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51st Venice Biennial - Day 3 - Outliers

Image is framed by the opening of a small window at the level of the roof ouside. A jumble of planes from the walls of nearby buildings are perforated by windows and decorated with vines, wires, and pipes.

  My last day in Venice.
 
Map show that pavilions are scattered all over Venice and will require a lot of walking.
 I wanted to find as many of the outlying pavilions as I could but this was going to require a whole day of walking.  The red dots at left are the official national Pavilions and the orange dots are of "Collateral" events (many were only open during the first week of the Biennial). 
A giant bronze head lies in a stone-paved square in Venice. Small tufts of grass grow where foot traffic cannot travel.
   This head was one of a pair in the Campo Santo Stefano by Igor Mitoraj.  This one is called "Eros Bendato".  The small tufts of grass growing under the sculpture were the only I saw in the pavement anywhere I walked in the whole city. 
View from inside the large bronze head above. Looking through the hole for the eyes is a view of another collosal head on the other side of the piazza.
   A view from the inside of "Eros Bendato" towards the other of the pair.
Image of the banner announcing the Armenian Pavilion.
  The Armenian pavilion was the most remote and only opened after three groups of people showed up.  The presentation was mostly political but quite fair and much more lucid than many.  I surprised myself for how long I listened.  The discussion concerned what to do in a world where "labor" doesn't mean as much as it did in previous centuries.
image of a gondolier painted on newsprint and pasted to the crumbling masonry along one of the many canals in Venice. A boat is visible in the foreground and a Burger King advertisement is visible through an archway in the background.
   Wandering around remote areas of town you get to see lots of political messages and other graffiti.  This image was painted on newsprint and glued to a wall barely in view to any but the gondoliers.
A large concrete block is supported by four braids of human hair. The artist talks about an ancient Iranian myth where Chelgis (literally: the girl with fourty braids) is held by an unseen deamon that con only be defeated if one can discover his secret. Hence my use of this largely hidden section of html code.

  The Iranian Pavilion included this piece "Chelgis II" by Mandanna Moghaddam which conveys her view of the woman's experience in the 21st century.
Close up view of one of the four braids stuck in concrete. In the background is the blurred image of a young woman with laong hair of the same color.
  Four braids of human hair and a large block of concrete.  The artist asks if it is the hair that holds the block aloft or if the concrete that has captured the braided hair?
an open door with a message written on the stone walk. The message is mostly worn away but reads "Don't cry for the whole world--tell about your own village."
   The Ukrainian Pavilion included this message written outside the door every morning by the artist Mymola Babak for the traffic of visitors to wear down every day, "Do not cry about the whole world--tell about your village."  The exhibition included dolls and old photographs that tell the personal story of lives in a small village called Cherkasy in Ukraine.
a partially evaporated image of a man's face and the artist's hand.   This frame is from a video where the artist repeatedly painted an image with water on the hot pavement as the sun caused it to evaporate.  This idea of repeating a futile effort as an analogy for life was a theme that resonated with many artists and viewers at the biennial.
Image of a classical Venitian building with an announcement declaring the Portugese Pavillion.    The Portuguese Pavilion presented the work of Helena Almeida.  One of the videos showed her walking repeatedly on her knees over her studio floor as if paying homage to a sacred place. 
rusted opening. Heavy beams, broken roof tiles and other debris lay scattereA long narrow and darkened sidewalk leads to the Argentine Pavilion  The Argentinean Pavilion was nearly hidden. 
View from below a trampoline through the springs towards a classical religious fresco.   Inside was a trampoline especially made the same size and shape as the old Venetian religious fresco above called "Ascension".  A musical piece composed for the exhibition included the percussive rhythm of an acrobat bouncing on the trampoline in a futile attempt to reach heaven.  This piece was the only I saw that directly utilized the plentiful art of Venice. 
Image of the banner for the Central Asian Pavilion on a crumbling masonry wall.
   The videos of the Central Asian Pavilion explored the human condition with less reserve than any in the whole Biennial.  My favorite was a humorous piece where the artist videoed his mother sitting on the toilet daydreaming about Naomi Campbell (a current fashion model).  The mother liked Naomi and had transferred all of her own values to her.  The artist punctuated the subtitled video of his mother rocking on the toilet with cartoon-like illustrations of the saintly Naomi sprinkled with flowers or basking in fruit.  "Naomi is vegetarian she likes fruits".
View Down a narrow walkway and over small bridge towards a sign declaring that this is a museum.
   I had been working my way back toward the train station and ran out of pavilions when I discovered this museum of contemporary art along a narrow path.  Inside, (no pictures allowed) I found a collection of works by Medardo Rosso!  Medardo had apparently donated his favorite works to the museum back in the 1920s.  All but one were in the original wax. 
the inside of a large cylinder is lined with an array of over a hundred identical images of the Mona Lisa. The only way out is through a doorway that looks out across the Grand Canal towards a classical Portico.
   In front of the train station was a large cylinder lined with screen prints of a scan of a copy of the picture of "Mona Lisa" (even the door was covered).  The Mona Lisas were scattered all over Venice as well.  There was even a display showing that one had been sent into orbit with an astronaut.  If you are from Italy you cannot escape the classical Italian artists.  Gotta go. 

13 Octobre 2005

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