The Venice Biennale seems slower this year. It is interesting to see the country pavilions in the Giardini and the choices the various curators have made. Great Britain’s Steve McQueen made an interesting two channel film Giardini set in the Biennale gardens in the off season. Macro photography- details of trees, the gravel, bits of debris, fixed camera, dogs, a night encounter.
Overall remarkably similar formally to John Cale’s 45 minute, five channel audio/video Dark Days shot is Wales- his reflections on remembering his childhood growing up there.
Some of the real highlights were some works from the 1970s: the recreation of Blinky Palermo’s 1976 installation “Himmelsrichtungen” complete with the original installation invoices, and the André Cadere multi-striped poles that were scattered throughout the exhibition. Simon Starling’s Wilhelm Noack oHG, spiral film loop projector that he made for and exhibited at PHG last year, and Spencer Finch’s coloured glass window installations.
We spent a day in the Giardini and then a second afternoon walking through the disappointing Arsenale. I can’t figure out how two parts of an exhibition could be so dissimilar. Where the Giardini was thoughtful and considered- with certain strains of Daniel Birnbaum’s curatorial thesis running throughout the exhibition, all that was lost in the vastness of the Arsenale.
It was fun to be in Venice again. My favorite project was Scotland’s Martin Boyce No Reflections. He installed a beautiful multi-room installation in the Palazzo Pisani. For my money it was the best work we saw there this year.
