This enormous
exhibition takes place every two years in Venice, and seems to summarise what's important and predict future trends. Quite a challenge, really, but it is shared across 2 different thematic contributions, and distributed across the 2 major locations and across lots of other city venues. Most of the 88 national pavilions are located in shady boulevards in the Giardini. While there are national pavilions, some represent their own artists. The messages are all mutli-layered but very contemporary. In the Japanese pavillion, the video artist
Koki Tanaka invites groups of hairdressers, potters, poets and pianists to collaborate, and links this to strategies for survival after the recent earthquake.
The Russian artist
Vadim Zakharov is inspired by the
Greek legend of Danae, and lust and greed are epitomised through the corrupting influence of money separated into male and female dominions. The Korean artist
Kimsooja reshapes the Korean pavillion into a larger than life kaleidoscope, complemented by a dark soundless room. In contrast, France and Germany swapped pavilions and then Germany invited Ai Weiwei along with several other german artists to present a room each. So there was a global theme within the national pavilions.
The other half was a gigantic curated exhibition, shown in both sites titled
The Encyclopedic Palace. This represents 150 artists from 38 countries and aims to describe how we know what we know! It is phenomenal and overwhelming in every sense. I felt a scientific reductionism towards obsessive detail and exploration at the most basic levels. There was almost a post-surrealist revival with a lot more video options. I tried very hard to understand and then gave up, accepting that I could only engage with and appreciate a small proportion. I wonder if these will be the artists who emerge from the masses to direct the future for us all...
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