The 56th Venice Biennale celebrates its 120th anniversary with a bold theme, "All the World's Futures." Curated by the esteemed Okwui Enwezor, this year's historic contemporary art exhibition gives artists from around the world a place to express where they think the world is headed. Out of 89 participating countries and 44 collateral events, there are a range of political pieces that raise important concerns. Some do so with grim, literal interpretations, and others take more abstract approaches.
29 countries take residency at the Giardini, 29 others take residency at the Arsenale (which is designed by architect David Adjaye), and the rest have pavilions throughout Venice. At a BMWi x Soho House talk in New York, Adjaye described his vision of the Arsenale exhibition space with a broader philosophy, saying, "Architecture is the frame of social emancipation. It's the way we express our freedom."
The spirit of social emancipation can be felt in many of the pavilions this year. The artists—88 of whom are showing at the Biennale for the first time—succeed in offering multiple visions of how world conflict and advancements are changing our perception of the world and how humans will continue to inhabit it.
And though some may be disappointed that Kanye West wasn't the curator this time, be assured that Enwezor gave Kanye his own private tour of the exhibition. Perhaps they talked about "the futch."
Visit the Venice Biennale, sponsored by Swatch, now through November 22, 2015 in Venice.
1.
Winner of Golden Lion for best artist, Adrian Piper created a standout piece at the Arsenale. Visitors can sign declarations that promise moral accountability toward themselves and others (which are archived at the Adrian Piper Research Archive in Berlin).
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At the Swatch Pavilion in the Arsenale, Yan Wang Preston shares an intensive project she did while photographing the Yangtze River in China. The piece, done via a residency at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai, contains photographs of 62 points divided equally along the 6,211-kilometer river. At a press conference, Preston reminded the audience that the Yangtze is a metaphor for China's forward movement, yet after experiencing it in its entirety, she feels that it's not as mystical in real life. Two of the large format photos are white (because she couldn't access those points), and at one point she got very sick from a bug bite. Later, she was also arrested. The image above shows the points she visited to create this very incredible work, although she insists that her intention was not political.
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For her 10th year at the Biennale, Joana Vasconcelos shares a new version of an older piece at the Swatch Pavilion in the Giardini. At the press conference, she said that it took her three years to develop the project, and asked the following questions of the future: Can we keep "the dream" without nature? Can we still maintain poetics in an artificial world? The plastic flowers in the dark, labyrinth-like garden are connected to technology and light, and at points, a man wanders the space.
4.
At Chiharu Shiota's The Key in the Hand installation, in the Japanese Pavilion at the Giardini, a quote appears on the wall—"Keys connect us to each other; boats carry people and time." It's a simple message executed beautifully with an old boat and a plethora of keys hanging from red string.
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At the Korean Pavilion in the Giardini, Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho present one of the most literal views of the future at the Biennale. A film switches between screens, which imagines how humans will dress, look at art and archived information, and, as shown above, even do exercise.
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The British Pavilion at the Giardini is perhaps the most playful and also vulgar. With trademark Sarah Lucas pieces addressing gender and sexuality, she puts cigarettes and white, headless sculptures together. It's one vision of the future, that's for sure.
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Oscar Murillo's ongoing project, on view at the Arsenale, gives students in 21 countries, who are 10-16 years old, canvases for their school desks. The results, once shipped back to Murillo, are endlessly fascinating. The ones from Argentina had hearts and hashtags, the ones from Kenya had guns and helicopters, and the ones from Israel had rap and graffiti. The stream of consciousness illustrations, which are made out of the context of art, are a refreshing moment in the exhibition.
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Hito Steyerl examines the utopian potential of the Internet using the aesthetic of a video game at the German Pavilion in the Giardini. The film switches between levels of reality and can be viewed in a dark, grid-like space.
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Marco Fusinato's piece at the Arsenale asks you to give 10 Euros in exchange for a book of militant writing. Though no one is there policing the scene, if you look up, there is a security camera keeping track of who's actually paying for the book, and who's just taking it.
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At the Italian Pavilion in the Arsenale, Vanessa Beecroft takes inspiration from Duchamp's Étant donnés piece and the medium of bronze sculpture. Her own interpretation includes multiple figures and also marble.
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Samson Kambalu plastered 400 footballs with pages of the Bible, which may offend a lot of people. Positioned near the water at the Arsenale, a bystander encourages viewers to play with and kick them around. Doing so may cause them to end up in the water, which may actually be the point.
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It might be easy to miss, and it may not look like a piece of art, but at the end of the Giardini exhibition, there's an electronic device that remains a part of our present and future. The Motorola WT4000, worn on the wrist by employees in warehouses, is used by Amazon to track the speed of orders and the efficiency of workers. Not only does it calculate if the worker is falling behind schedule, it can send warnings to inform him or her.
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This Herman de Vries piece has a rose scent and is meant to examine the relationship between man, culture and nature, in the spirit of de Vries' art as a whole.
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Sarkis uses the Turkish Pavilion at the Arsenale as a theatrical stage to discuss infinite dialogue and transformation. The neon light rainbows are bisected by two mirrors with constellations of fingerprints.
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Francisco Vidal's work examines African diaspora, and as such, he took on Kanye West's recent TIME magazine cover and illustrated different versions of it at the Angolan Pavilion off-site.
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Jiang Heng's satellite exhibition at Palazzo Michiel has multiple pieces exploring the intersections of beauty, consumption, and death. For Made in China, dolls and doll body parts are scattered across the floor, stuffed into clear suitcases, and hung from trees. He juxtaposes this piece with ink and wash paintings that represent traditional moral inspiration in Chinese art and design.
