people viewing the art thought a majority of the story to be real.

The Pavilions that I really enjoyed were Finland and Germany. They were all vastly different but inspiring and compelling for a variety of reasons. Finland artists’ were Nathaniel Mellors and Erkka Nissinen, who created the work The Aalto Natives, a video and animatronics installation about an imaginary recreation of what it would be like to recreate the world. It was a conversation from an animatronics speaking egg and a box that had eyes and a moving mouth, named Atum and Geb that were recreating the Finland to be of their liking. The two go into the future of the Finland they have created to understand the new culture and how it had developed. The piece critiques many aspects of Finland’s clichés using humor to highlight our lapses and shortcomings. The critiques are vast, religious, fetishism of progress, and rationalism to name a few. For more info click here.

Germany was awarded The Golden Lion for being the best work this year. Artist Anne Imhof piece Faust in the German Pavilion was a three-hour performance that had five performers interacting together and alone throughout the whole pavilion. Jumping from shelves on the wall to scrambling below the glass floor and performing below your feet, they were stone faced and you would have to move out of their way as they blazed a path through the crowds watching within the space. The piece moved from fast pasted, intense, and chaotic then quickly to still, quiet, and sculpture like. I totally understand why the work got its accolades. It spoke to how we view art and interact with it, for instance, how viewers now interact behind their phones trying to capture the moments. One of the performers, in a chaotic burst of movement, grabbed a phone from a viewer’s hand and placed it on the ground. It was beautiful and I really appreciated it and can’t even begin to fathom what it would be like to perform this work and have so many phones shoved into your face.

There was so much artwork that I am still processing, but it was a very exciting experience because I was introduced to so many new artists. It was also an invigorating experience because I was able to put to use everything I had learned throughout my four years of Chapman specifically to be able to critique and understand what was going on throughout my experience. I still need time to digest this amazing trip and have distance to get a better understanding of the experience as a whole and to understand why certain pieces I enjoyed and some that I disliked. I strongly believe this course has allowed me to have a foot up from many recently graduated artists because of the vast amounts of artists I have seen up close and in person. Also, to be able to have two weeks of over 80 hours of looking at work is astounding! It was a marathon but I learned so much about my own practice and am so inspired to get back into the studio and start working!