Veneza 2017 – parte II M. Botelho – 29-09-2017
DOWNEY, Juan | Born in 1940 in Chile, died in 1993 in
the United States
Juan Downey, The Circle of Fires, 1979
“…a video which derives from the artist’s ambitious
travelogue-cum-anthropological study Video Trans America, shot during
his travels across a number of Latin American countries between 1973 and ’77.
The videos were made whilst Downey and his family lived in the Venezuelan
Amazon, with the Yanomami people, who were invited to make and watch videos of
themselves, turning inside out the conventions of ethnographic filmmaking.” Dan Fox https://frieze.com/article/57th-venice-biennale-arsenale
ARAEEN, Rasheed | Born in 1935 in Pakistan, lives and
works in London
Rasheed Araeen, Zero to Infinity in Venice,
2016-17
“Rasheed Araeen is an artist, writer and the founder
of both Third Text (London) and Third Text Asia (Karachi). He
left Karachi for London in 1964 and has lived there since. In 1965 he pioneered
minimalist sculpture in Britain. He began writing in 1975 and then publishing
his own art journals: Black Phoenix (1978), Third Text (1987) and
Third Text Asia (2008)”. http://thirdtext.org/rasheed-araeen
“In 1966 he [Rasheed Araeen] began to use the term
«structure» to describe his modular sculptures made up of open lattices […]. He [also] wanted to share the artistic
experience with as large a public as possible and became one of the pioneers of
participative art in 1968 […].” L.L., Biennale Arte 2017, Viva
Arte Viva, Short Guide, p. 88
NETO, Ernesto | Born in 1964 in Brazil, lives and
works in Rio de Janeiro
Ernesto
Neto, Um Sagrado Lugar (A Sacred Place), 2017
“A tent, made in Neto’s signature organic style […]
provides a Cupixawa, or social gathering place, for a group of indigenous Huni
Kuin people from the Amazonian state of Acre, Brazil. Here the Huni Kuin
perform healing ceremonies on visitors […]. The day of the press preview I saw
the tent surrounded by people wielding cameras, crowding its entrance and
jamming their lenses at the Huni Kuin wearing their traditional dress. It could
have been the cover image for a 1980s cultural studies textbook, perhaps titled
An Introduction to Media and Anthropology, and it seemed to embody the
problem at the core of Macel’s show. Her one-size-fits-all humanism tries to
show us different modes of perceiving the world but ends up being a tourist in
them.” Dan Fox https://frieze.com/article/57th-venice-biennale-arsenale
ÁVILA FORERO, Marcos | Born in 1983 in France, lives
and works in Paris and Bogota
“Afro-Columbians are renowned percussionists: they
used to play water drumming in the river as a communication tool. The tradition
was lost but the artist, discovering similar water drum rituals in Congo,
decided to revive it with locals [in Colombia]. The film records the
performance of men and women rhythmically «playing the water» of the river as
if it were na instrument.” A.K., Biennale Arte 2017, Viva Arte Viva,
Short Guide, p. 95
HALPRIN, Anna | Born in 1920 in the United States,
lives and works in Kentfield, California
The Planetary Dance is an annual all-day ritual of
healing and community renewal. It brings people of all ages and abilities
together in a beautiful setting to dance for a purpose. The Planetary Dance
Community invites people all over the world to join in a dance for peace in
their own communities and peace with the Earth.
“It's going to take the willing commitment of enough
people to say we will heal this earth. Every step is a prayer, and we must pray
together for the healing of the earth... The circle is an act of unity, and the
four directions give it stability. It's the squared circle which is the archetypal
mandala of harmony.”
ATLAS, Charles
Born in 1949 in the United States, lives and works in New York
Born in 1949 in the United States, lives and works in New York
“[…] Atlas has worked for around forty years creating
visual installations, collaborating in the early '70s with dancer and
choreographer Merce Cunningham […]. In Venice he presents a multi-channel video
installation in the Arsenale, "The Tyranny of Consciousness",
simultaneously showing a montage of 44 sunsets ("Kiss the Day
Goodbye"), combined with "Here she is...v1", featuring the
voice of legendary New York drag queen Lady Bunny. In the video Lady
Bunny […] talks about peace, life, our planet, greed and the confusing and
complex times we are living in. A final work, "Chai" features a
huge digital clock counting down from 18 minutes to zero (the number of minutes
it takes the suns to set). Ominous music accompanies this section of the video,
but then Lady Bunny appears on the screen, her massive blonde hairdo filling
it.” http://irenebrination.typepad.com/irenebrination_notes_on_a/2017/05/charles-atlas-venice-biennale.html
Contrapor o natural (pôr-do-sol) e o artificial (momentos finais com Lady Bunny a cantar: metáfora para o fim do mundo?).
Contrapor o natural (pôr-do-sol) e o artificial (momentos finais com Lady Bunny a cantar: metáfora para o fim do mundo?).
THE PLAY | Founded in 1967 in Japan, based in the
Kansai region
“In ‘The Play Have a House’ of 1972, the artists built
a house-like raft, lived in it for five days and floated down a river between
Kyoto and Osaka. […] In the end, the collective burnt their house-raft and left
only documents of the performance. For the biennale, they re-created the raft
and put it in the Arsenale for the time of the show.” http://premierartscene.com/magazine/venice-biennale-2017/
LAI, Maria | 1919–2013, Italy
“Maria Lai, whose textile pieces in the Arsenale
explore collective memory through abstract scripts and mappings on canvas and
in book form, could easily be in the Pavilion of Artists and Books, or Pavilion
of Colors – or most of the nine pavilions for that matter. It is her early,
pre-relational aesthetics approach to participatory practice, in particular her
1981 collective performance, Legarsi alla montagna, that has situated
her in the Pavilion of the Common. Sardinian folklore weaves its way
through much of Lai’s practice; her large stitched canvases and sumptuous,
glistening books with their unreadable codas evoke a thirst to know the
unknowable.” https://www.a-n.co.uk/news/venice-2017-review-viva-arte-viva-international-exhibition
BLAZY, Michel | Born in 1966 in the Principality of
Monaco, lives and works in Paris
Michel Blazy, Collection
de Chaussures (Collection of Shoes), 2015-2017
Since the late 1980’s, Michel Blazy incorporated
organic material, such as vegetables, insects or small mammals, into his work
whose nature and appearance change and develop during their exhibition. The
components of his work change; they grow, rot, liquefy, or at times overflow.
Each of his pieces is a microcosm re-enacting the cycle of life, from growth to
decrepitude, and a statement of coming rebirth.
SHIMABUKU | Born in 1969 in Japan, lives and works in
Naha
Shimabuku, Oldest and Newest Tools of Human Beings,
2016
Shimabuku, The
Snow Monkeys of Texas: Do Snow Monkeys Remember Snow Mountains?, 2016, 20’
HALILAJ, Petrit | Born in 1986 in Kosovo, lives and
works in Berlin
“[…] Halilaj and his mother have made some monumental
performative sculptures of moths using traditional kosovar fabrics.” Biennale
Arte 2017, Viva Arte Viva, Short Guide, p. 108
POOTOOGOOK, Kananginak | 1951–2010, Canada
Kananginak Pootoogook, Untitled (Whale Hunt), 2009,
Ink and pencil on paper, 122 cm x 244 cm
“Certainly a theme of Inuit life past and present
is reflected in the Pootoogook drawings included in the Venice Biennale. Most
of these drawings were made in the last few years prior to Pootoogook’s death
in 2010, when the contrast to his early life (he was born in 1935) would have
been the strongest. One drawing made in 2009, for instance, shows the results
of a successful walrus hunt […].” http://canadianart.ca/news/kananginak-pootoogook-inuit-art-venice-biennale/
CALAND, Huguette | Born in Lebanon in 1931, lives and
works in Los Angeles
Huguette Caland, various works, 1971-1995, mixed media
“In the Dionysian Pavilion, where the
theme is the female body and sexuality, Lebanese Huguette Caland's line
drawings of women's limbs and erogenous zones are simply wonderful; in 1970s
Lebanon these were groundbreaking feminist works.” http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/news/the-artists-sake-christine-macels-venice-biennale/
UPRITCHARD, Francis | Born in 1976 in New Zealand,
lives and works in London
Francis Upritchard’s artistic lexicon is perhaps best
known for her curious, and at times disconcerting, small-scale figurative
sculptures which in their fantastical forms also embody a constellation of
historical and contemporary references.
“[…] The narratives are usually pretty simple; [the
figures are] either male or female, and frequently ambiguous. Sometimes I’m
trying to capture a face I glimpsed, sometimes a friend I have photographed,
and sometimes a pose. Of course it’s more complicated than that, as it often
includes race and decoration, but I find it very hard to articulate exactly
what I’m trying to do with each work, although sometimes the titles explain a
little”. Francis Upritchard
DANZ, Mariechen | Born in 1980 in Ireland, lives and
works in Berlin
“The aesthetic of Danz’s installations at the Venice
Biennale evokes a personal cartography of the world. The artist juxtaposes old
symbols, a vocabulary of signs that have to appear fragments from a distant,
primitive past, to a raw display. […] She connects multiple universes, from the
origin of humanity, with its footprints in the dirt, to the contemporary
world.” L.L., Biennale Arte 2017, Viva Arte Viva, Short Guide, p. 139
“Mariechen Danz treated her installation at the
Arsenale like a primordial theater that the audience is invited to inhabit. The
floor is made of a local mud, which rises to form a pedestal for her
thermoactive sculpture, ‘Womb Tomb,’ as well as a stage. A set of feet cast in
different materials, like coal and agate, walk along the wall. ‘The idea is
that the whole room offers a change of perspective,’ Danz says. ‘There is no
clarity between north, south, east, west. The piece is a map of itself ’.” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/t-magazine/art/venice-biennale-best-highlights-mark-bradford-tehching-hsieh-alicja-kwade.html?mcubz=0
TANAKA, Koki | Born in 1975 in Japan, lives and works
in Kyoto
Koki Tanaka, Of Walking in Unknown, 2017. Date
of the action:21-24 October 2016.
“Of Walking in Unknown (2017), documents a four day journey Tanaka undertook to walk from his home in Kioto to the nearest nuclear plant. […] The decision to undertake this walk is a statement that extends beyond the artistic realm, raising awereness about a world in which the potential for man-made disaster is an issue one cannot ignore.” Y.M., Biennale Arte 2017, Viva Arte Viva, Short Guide, p. 114
“Of Walking in Unknown (2017), documents a four day journey Tanaka undertook to walk from his home in Kioto to the nearest nuclear plant. […] The decision to undertake this walk is a statement that extends beyond the artistic realm, raising awereness about a world in which the potential for man-made disaster is an issue one cannot ignore.” Y.M., Biennale Arte 2017, Viva Arte Viva, Short Guide, p. 114
WALTHER, Franz Erhard | Born in 1939 in Germany, lives
and works in Fulda
“Through his art, he [Franz Erhard Walther] has called
into question the relation between sculpture and action, ranging from
minimalist, conceptual and process art to performance and body art, without
ever fully embracing any of these movements. […] While the works in this latter
group may be walked upon, the wall installations are apparently present as
something halfway between painting and sculpture, and invite total involvement
of the body.” C.B., Biennale Arte 2017, Viva Arte Viva, Short Guide, p. 97
HICKS, Sheila | Born in 1934 in the United States,
lives and works in Paris
Sheila Hicks, Escalade Beyond Chromatic Lands,
2016-17
“[…] a place for sociality and encounters. […] volumes
of intensely colored textiles fiber lean against the wall, giving a new and
luminous environment to the historic building of the Arsenale.” L.C., Biennale
Arte 2017, Viva Arte Viva, Short Guide, p. 155
MEDALLA, David | Born in the Philippines in 1938,
lives and works in London
"A Stich in Time", conceived by the artist
as an itinerant "atomic" project (something that begins small and
eventually grows to monumental proportions) and a participatory artwork that
allows people to share embroidery. […] While this is mainly a participatory
work, it also points at relational practices and at the power of travel, time
and chance. […] The piece constantly changes: I checked upon it a few times
and I gradually saw its white surface getting covered in personal cards, train
and underground tickets, messages, small objects, and simple decorations or
initials, with people quietly working on it and recreating a private silent
space in a noisy public environment, or sharing experiences and passing around
threads and needles. http://irenebrination.typepad.com/irenebrination_notes_on_a/2017/05/david-medalla-venice-biennale.html
ANTUNES, Leonor | Born in 1972 in Portugal, lives and
works in Berlin
Leonor Antunes, …then we raised the terrain so that
I could see out, 2017
“Para
este trabalho […] Leonor Antunes quis estabelecer […] uma ligação com a arquitetura,
mas neste caso com a obra de Carlo Scarpa e de Franco Albini, ambos arquitetos
italianos ativos até às décadas de 60 e 70. Nestes, interessou-lhe sobretudo os
projetos feitos para museus […] e alguns pormenores que podem ser convertidos
para a escultura, como uma escada ou um elemento suspenso. «Visitámos
exaustivamente tudo o que era possível visitar destes dois autores. Fiquei
fascinada com o trabalho do Scarpa em vidro de Murano, por exemplo, que quis
reinterpretar. Fui ver o túmulo que ele criou para a família Brion, em Treviso,
perto de Veneza, e onde acabou por também ser enterrado. É uma obra
extraordinária.» Leonor Antunes, na obra feita para a bienal, joga com
materiais específicos – cortiça, latão, vidro, cabos elétricos, lâmpadas
incandescentes, couro, cabo de aço, com os quais reinterpreta elementos arquitetónicos
e de design de base: a cortina, a lâmpada, o paralelepípedo de chão.” Luísa
Soares de Oliveira https://www.publico.pt/2017/08/17/culturaipsilon/noticia/em-veneza-a-arquitectura-desafia-os-escultores-portugueses-1782262
SALA, Anri | Born in 1974 in Albania, lives and works
in Berlin
Anri Sala, All of a Treemble (Seawall), 2016
“In Sala’s intricate drawing and sound
installation, a large-scale wall drawing presents the meeting point of two
vintage wallpaper patterns. The wallpaper patterns’ cylinders are halved and
joined on one roller, which is converted into a steel comb music box. ‘All of a
Tremble (Encounter I)’ simultaneously plays out the visual merger of two
decorative designs and the subsequent musical composition of their union.” https://www.facebook.com/hauserwirth/videos/1350432701660493/
GUARNERI, Riccardo | Born in 1933 in Italy, lives and
works in Florence
“Like vibrant images of pure light, Riccardo
Guarneri’s paintings are evanescent and mysterious surfaces marked by a
vocabulary of signs, geometric shapes, spots, calligraphic touches and lines of
light.” C.B., Biennale Arte 2017, Viva Arte Viva, Short Guide, p. 145
GRIFFA, Giorgio | Born in 1936 in Italy, lives and
works in Turin
Giorgio Griffa, Canone aureo 958 (Agnes Martin), 2016
Giorgio Griffa, Canone aureo 958 (Agnes Martin), 2016
“The large
diptych Canone aureo 958 (Agnes Mattin) (2016) cites a verse from
the writings of the American minimalist painter Agnes Martin and is part of Alter
Ego, a series of works begun in 1979, in which the artist takes note of the
thousand-year-old legacy of painting.” C.B., Biennale Arte 2017, Viva
Arte Viva, Short Guide, p. 148
SHAVER, Nancy | Born in 1946 in the United States,
lives and works in Jefferson and Hudson, New York
Nancy Shaver, Pie, 2014, found metal, wooden
blocks, dress fabric, t-shirt fabric, china, marker on muslin, house paint, oil
pastel, ...
“ […] In 1999 the artist opened Henry, a shop in Hudson, New York. The store is not exactly her art, but it holds only things she likes to look at. Items from her studio sometimes migrate to Henry, and unsold objects from Henri likewise find their way to her studio. Lately, as if following the collective spirit of her retail operation, Shaver has begun incorporating work by friends and fellow artists into her own installations. […] Shaver´s work in Venice is done in this mode, reflecting her belief that art is both an individual experience and a communal effort. “In the Studio”,” interview by Dan Nadel, Art in America, June/July 2017. http://dnadel.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/NSHAVERAiA2017.pdf
“The works of Nancy Shaver offer anyone looking at them an immediate visual enjoyment. […] Forming part of Marcel Duchamp’s readymade legacy of art, Nancy Shaver’s practice is constantly nourished by a sensitive and decorative vein, from the work of Henri Matisse to Pop Art. Her multi-colored works testify to this same desire to achieve a joyful and hedonistic work and to reconsider the ornamental and decorative value of art .” M.S., Biennale Arte 2017, Viva Arte Viva, Short Guide, p. 150
“ […] In 1999 the artist opened Henry, a shop in Hudson, New York. The store is not exactly her art, but it holds only things she likes to look at. Items from her studio sometimes migrate to Henry, and unsold objects from Henri likewise find their way to her studio. Lately, as if following the collective spirit of her retail operation, Shaver has begun incorporating work by friends and fellow artists into her own installations. […] Shaver´s work in Venice is done in this mode, reflecting her belief that art is both an individual experience and a communal effort. “In the Studio”,” interview by Dan Nadel, Art in America, June/July 2017. http://dnadel.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/NSHAVERAiA2017.pdf
“The works of Nancy Shaver offer anyone looking at them an immediate visual enjoyment. […] Forming part of Marcel Duchamp’s readymade legacy of art, Nancy Shaver’s practice is constantly nourished by a sensitive and decorative vein, from the work of Henri Matisse to Pop Art. Her multi-colored works testify to this same desire to achieve a joyful and hedonistic work and to reconsider the ornamental and decorative value of art .” M.S., Biennale Arte 2017, Viva Arte Viva, Short Guide, p. 150
BANERJEE, Rina | Born in 1963 in India, lives and
works in New York
“The world of Rina Banerjee abounds in satirical
allusions. [She] presents […] four new sculptures as stabiles—compositions of
hard and soft material (mixing threads, cowry shell, glass bottles, fabrics,
mirrors, copper tubes, seed beads, porcupine needles, cock feathers, peacock
hairs, speakers, vintage shell lampshades, Polynesian wood mask, Pyrex
filtration lab glassware, amber vials, pearls, glass beads, gourds, silver
leafing) that are, through visible armature, affixed to the wall. Her hairy
compositions—grotesque, monstrous and chimeric at the same time, offer us ornamental
figures that at once lead us to their metaphorical dimension. […] Her
quasi-mystical world abounds in memories and analytical anecdotes. Her tropical
paradise floats with commentaries of co-existence. This is why she states:
«Freedom is the most expensive commodity; nature the most dangerous beauty. My
work examines both. My art depicts a delicate world that is also aggressive,
tangled, manipulated, fragile, and very, very dense».” https://www.architecturaldigest.in/content/venice-bound-artist-rina-banerjees-work-abounds-satirical-allusions/
BLACK, Karla | Born in 1972 in the UK, lives and works
in Glasgow
Karla Black, Presumption Prevails, 2017
“The origin of the materials used in the making of her
works represents a piece of fundamental information for the understanding of
the artist’s practice: from traditional ones, such as paint, chalt, sugar
paper, plaster, to industrial products, such as cellophane or polyethylene, and
other more unusual ones, taken from the world of cosmetics, such as face
powder, nail polish, toothpaste, gel. All these substances are chosen for their
aesthetic and tactile qualities […].” C.B., Biennale Arte 2017, Viva
Arte Viva, Short Guide, p. 147
TENGER, Hale | Born in 1960 in Turkey, lives and works
in Istanbul
“[…] seven-channel video installation Balloons on
the Sea (2011) by Turkey's Hale Tenger, with lovely music by Serdar Ateşer.
A wall projection shows twenty-three colored balloons floating on the surface
of the sea, yet because Tenger inverted the image the reflections in the water
seem to hover above the balloons themselves. Individual balloons appear
on six suspended screens, where they periodically pop, only to miraculously
reappear. The work is based on a Turkish game where men tie balloons on a
string, float them on the water, and shoot them with rifles. In Tenger's hands,
this game becomes an allusion to violent upheaval in Turkey and elsewhere, in
the context of a whimsical and enchanting work.” http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/news/the-artists-sake-christine-macels-venice-biennale/
DEKYNDT, Edith | Born in 1960 in Belgium, lives and
works in Berlin
Edith Dekyndt, One Thousand and One Nights,
2016 (carpet of dust lit by a spotlight)
“A carpet made of dust collected at Arsenale, Venezia,
is placed under a light whose beam espouses perfectly the shape of the carpet.
Regularly, the lamp slightly turns on its axis. Someone then comes to softly
move the dust with a broom back under the light.” http://www.edithdekyndt.be/one-thousand-and-one-night
FIŠKIN, Vadim | Born in 1965 in Russia, lives and
works in Ljubljana
Vadim Fishkin, Doorway, 2015
“His digital project, Doorway (2015), can
be found in one of the far corners of the Giardini della Vergine. A door, which
constantly opens and closes, is projected onto a brick wall. When the door
opens, a promising bright light comes into view beyond it. To describe his
work, Fiškin likes to quote René Daumal, the French writer and cult figure of
the ’70s: “The door into invisible must be visible.” What matters to the artist
is not the esoteric but the cognitive—a kind of utopian vision that
attempts to seize the unknown.” https://news.artnet.com/art-world/three-russian-artists-venice-biennale-957707
ALADAG, Nevin | Born in 1972 in Turkey, lives and
works in Berlin
Nevin Aladağ, Traces, 2015
“Or the scrappy three-channel video by […] Nevin
Aladağ (b. 1972), collaging footage of different musical instruments
ingeniously set up on the streets of Stuttgart so that they seem to play
themselves: a tambourine shaking because it is attached to the head of a
playground rocking horse, a flute capturing the wind as it is hung out the
window of a moving car, a violin attached to a merry-go-round so that its
strings are struck with each rotation.” https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/venice-biennale-2017-viva-art-viva-review-958238
“Traces (2015), Nevin Aladağ’s […]
three-channel video installation, follows the artist’s interest in how and
where music is played, and the way these performances can, in turn,
be a metaphor for personal or artistic autonomy, or its
impossibility.” https://frieze.com/article/focus-nevin-alada%C4%9F
Nevin Aladag, Raise the Roof, Venice Biennale,
2017; 09 – 13 May 2017, 12 pm and 3 pm, Arsenale
Ver: https://vimeo.com/217284707
“For the Venice Biennial Nevin Aladağ restages Raise The Roof which was performed for the first time in Berlin in 2007 on a rooftop in the former border section between West and East Berlin. Seven female dancers leave their traces on the copper stages with their stiletto shoes while dancing to given songs, played on their headphones. The audience can read the different titles on the shirts of the dancers. What the audience hears is a rhythmic sound produced by the stiletto steps. Each dancer produces another frequency of a drum set, from high hat to bass drum.” http://nevinaladag.com/works/raise-the-roof-venice-1
“For the Venice Biennial Nevin Aladağ restages Raise The Roof which was performed for the first time in Berlin in 2007 on a rooftop in the former border section between West and East Berlin. Seven female dancers leave their traces on the copper stages with their stiletto shoes while dancing to given songs, played on their headphones. The audience can read the different titles on the shirts of the dancers. What the audience hears is a rhythmic sound produced by the stiletto steps. Each dancer produces another frequency of a drum set, from high hat to bass drum.” http://nevinaladag.com/works/raise-the-roof-venice-1
ADER, Bas Jan | Born in 1942 in the Netherlands, died
in 1975
Bas Jan Ader, Broken fall (organic), Amsterdamse Bos, Holland, 1971, Black and white 16mm film, 1’44’’
Ver: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x25c3w8
“It is difficult to articulate what it is that makes the work of this artist, whose retrospective could be held in your living room, so powerful and apposite some 20 years on, without overloading individual pieces with an excessive significance, which the work itself tries to shrug off. It is more a question of attitude: the purposefulness with which the works were conceived and executed and the simplicity of their presentation gives them their strength and coherence. […] The 'falls' - a number of films and a series of photographic pieces - encapsulate the frailty and vulnerability at the heart of much of Ader's work. […] Bas Jan Ader's work proposes the artist as Greek tragic hero. […] His work split open, with a ticklishly soft touch, his own illusions of masculinity and the fictions that they promote. […] In Broken Fall (Organic) (1971), Ader swings, struggles and bounces, pauses, then kicks once more as he tries to keep afloat in the air. Realising the futility of his effort he stops kicking. His weight begins to creep down his legs, elasticising them until they dangle like the branch he pulls on. Then he falls into a stream.” https://frieze.com/article/bas-jan-ader
Bas Jan Ader, Broken fall (organic), Amsterdamse Bos, Holland, 1971, Black and white 16mm film, 1’44’’
Ver: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x25c3w8
“It is difficult to articulate what it is that makes the work of this artist, whose retrospective could be held in your living room, so powerful and apposite some 20 years on, without overloading individual pieces with an excessive significance, which the work itself tries to shrug off. It is more a question of attitude: the purposefulness with which the works were conceived and executed and the simplicity of their presentation gives them their strength and coherence. […] The 'falls' - a number of films and a series of photographic pieces - encapsulate the frailty and vulnerability at the heart of much of Ader's work. […] Bas Jan Ader's work proposes the artist as Greek tragic hero. […] His work split open, with a ticklishly soft touch, his own illusions of masculinity and the fictions that they promote. […] In Broken Fall (Organic) (1971), Ader swings, struggles and bounces, pauses, then kicks once more as he tries to keep afloat in the air. Realising the futility of his effort he stops kicking. His weight begins to creep down his legs, elasticising them until they dangle like the branch he pulls on. Then he falls into a stream.” https://frieze.com/article/bas-jan-ader
KHAN, Hassan | Born in 1975 in the UK, lives and works
in Cairo
With Composition
for a Public Park, the garden is divided into three zones which correspond
to the three musical movements of the artist’s composition, and which are
played in an endless overlapping loop. […] Broadcast at the entrance to the
garden, the music of the first movement is called Stasis and Majesty, in which one can hear the syncopated
progression of a brass ensemble in counterpoint to a droning field of Mozmars
(local upper Egyptian horns) and a piano solo played by the artist. At the
center of the garden, the second movement, The
Revolving Jewel, is built around a sequence of classical Arabic music. The
third part, No Political Romanticism,
mixes clapping hands, string quartets and contrabass. The three movements
revolve around intense private emotions that are also public and political. The
text and the music cause a sense of floating, of suspended time as well as the
promise of a horizon.
KWADE, Alicja | Born in 1979 in Poland, lives and
works in Berlin
Alicja
Kwade, Pars pro Toto (A parte pelo todo), 2017
Pars pro
Toto (2017) is a cosmological
piece, gathering stone planets such as Pluto, Mars, Mercury… The overall
constellation of the stone galaxies resembles a billiard break, as billiards is
often used to visualize quantum physics phenomena. […] The installation is
expanded by recorded sounds from the Voyager’s
golden record (1977), which consists of a “best of” of life on Earth, made
for the extraterrestrial civilizations potentially crossed by spacecrafts.
Alicja Kwade’s sculpture, “WeltenLinie (One in a
Time)” [2017], has a cinematic quality. As you pass it, each of its parts
appears slightly different. The static objects on the floor — rocks, a tree
trunk, a duo of chairs — are set into motion by mirrors. Reality seems
to shift as viewers walk through the piece. “I always try to give sculpture a
time sequence,” Kwade explains of the mesmerizing doubling and tripling. “I
hope that it is more like a feeling or experience than a solid sculpture; that
is why I included the space so much — it’s like a phantasm rather than an
object.” Kat Herriman https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/t-magazine/art/venice-biennale-best-highlights-mark-bradford-tehching-hsieh-alicja-kwade.html?mcubz=0
BEUTLER, Michael | Born in 1976 in Germany, lives and
works in Berlin
“Shipyard [is] a salute to the original identity of
the Arsenale. In that illusory worksite, the machinery is switched off and no
workers are present. […] Conductive to wandering and daydreaming, the site is
also inhabited by an architectural structure that brings to mind the circular
[…] structure dominating the centre of the Hamburger Bahnhof during the Michael
Butler: Moby Dick exhibition in 2015.” L.C., Biennale Arte 2017, Viva
Arte Viva, Short Guide, p. 174
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