Venice Biennale, Oct 30 - Nov 2 2019
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, where I hadn't been to the Venice Biennale before and it was astonishing. At some levels, I think, it was sensory overload, but at other levels it felt like a great opportunity and a fabulous privilege to be able to see 79 artists from all over the world, in addition to all the national pavilions, in such a stunning city.
For details of all the artists visit the Biennale website.
My favourite pavilion was definitely the Icelandic one, which housed Shoplifter's brightly coloured, hairy walk in installation, Chromo sapiens. I felt we could have spent much longer at the exhibition, visiting the other outlying pavilions. As it was we spent 3 days there and barely saw everything!
Other highlights included:
Alexandra Bircken
Jesse Darling
Shilpa Gupta
In terms of the pavilions here are some highlights:
Ghana where there was a stunning wall work by El Anatsui and a fabulous 3 channel film by John Akomfrah, The Elephant in the Room – Four Nocturnes (2019)
Great Britain /Cathy Wilkes
Romania, where there was a dark pool
My absolute favourite pavilions were the interactive ones:
The Phillipines Pavilion was probably my second favourite after Chromo sapiens. We had to queue to walk on the artwork which were raised glass walkways with many objects and mirrors under them, a fabulous, vertiginous optical illusion. The waiting built anticipation.
Israel pavilion also, interestingly, involved waiting in a simulation of a clinic waiting room. Again, the anticipation amplied the interets for me.
The Venice pavilion was a long walk through plastic tunnel with water underneath, scarily prescient of the Venice flooding.
, where I hadn't been to the Venice Biennale before and it was astonishing. At some levels, I think, it was sensory overload, but at other levels it felt like a great opportunity and a fabulous privilege to be able to see 79 artists from all over the world, in addition to all the national pavilions, in such a stunning city.
For details of all the artists visit the Biennale website.
My favourite pavilion was definitely the Icelandic one, which housed Shoplifter's brightly coloured, hairy walk in installation, Chromo sapiens. I felt we could have spent much longer at the exhibition, visiting the other outlying pavilions. As it was we spent 3 days there and barely saw everything!
Other highlights included:
Alexandra Bircken
Jesse Darling
Shilpa Gupta
In terms of the pavilions here are some highlights:
Ghana where there was a stunning wall work by El Anatsui and a fabulous 3 channel film by John Akomfrah, The Elephant in the Room – Four Nocturnes (2019)
Great Britain /Cathy Wilkes
Romania, where there was a dark pool
My absolute favourite pavilions were the interactive ones:
The Phillipines Pavilion was probably my second favourite after Chromo sapiens. We had to queue to walk on the artwork which were raised glass walkways with many objects and mirrors under them, a fabulous, vertiginous optical illusion. The waiting built anticipation.
Israel pavilion also, interestingly, involved waiting in a simulation of a clinic waiting room. Again, the anticipation amplied the interets for me.
The Venice pavilion was a long walk through plastic tunnel with water underneath, scarily prescient of the Venice flooding.