Art + Design at the Venice Biennale http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/ Columbia College continues its "hands-on, minds-on" approach to learning with this intensive course centered on the Venice Biennale, which opens the day before the class begins. Through exposure to the national pavilions in the Giardini and elsewhere, as well as the Aperto and ancillary project spaces, students experience a wide range of work by global contemporary artists. Studio production will be informed by not only the day-to-day experience of visiting the Biennale sites, but also through an understanding of the history of the Biennale (the world’s oldest and, arguably, most prestigious art exposition) and the unique nature and history of the city of Venice itself. en Copyright 2009 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:33:22 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss The Francois Pinault Collection Positioned alongside the Venice Biennale, but strikingly separate from it, works from the Francois Pinault collection occupy the Punta della Dogana and the Palazzo Grassi. The show, curated by Francesco Bonami and Alison Gingeras is titled Mapping the Studio. Whatever connotations the show's title suggest are quickly overshadowed by the impressive roster of artists in the collection and the unparalleled scale of the works on display. It appears that Pinault owns the entire canon of contemporary art. The chance to see the likes of Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy and Rachel Whiteread, to name just a few, all in the same vicinity, in conversation with one another was a rare opportunity. This feeling is especially emphasized by a tight restriction on all photography. With funding for the Venice Biennale having been cut over 100,000 euros this year compared to 2007, one gets a sense that the art world is shrinking into the hands of a few billionaires who can afford to keep the party going. Pinault's collection is almost surreal; an Untitled (Nazi Dance Party) in the midst of an economic crisis. And the guards are all wearing Armani suits. http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/the_francois_pinault_collectio_1.php http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/the_francois_pinault_collectio_1.php Douglas Gabriel Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:33:22 -0600 Storms and Steve McQueen It has been storming for days now. No better preparation for the film. Entering through the gates of the Napoleon built Giardini Publicci that has housed la Biennale di Venezia since 1895, the colonial British Pavilion is firmly perched at the end of the somber grand avenue like a castle atop a mountain. The British Pavilion has the utmost control of when, where, and how their visual information is presented. Only two images of the film were given to the press. Here Steve McQueen presents a new film, Giardini (2009), 30 minutes. With church bells and rain drops heard all around, as film starts it feels as if nothing has changed. Familiar sites and sounds from the Giardini Publicci are projected dually in a diptych fashion. The opening scene displays a close-up of textured bark, left, and on the right confetti covered rocks with sounds of rain dripping. The main role, besides the Giardini itself, is played by elegant greyhounds that are shown trotting around the various pavilions, rummaging through garbage we assume belongs to the previous Biennale. The prized dogs act as beautiful constants and living sculpture that exists to ask questions about what the role of the Giardini Publicci is when the Biennale is not taking over Venice. The very English specific dogs mimic the many leashless dogs that roam the cobblestone streets. As the audience gets comfortable with experiencing only majestic animals, nature and ambient sounds of rain, a figure in the shadows breaks the solitude. The imposition of the human character very locally disrupts the peaceful and poetic space presented. This represents leading colonizers such as Belgium, Hungary, Germany, Great Britain, France and Russia that were the first to quickly takeover and occupy the park with national pavilions in the early 20th century. The non-narrative film is about looking and acknowledging the loaded location that lodges the art world's grandest exhibition. The work universally utilizes visual language that demands visceral participation. The audience projects what is seen in the site-specific film onto the now clean and open Biennale. There is no room for dogs to freely roam the park. As one walks around the Giardini Pubblici, the film is brought into life outside of the pavilion. The confetti depicted in the first scene can still be found in front of the Belgian pavilion, soaked and eroded from the days of rain. Giardini is not only carried into the immediate surroundings of the Biennale, but also throughout the entire city of Venice. Church bells and rumbling cruise ships become reminiscent of the experience. The formal simplicity of the visual elements requests complex questions of the purpose and role that the Biennale holds here in Venice. The persistent downpour enabled the piece to endure throughout the entire day. http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/storms_and_steve_mcqueen.php http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/storms_and_steve_mcqueen.php Nicholas Steindorf Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:51:01 -0600 Peep-Hole website. ]]> http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/peephole_1.php http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/peephole_1.php Anna Trier Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:16:31 -0600 It isn't all nature, elves, and Sigur Rós in Iceland The%20End%20video%20still.jpg Kjartansson has created a plateau on the grandest stage, la Biennale, to perform obsessive aspirations and spectacle of a mentally tortured painter (think Italian painter Giorgio Morandi), against the secluded humble idea of the artist in hiding. In the pavilion while Ragnar is at work, in his paint stained clothing, there is a heightened sense of engagement and anticipation for his next move. As the tempo of militant symphony, Mahler, rises and hits a high note he calmly stands up and re-approaches the canvas with a smooth grey stroke. Kjartansson has cleverly fed in sounds of the Grand Canal crashing against the dock into the studio area. He is making sure the audience doesn't forget that they are experiencing him performing at such a unique and epic location.
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Your blood-pressure lowers and you can forget you are even in Venice as you enter the video-installation. The cinematographic shots of the two musicians in the mountains entirely oppose the historically overloaded and claustrophobic experience of Venice and the Biennale. As a whole exhibition The End presents questions of what it's title is saying. Is, with a post-apocalyptic global warming mentality, the beginning of the end the sinking of Venice while the mountains will be the last to fall under oceanic siege? Or is it the end of history as many post-structuralists and post-modernists have proposed? Or is he optimistically suggesting that the only way to Fare Mondi (make worlds) is to do what every young artist wants to do: sit, think, smoke, drink, and make art? Thank you for the fantasy, Ragnar. ]]> http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/it_isnt_all_nature_elves_and_s.php http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/it_isnt_all_nature_elves_and_s.php Nicholas Steindorf Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:12:40 -0600 Worldmaking as We Know It "Worldmaking as we know it always starts from worlds already on hand; the making is a remaking."

- Nelson Goodman in Ways of Worldmaking

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We enter the white cube and shrink beneath an impressive network of elastic ropes that appear frozen in a moment of making. The overtly poetic title of Argentinian artist Tomas Saraceno's installation, Galaxies Forming Along Filaments, like Droplets Along the Strands of a Spider's Web (2009), suggests a Utopian application of the astronomical theory and scientific formulas that dictate the form of the piece. Saraceno examines the geometrical structure of black widow gossamer filaments and their ability to suspend large amounts of weight. This activity illustrates the central ideas of the curated portion of the Venice Biennale, put forward by director Daniel Birnbaum. In his introduction to the show which he has titled Fare Mondi ("Making Worlds"), Birnbaum describes the making of new worlds as "building something common, something that can be shared" adding that "perhaps new worlds emerge where worlds meet." Saraceno's fusion of astronomy, geometry and architecture create new possibilities for maneuvering in and out of worlds. We leave the space to view a small grid-like ink drawing. ]]> http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/worldmaking_as_we_know_it.php http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/worldmaking_as_we_know_it.php Douglas Gabriel Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:05:50 -0600 La Accademia & The Biennale It was overwhelming to view the work of my favorite Italian Renaissance painter, Jacobi Robusti (a.k.a. Tintoretto). His piece, “Finding of the body of Saint Mark,” is part of a four painting series he did for the Scuola di S. Marco in the 1600's. It tells the story of how the Venetians stole back the body of Saint Mark from his grave in Alexandria, Egypt. Saint Mark's body is now in the Basilica di San Marco, the most popular tourist spot and church in Venice. redcherubs.jpg Out of all the Virgin Mary and Child paintings from the Renaissance, "Madonna of Red Cherubs,” 1485, by Giovanni Bellini is my favorite. It is an oil painting on panel and is not very large, 77 x 60 cm. I admire it just beacuse of the red cherubs in the clouds. It is very rare to see a human figure, or rather mythical figure, in monotone during this time period. The Giardini is a huge garden space in Venice, where the majority of the Biennale pavilions are housed. The Giardini gardens smells of the most wonderful flower scents you can imagine. There are these tiny white flowers everywhere that smell similar to lilacs, but even more sweet. In the Biennale, each major country has their own pavilion, in which a chosen well-known artist of that country has work on display. We watched an amazing video by Steve McQueen, Britian's representative, and saw a few other pavilions: France, Germany, Canada, Japan, and Korea. Steve McQueen's video, Giardini, named after and filmed within where the Biennalle is located (in Venice's Giardini, a large garden-like plaza), was my absolute favorite. It is a new thing for me to view video as a sculptural work of art, rather than our usual interpretation of film - as a Hollywood narrative. The German pavilion was a controversial exhibit for the lot of us. Some of us praised Liam Gillicks's piece shown here, and others absolutely despise it. Here in the picture below, a stuffed cat sits on top of a wooden kitchen shelving unit. Kitchen cabinets, counters, and drawers built of pinewood filled the white gallery space. All the drawers could not be opened, and no visitors were allowed to touch the word. The stuffed cat "spoke" a poem, written by Liam Gillick, which echoed almost incomprehensibly throughout the room. The poem told a looping story about how the cat is self-consciouslylosing its "human" qualities as it remains in the kitchen and strays from its interaction with a small boy and girl. The exhibit refers to Liam Gillick's own practice of working in his kitchen, which serves as his studio space, and sharing this space with his son's cat. liamCat.jpg Take a look at this image from the French pavilion, represented by artist Claude Leveque, titled "Le Grand Soir". The exhibit was a huge steel cage environment, behind which was nothing but sparkling silver walls and small hallways leading to inaccessible rooms blackness with a black flags billowing within. A loud humming sound, like that a of a steam engine or airplane filled the area and overwhelmed you. Walking through, I felt fright and pleasure at the same time. The walls glittered and the lights were bright, but the obvious notion that a black flag symbolizes anarchy or revolution fought against that aesthetic pleasure. LeGrandSoir.jpg http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/over_the_past_few_days.php http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/over_the_past_few_days.php Jackie Capozzoli Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:33:21 -0600 Venizian Strangeness I’ve been here since June 6th, rode in on the sleeper train from Paris. Words and finances are failing me at this point, but the experience continues to layer itself into my subconscious and perhaps when I am eighty years old I will remember some semblance of what has happened to me in the last three or four weeks. Since this is about the school part of the trip I will spare you the details of my solo exploration of Paris, where I blew all my cash and learned to make pizza from a real Italian (among other things). Venizia is very strange. It is old. There is a lot of seawater flowing through the “streets” and the buildings have had a hard life. Italians who live here stick colorful pinwheels in their planter boxes, grow tomatoes and basil, drive boats around the city to get to and from their jobs, and only make up a very small percentage of the population. From one man (our landlord) we found out that ten years ago there were 150,000 Italians living in Venice and now there are only 50,000. Where did they go? Someplace cheaper evidently. Someplace they could find work. There are more mask/glass shops than you can shake a stick at... no shaking sticks to be found, though. The resaurant owners stand in front asking you to come in and eat, there are artists sitting on the street all drawing the canals and buildings in a similar style, the style that tourists might like to buy and hang above their armoire or their living room sofa. My job while I’m here is to draw. I have created two large drawings already consisting of images from my trip to Paris. A third that I have started includes works of art I wish I had been part of making. It is about the jealousy I feel towards artists who have community and create whimsical, complicated, difficult artwork that also functions as play. I hope to find more art like this and I hope not to. I don’t do so well with envy. I will also be drawing portraits of my fellow students and of the population at large. I will ask for donations from strangers to supplement the rest of my trip and from the students I will ask only for their address to send the portraits to at a later date (for documentation and showing purposes). Today there was a man in the square holding completely still in a walking stance. His tie had wire in it and was sculpted to look as if it were blowing in the wind and his hat was also attached to wire to look as if it were flying right off his head. He was wearing outrageous colors and had another hat on the ground in front of him for donations to his strange profession. Oh, one thing I love about Europe: men wear bright colored pants. http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/ive_been_here_since_june.php http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/ive_been_here_since_june.php Torreyanna Barley Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:18:22 -0600 First Impressions All the Columbia students have apartments spread all over the city. The one I am staying in is in a region called San Polo. San Polo is mostly residential and much more quiet than the tourist centers of San Marco and the Rialto bridge area. Our apartment is right on the canal, so we have to hang our laundry out to dry (Venice has washing machines, but no dryers) over the water. On the first day I lost a pair of underwear to our neighbor's windowsill below. The next morning, our neighbors had set my underwear right outside our front door. How embarrassing! My favorite food here is the ice cream. Gelato places are plentiful, set on almost every corner of the city. Try the Tiramisu flavor, its amazing! Also, one thing I did not expect to see a lot of here was graffiti, and a lot of dogs. Tagging makes up the majority of the street art, but I found a notable street artist who does do beautiful stencils. Two of the stencils are in the pictures below. firstimp3.jpg firstimp4.jpg As for the dogs, It seems that almost all Venetians own dogs. Dogs are allowed inside stores, on trains, boats, and in cafes here. The translation from English to Italian to ask someone if you can pet there dog is not direct. There is no word for "pet" in Italian, you either need to use the word touch or caress to describe petting. Hopefully, you would want to touch a dog instead of caress it. However, if you say to an Italian, "Posso toccare il suo cane?" (Can I touch your dog?), they would think you would want to poke their dog. So, you need to ask "Posso accarezzo il suo cane?" (Can I caress your dog?). firstimp1.jpg Our school and studio spaces are inside and old church, check it out in the picture. Many of the students are inside a chapel area, complete with chipping Renaissance paintings and a marble altar. We have a beautiful view of the city from the second floor. As for the Biennale, we haven't received our passes yet but we will be going tomorrow to see the show. So far, Venice is amazing, and I am excited to see the Biennale and make work here! ]]> http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/first_impressions.php http://cms.colum.edu/venice09/2009/06/first_impressions.php Jackie Capozzoli Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:48:53 -0600