Every other year, Venezia in Italy forms a picturesque frame for showing art from all over the world. La Biennale di Venezia, Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte was established in 1895 and is still going strong in mirroring tendencies in art.
One very strong issue this year was the crossover between art and news media. Research, story boards, documentation and photography were being used here – not as professional media of reporting, but as a media for expressing tendencies, experiences and opinions in an artistic way. The biennale is open until November 27, so there is still time to go to Italy and see the exhibitions.
Text by Lisbeth Tolstrup. Photos: Lars Pryds. From SNDS Magazine 3/2011.
Dayanita Singh: File Room, 2011. Based in New Delhi, this Indian artist (born 1961) uses her camera to explore and document quiet places that tell anynomous stories. Piles of papers are filed – we do not know the purpose, but in this digitalized world of wikileaks and free access to the social media it might be of a growing interest to discuss where we expect the borders of privacy to be.
Jananne Al-Ani: Shadow Sites II, 2011. By using the media of airborn photography Al-Ani (born 1966 in Iraq) is challenging our impression of a deserted landscape. Her references goes back to images from the Desert Storm (1991) and to the question of ’genius loci’ as it has been interpreted through media. Her main point is, that the picture of her region being grey, deserted and empty is a lie created by foreigners.
Anastasia Ryabova: Artists’ private collection, 2011. Being part of the exhibition Modern Ikon – Contemporary Art from Russia, Ryabova had a lot to make up to. Instead of trying to look back at some of the strong Russian artists, she presented a network, illustrated by lines and snapshots taken by 90 colleagues all over the world. The coloured lines show their connections. Research or documentation?
Manal Al-Dowayan: Suspended Together (2011). Very often the white dove has been seen as a symbol of freedom and peace. In this work, Dubai-based artist Manal Al-Dowayan (born 1973) adds an extra dimension to the symbol by gluing a certain permission on each dove. In Saudi-Arabia women have to have a permission signed by a male guardian if they want to travel. This is a story that really needs to be told – and the artist tells it by the using genuine permissions in her work.
A shin (Chen Shih-Hung): Globes of the World 1-3, 2011. One day white and iconic, the next day a symbol of terror, pollution or upper class life. The young Chinese artist A Shin uses a well known symbol in his clean and at the same time critical approach to what is happening around the globe. Being part of the project ‘From Asia to the World’ his work can be seen as a visual question to us all – what do we want tomorrow? (The third globe is shown of the cover of the SNDS Magazine).
Carloalberto Treccani: In Google We Trust, 2011. Research is under development, and a lot of things have changed since ’Auntie Google’ was launched in August 2004. The young Italian artist Treccani (born 1984) plays with images to be found on Google Maps. In this example he has found roofs in the shape of different letters and by combining them made the ironic statement ’In Google We Trust’.
More info: www.labiennale.org