La Biennale Research Articles

Design for disassembly and cultural sites. The use of modular architecture and prefabrication in exhibition venues

The article discusses the use of modular architecture and prefabrication in exhibition venues, looking at the possibility of designing installations with multiple temporalities. Through four concrete experimentations, we discuss ways of repurposing precast modules in new layouts with different functional programs in line with the “design for disassembly” concept. The article also emphasises the relevance of the massive residential construction programme based on modular and prefabricated systems launched by the German Democratic Republic in the mid-1970s, and the importance of reducing the environmental impact of concrete production today. Moreover, aiming at the need to devise new strategies, it presents a research agenda towards the adoption of prefabricated modules or the cultural sector. The four cases presented here are derived from the experimental use of modular solutions by the Porto-based practice SUMMARY: the GOMOS system indicates that prefabricated modules may have a longer lifespan than traditional building layouts, as they can be repurposed, making their reuse economically viable and environmentally friendly; the “Infrastructure-Structure-Architecture” installation at La Biennale 2016 reflects on possible adjustments in the construction industry; the project for the 2018 YAP MAXXI showcases the design process of a temporary installation that becomes a permanent building; and the VR exhibition “The Reasons Offsite” addresses prefabrication as a portable dissemination project.

SupaVenezia From SupaStore: Between Art, Commerce, and Spatial Dynamics

This exhibition review reflects on the spatial and curatorial concepts, interior spatial qualities, and precedent design processes of SupaVenezia, which was held at the A plus A Gallery in Venice from 31 August to 25 September 2022. It examines the design of the display system at the exhibition while addressing issues pertaining to domestic, participatory, and white-cube settings. The review explores the intersection of art, commerce, spatial, and displays design dynamics in relation to the manifestation of the SupaStore’s initial curatorial philosophy. Additionally, it reflects on the variety of spatial experiences provided and the manner in which a small-scale local gallery behaves and survives in the shadows of a monumental event—the 59th International Art Exhibition of Biennale Arte 2022, curated by Cecilia Alemani and produced by La Biennale di Venezia 2022—while drawing comparative reflections with similar scenarios such as Berlin Biennale and Documenta in Kassel.

Pera+Flora+Fauna: The Story of Indigenousness and the Ownership of History @ 59th Venice Biennale (23 April–27 November 2022)—An Exhibition Review

Commissioned by the People of Remarkable Talents (PORT), the Perak state’s creative and cultural agency, the exhibition, entitled Pera+Flora+Fauna: The Story of Indigenousness and the Ownership of History was curated as one of the official collateral events in the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. It highlights the local inquiries and interpretations of indigenousness, ownership of history and nature through creative expressions of contemporary artists, towards further interrogating the inter-affecting relationships between inhabitants, culture, and nature in the context of Perak state (La Biennale di Venezia 2022; Nabila 2022; PORT 2022a). Through interviews with the stakeholders involved (i.e., organising and management team, curatorial team, and participating artists), this article reviews the curation, the exhibits, and the outreach of exhibition.

Design And Construction Of a Bending-Active Plywood Structure: The Flexmaps Pavilion

Mesostructured patterns are a modern and efficient concept based on designing the geometry of structural material at the meso-scale to achieve desired mechanical performances. In the context of bending-active structures, such a concept can be used to control the flexibility of the panels forming a surface without changing the constituting material. These panels undergo a formation process of deformation by bending, and application of internal restraints. This paper describes a new constructional system, FlexMaps, that has initiated the adoption of bending-active mesostructures at the architectural scale. Here, these modules are in the form of four-arms spirals made of CNC-milled plywood and are designed to reach the desired target shape once assembled. All phases from the conceptual design to the fabrication are seamlessly linked within an automated workflow. To illustrate the potential of the system, the paper discusses the results of a demonstrator project entitled FlexMaps Pavilion (3.90x3.96x3.25 meters) that has been exhibited at the IASS Symposium in 2019 and more recently at the 2021 17th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. The structural response is investigated through a detailed structural analysis, and the long-term behavior is assessed through a photogrammetric survey.

Transgressing the Exhibition: Isuma at the 2019 Venice Biennale Curated by Asinnajaq, Candice Hopkins, Catherine Crowston, Josée Drouin‐Brisebois and Barbara Fischer. Exhibited Artist Collective: Isuma (Zacharias Kunuk, Paul Apak, Pauloosie Qulitalik, Norman Cohn), May 11–November 24, 2019, Canadian Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Parallel Online Exhibition: http://www.isuma.tv/isuma‐book and http://www.isuma.tv

Transgressing the Exhibition: Isuma at the 2019 Venice Biennale Curated by Asinnajaq, Candice Hopkins, Catherine Crowston, Josée Drouin‐Brisebois and Barbara Fischer. Exhibited Artist Collective: Isuma (Zacharias Kunuk, Paul Apak, Pauloosie Qulitalik, Norman Cohn), May 11–November 24, 2019, Canadian Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Parallel Online Exhibition: http://www.isuma.tv/isuma‐book and http://www.isuma.tv

The Magazine la biennale: Articulating a Model for Periodicals Published by Recurring Exhibitions

The first biennial that published a magazine was the Venice Biennale. The magazine la biennale di Venezia was published from 1950 to 1971. It was conceived as an institutional instrument, to keep the audience of the show informed about the activities of the Biennial during the year. The magazine had the mission to engage in the activities organized by the institution, and discuss and examine all the disciplines at the core of the Biennials program, which meant not only art, but also cinema, fashion, music and theatre. The magazine la biennale pursued the same international intents as the exhibition, becoming a site of network and exchange between different nations, as well as a medium to foster local and international critical dialogue. During the almost twenty years of its existence the publication evolved from informative instrument, which included lists of artworks sold during the editions of the biennial, alongside lists of new acquisitions of the biennial’s archive, into a container for critical thought and theory.

Tactile comics, disability studies and the mind’s eye: on “A Boat Tour” (2017) in Venice with Max

ABSTRACT Positioned at the intersection of disability studies and urban comics studies, this article explores the artistic form, content and social engagement of the tactile comic ‘A Boat Tour’. Though the comic’s credited author is Max (a.k.a. Francesc Capdevila Gisbert; Barcelona, 1956-), it was nonetheless developed through a collaborative process as part of the Catalan contribution to La Biennale di Venezia. Using both braille and a form of haut-relief braille-like texture, the comics sensory representation of a boat tour experience is significant on two levels: first for its contributions to a transnational disability culture and its general avoidance of the problems common in disability representation; and second for its innovations within the tactile comics form. These innovations are explored in the context of scholarship on the Iberian comic, the wordless and tactile comic, and accounts of visual impairment understood as a social construction. In particular, the work of Georgina Kleege, including her recent book More than Meets the Eye, demonstrates that the distance routinely established between visual art and the experience of visual impairment is itself an ableist construction.

La Bienal de Arte de Venecia y la participación japonesa en su última década (2011-2019)

El objetivo de este artículo es valorar el carácter de las exposiciones artísticas como modo destacado de relación internacional entre gentes de distintos países. Centrarnos en realizar un análisis de la participación japonesa en las últimas cinco Bienales de Arte de Venecia nos ayudará, a través de sus planteamientos, a hilvanar un discurso que tiene mucho que ver con el ejercicio del soft power, de ahí el interés en profundizar en los planteamientos teóricos de cada una de ellas. A través del análisis, se demuestra una actitud proactiva de Japón para promover a nivel global y por medio de su experiencia, una corresponsabilidad en el repensar nuestra actitud soberbia frente a la naturaleza. El arte tiene mucho que decir en el mundo de la diplomacia.

Academic Learning about Public Space. Knowledge Sharing toward Implementation of the New Urban Agenda

In September 2018 City Space Architecture organized a three day event in Venice titled ‘Knowledge sharing toward implementation of the New Urban Agenda’, included in the ‘Past Present and Future of Public Space’ international conference series started in 2014 with an inaugural three day event in Bologna. City Space Architecture signed a cooperation agreement with La Biennale di Venezia within the 16th International Architecture Exhibition (Venice Architecture Biennale) - titled FREESPACE, curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara[1] - in order to be included in the ‘Biennale Sessions’, a special program for Universities and Higher Education Institutions. The 2018 conference in Venice was organized in partnership with UN-Habitat, ISOCARP – the International Society of City and Regional Planners, University of Auckland (New Zealand), and Hunan University (China). It was willing to strengthen City Space Architecture's efforts around the implementation of the New Urban Agenda adopted at the Habitat III conference and to continue the discussion on the importance of public space in cities, with the participation of students and young researchers. [1] 16th International Architecture Exhibition FREESPACE, curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara: https://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/2018.

As artes visuais sob vigilância

Tendo como ponto de partida os documentos referentes ao dossiê Non à la Biennale de São Paulo, dispositivo impresso que contribuiu para alavancar o boicote coletivo e internacional à Bienal de São Paulo, em 1969, em reação à política autoritária do regime civil-militar, este artigo propõe uma discussão sobre a vigilância, censura e repressão às manifestações artísticas desde os primeiros anos da ditadura até a efetivação do boicote à bienal, com o intuito de avaliar seus efeitos e os desacordos em torno dos julgamentos da arte. Ao impor critérios políticos e morais, desqualificando o pensamento crítico, o autoritarismo do regime interferiu no circuito e nos sentidos da arte.

Ghana Freedom: Ghana Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia (11 May–24 November 2019) by Nana Oforiatta Ayim

Reviewed by: Ghana Freedom: Ghana Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia (11 May–24 November 2019) by Nana Oforiatta Ayim Benjamin N. Lawrance Nana Oforiatta Ayim, curator. Ghana Freedom: Ghana Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia (11 May–24 November 2019). For Ghana art specialists and Ghanaians alike, 2019 is a momentous year because it marks Ghana's debut at the Venice Biennale, arguably the world's most important international art exposition. Countless expressions of Ghanaian nationhood and nationality exist simultaneously in media, music, literature, political rhetoric, and even professional academic associations, such as our own, and our scholarly journal. The Ghana Pavilion offers its own rendition of Ghana's history, artistic expression, and contribution to global culture and ideas. As Kwame Anthony Appiah and Taiye Selasi explain in their complementary essays introducing the pavilion's purpose and gestation in the accompanying catalog, Ghana is globally recognizable as a nation and/but because a pavilion has long been considered a mark of modern nationhood, Ghana's first appearance in Venice is an occasion to rejoice. At the same time, as Appiah contends, the competing and evolving Eurocentric meanings of nationhood and nationality sit uncomfortably with Ghanaians' "relaxed and organic" projections of nation. Ghanaian nationhood is an expansive fabric constantly in a state of weaving. And while the interminable debate about the merit of national pavilions is no less prescient for a postcolonial multiethnic nation of the Global South, Selasi reminds us that this first pavilion opportunity provides six "creator-Ghanaians" with the "space to perform their interrogations on the global platform they deserve." Selasi playfully asks us to sidestep what is and is not Ghanaian art. Instead, visitors to the pavilion are encouraged to freely contemplate, celebrate, and meditate on the materiality and consequence of artistic expressions of the place that is, and the multiple experiences that are, Ghana. The very first Ghana Pavilion in Venice is housed within the long warehouse of pavilions in an L-shaped main building of the Arsenale, sandwiched between Singapore to the north and Malta to the south. For those less familiar with the biennale geography, this is the second, larger location, a short walk from the original primary location in the Giardini, where many of the historically [End Page 223] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Design for Ghana Pavilion, Adjaye Associates. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 2. El Anatsui, Earth Shedding Its Skin. [End Page 224] powerful European and globally influential nations exhibit in purpose-built pavilions. Ghana is one of eight African nations exhibiting in Venice, including some that had not exhibited previously, such as Madagascar, alongside veteran exhibitors, such as South Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, and Egypt. A third massive biennale venue, the Palazzo Mora, often overlooked by new attendees, features Mozambique and the Seychelles, among many others. Operating under the title Ghana Freedom, lifted directly from E. T. Mensah's highlife masterpiece written in 1957 to celebrate independence, the stunning pavilion structure was designed by renowned British-Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye. In the accompanying book,1 an anonymous Adjaye Associates representative explains that the pavilion (see Figure 1), which features "oval-shaped modules to provide a sense of fluid unity," is fabricated from Ghanaian laterite to express "the material, texture, and rusty-red coloration of 'place.' " Ghana Freedom, the exhibition itself, was curated by Nana Oforiatta Ayim. The Accra-based art historian and filmmaker also edited the book and provides a comprehensive overview of art and nationhood in Ghana from the nineteenth century to the present, dwelling particularly on the "pivotal" legacy of Kwame Nkrumah in cultivating artistic expression promoting "national and Pan-African identities," via the creative collaborative energies of J. H. Kwabena Nketia. The pavilion showcases the work of six living artists, each of whom contributes to a collective conversation about the legacies and trajectories of Ghanaian freedom. The accompanying book, by contrast, opens with an important additional photo essay celebrating the Deo Gratias Photo Studio, founded in Accra in 1922 by Koblah Bruce-Vanderpuije. This collection of ten digital black-and-white reproductions brings a groundedness to the...

Ghana Freedom: Ghana Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia (11 May–24 November 2019)

Nana Oforiatta Ayim, curator. Ghana Freedom: Ghana Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia (11 May–24 November 2019). For Ghana art specialists and Ghanaians alike, 2019 is a momentous year because it marks Ghana’s debut at the Venice Biennale, arguably the

Exhibition - La Dolce Vita: cultural adventures with a 5-year-old.

The Venice Biennale Arsenale and Giardini venues, Venice, Italy, 13 May–26 November 2017. Once every 10 years there is a golden year for contemporary art lovers like myself, as the Venice Biennale, documenta 14 in Kassel, Germany, and Skulptur Projekte Munster all coincide. This will be the first time we have tried all three as a family, so I wonder, can you still have a holiday with culture at its heart with a 5-year-old? We started during May half-term with raised eyebrows and ‘good luck with that’ expressions from playground compatriots as we headed off for part one in Venice. The 57th Venice Biennale is breathtaking in its scale, with two large curated shows at its heart, featuring 120 different artists, 86 National Pavilions, and numerous other shows spread around the islands of Venice. In previous years we had flitted around the shows without a care, but with a 5-year-old I worried how much, if any of it, we could do. La Biennale is one event that all artists want to be part of, which might explain why they raise their game to try to stand out from the crowd, this year with impressive results. Vajiko Chachkiani in the Georgian pavilion has brought a large peasants’ country house to Venice and it is raining inside, constantly, for 6 months. It is a truly multi-sensory experience with an amazing smell as the ancient wood becomes wet and begins to decay. Takahiro …

The Stories That Need to Be Told: 56th Venice Biennale

The interconnectivity of seemingly disconnected situations and stories throughout the 56th International Art Exhibition All the World’s Futures (2015), curated by Okwui Enwezor and organized by La Biennale di Venezia, contributes to an exhibition that is simultaneously fragmented, overlapped, and intertwined. The result is a complex structure of stories that exists between past and present, combines shared histories with personal stories, and ranges from the highly visual to the completely invisible. Throughout the exhibition past and present are in constant ebb and flow, as contemporaneity is influenced by history, memory, loss, absence, and displacement. The stories throughout relate to distinctions of power and class hierarchy, social injustice, mass migration, absence, and loss. In the spirit of Edward Said, topics of displacement and exile abound in works that are woven together from the ragged, yet beautiful, threads of daily life as influenced by the long-term effect of history and its implications on what plays out in the present. These narratives are punctuated by an abundance of words, text, and literary references that are written, spoken, sung, recited, projected, sculpted, drawn, whispered, murmured, or simply inferred. Stories conveyed through the universal language of music also resonate throughout All the World’s Futures, while the potential of art to change lives and the implementation of art as a tool for social activism provide a beautiful subtext for the entire exhibition. The relationship between history and contemporaneity creates a fascinating subtext that links past, present, and future throughout the exhibition. Ultimately, the stories, poems, narratives, sound, music, and images come together to convey a real sense of all the world’s futures.

Lisa E. Bloom. Review of "La Biennale di Venezia. 56th International Art Exhibition: All the World’s Futures" by Okwui Enwezor.

Lisa E. Bloom. Review of "La Biennale di Venezia. 56th International Art Exhibition: All the World’s Futures" by Okwui Enwezor.

Lisa Wainwright. Review of "La Biennale di Venezia. 56th International Art Exhibition: All the World’s Futures" by Okwui Enwezor.

Lisa Wainwright. Review of "La Biennale di Venezia. 56th International Art Exhibition: All the World’s Futures" by Okwui Enwezor.

The Marketing of Diversity and the Esthetization of the Difference: The Cultural Expressions of Ethnic Minorities Put to the Test of New Urban Cultural Policies

In London and Lyon, urban cultural movements rooted in racism and segregation such as the Notting Hill carnival and hip-hop dance have been progressively converted into events designed and organized for the benefit of the city's social and economic development. In a context where neoliberal and managerial models inspired by market-driven regulation are a growing reference in matters of public action, this article show that the celebration of the artistic qualities of such cultural practices associated with ethnic minorities comes with their esthetization, a process that tends to erase the differences between populations and to attenuate the emotional and affective discrepancies. Relying on some 30 semi-open interviews conducted between 2000 and 2005 with volunteer militants, artists, and professionals in charge of the organization of the Notting Hill carnival in London and of the Défilé de la Biennale de la danse in Lyon, as well as on the participating observation of the preparation and execution of these two events, I argue that the culture professionals play a crucial role in the functional rapprochement between the urban elites and the ethnic minorities.

State of the Union - The Home Nations at the 56th Venice Biennale.

La Biennale di Venezia, Giardini and Arsenale venues, Venice 9 May 2015 — 22 Nov 2015 www.labiennale.org In the middle of the vernissage for the Venice Biennale I received an email from my sister: ‘I saw the BBC article about the British pavilion which sounded like it was just going for shock value, but what was it really like?’ It’s not hard to see where these opinions about the Sarah Lucas show come from. As you walk along the main boulevard of the Giardini and approach the pavilion you are confronted at the top of the steps by Gold Cup Maradona reclining leisurely with a 20ft phallus in bright yellow. All the walls are painted in the same colour and in each room naked, plaster figures cast from the waist down (literally topless) recline on tables, or in one case, on a chest freezer, with single cigarettes poking out of whichever orifice is on show. All very ‘shocking’ but, as ever, there is more to the show than meets the eye. Lucas came to prominence in the early 1990s as one of the Young British Artists (YBAs), good friends with Tracey Emin, they were …

Haiti’s first national pavilion at the Venice Biennale: anachronism or illuminating opportunity?

A barrage of criticism has been levelled against the Venice Biennale’s national pavilion structure in recent decades, chiefly accusing it of anachronism on account of its Western bias. Yet the tide has begun to turn, making much of this criticism sound a little worn-out. As this event increasingly attracts debuting ‘non-Western’ national exhibitors each year, its pavilion structure is being reassessed. Haiti was one such debutant at the 54 th edition of La Biennale di Venezia held in 2011. This article explores in detail the debates raised by Haiti’s national pavilion, particularly as they related to the central exhibition theme of ILLUMInations conceived by Bice Curiger, International Art Exhibition Director for 2011. It considers: how the national pavilion structure at the Venice Biennale was challenged, and how wider understanding of it was deepened through Haiti’s recent participation; and what Venice’s national pavilion structure can offer to a post-colonial nation such as Haiti.

Photographs

Photographs Atta Kim (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution ON-AIR Project 16-8, The India Series, Chandini Chowk in Old Delhi, eight-hour exposure, 2007, chromogenic print, 188 × 248 cm, 96 × 126 cm [End Page 193] Click for larger view View full resolution ON-AIR Project 150-4, The China Series, Tiananmen Square in Beijing, eight-hour exposure, 2007, chromogenic print, 191 × 312 cm, 106 × 172 cm Click for larger view View full resolution ON-AIR Project 150-28, The China Series, Nanjing Road in Shanghai, eight-hour exposure, 2007, chromogenic print, 158 × 312 cm, 106 × 209 cm [End Page 194] Click for larger view View full resolution ON-AIR Project 150-35, The China Series, Nanjing Road in Shanghai, eight-hour exposure, 2007, chromogenic print, 158 × 312 cm, 106 × 209 cm [End Page 195] Click for larger view View full resolution ON-AIR Project 110-1, The New York Series, Times Square, eight-hour exposure, 2005, chromogenic print, 188 × 248 cm, 96 × 126 cm [End Page 196] Click for larger view View full resolution ON-AIR Project 110-2, The New York Series, Times Square, eight-hour exposure, 2005, chromogenic print, 188 × 248 cm, 96 × 126 cm [End Page 197] Click for larger view View full resolution ON-AIR Project 051, Couples, Fifteen Couples, 2004, chromogenic print, 188 × 233 cm, 96 × 118 cm [End Page 198] Click for larger view View full resolution ON-AIR Project 08, Reclining Woman, Fifteen Women, 2005, chromogenic print, 188 × 233 cm, 96 × 118 cm [End Page 199] Click for larger view View full resolution ON-AIR Project 0043-1, Suwolgwaneum, Fifteen Women, 2004, chromogenic print, 188 × 233 cm, 96 × 118 cm Click for larger view View full resolution ON-AIR Project 082, Maria, Fifteen Couples, 2005, chromogenic print, 188 × 233 cm, 96 × 118 cm [End Page 200] Click for larger view View full resolution ON-AIR Project 043, Bangasayu, Fifteen Men, 2004, chromogenic print, 188 × 233 cm, 96 × 118 cm [End Page 201] Click for larger view View full resolution The Museum Project #001, The Field Series, 1995, chromogenic print Click for larger view View full resolution The Museum Project #011, The Field Series, 1995, chromogenic print [End Page 202] Click for larger view View full resolution The Museum Project #002, The Field Series, 1995, chromogenic print [End Page 203] Click for larger view View full resolution The Museum Project #079, The War Veteran Series, 1999, chromogenic print [End Page 204] Click for larger view View full resolution The Museum Project #046, The People Series, 1998, chromogenic print [End Page 205] Click for larger view View full resolution The Museum Project #050, The People Series, 1998, chromogenic print [End Page 206] Click for larger view View full resolution The Museum Project #022, The Holocaust Series, 1997, chromogenic print [End Page 207] Click for larger view View full resolution The Museum Project #022, The Holocaust Series, 1997, chromogenic print [End Page 208] Atta Kim Atta Kim was born in South Korea in 1956. His solo exhibition, AttaKim: ON-AIR, was accepted for the Collateral Events of the 53rd International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia in 2009. He also has had solo exhibitions at the International Center of Photography, New York, in 2006; Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Rodin Gallery, Seoul, in 2008; the Society of Contemporary Photography, Kansas, in 2001; the Nikon Salon, Tokyo, in 1993; and has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including shows at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea, in 2008; the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, in 2007; Sotheby's Contemporary Art Asia: Presenting 30 Top Asian Artists, Miami, in 2007; Gwangju Biennale in 2004; the Australian Center for Photography, Sydney, in 2002; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, in 2002; the 25th Sao Paulo Biennale in 2002; the traveling exhibition Translated Acts: Performance and Body Art from East Asia in 2001; FotoFest, Houston, in 2000; and the Odens Foto Triennale, Odens, Denmark, in 2000. Atta Kim received several awards including the 6th Hachonghyun Art Award; 6th Dong-gang Photo Prize; 4th Lee Myoung Dong Photo Prize; 1st Hanam International Photo Prize, and Annual Artist's Prize of Photography Art magazine in 1997. His...