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“Art in Architecture at the Venice Biennale” While the terms “art” and “architecture” are by no means synonymous... boundary disputes abound. While each camp benefits from tracking the other, I indeed become itchy over such slurs as “Gehry… the sculptor,” and “Stella… the architect.” But I comfortably point to several competent and compelling architectural strategies evident in this year’s 52nd International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. This is by no means a trend invading the art-world, nor are these projects the first to till such rich territory… but the following five installations do operate in a certain realm of current architectural discourse. Monika Sosnowska tests the volumetric limits of the container with a structure whose imagined original state required compromising. Looking as if it were crunched and crammed in order to fit within the Polish Pavilion, the jagged linear result graphically delights the eye while filling the imagination with visions of structural failure. In the fantasy world of Canadian artist David Altmejd, his psychological pathos becomes no less compelling when he incorporates the contextual botanical reality beyond the gallery’s windows. By visually uniting the trees of the Giardini Biennale (the grounds on which many of the national pavilions are sited) with his constructed dream world of man-eagles and lurking squirrels in strategically placed mirrors, the walls of the gallery fall to infuse his world with ours. Without the critical mirrors, this highly crafted installation would disconnect into objects of cuteness. Surfaces altering between transparency and reflection test your sense of safe passage through the Belgian Pavilion. Despite the conscious nerdiness of artist Eric Duyckaerts’ pseudo lectures that confront you along your journey, the craft and refinement of the physical labyrinth lend the installation a Miesian visual elegance. Sliced in-two black boxes are posited about the Hungarian Pavilion in Andreas Fogarasi’s tectonic installation. Spread apart, the two pieces of each black box form a theater: one end shades a video screen from the sun-drenched gallery while the other forms a finely dimensioned seat for viewing that video. Depending on their positions in the space, each pair is kept at an intimate 24” apart or spread much further to permit passage by others while maintaining their axial relationship. Yves Netzhammer and Christine Streuli diagonally slice the Swiss Pavilion with a single plane that reorders both its exterior and interior spaces in section. From the path outside, this elaborately painted plane calls out to the passing public like a Soviet Constructivist marquee graphically wearing its message. Upon entering the pavilion one is sheltered below this same plane while videos weave and co-exist with the contents of its painting. Matched in inclination, two stairs elevate you to its topside… to a new internal space within the existing pavilion. This theater employs an existing wall as its screen while viewers recline on the plane’s slope. Thankfully this simple architectural intervention has not only formal, but indeed programmatic implications. Many other moments exist beyond the architectural at this year’s Biennale which runs till November 21, 2007, and costs 15 euro per adult and 8 for students. The grounds are open from 10:00 till 6:00, with the Giardini Biennale closed on Mondays and the Arsenale closed on Tuesdays. “Think with the Senses — Feel with the Mind. Art in the Present Tense” Note: All sketches and photographs are by Johannes M.P. Knoops 2007
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Swiss Pavilion |
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Polish Pavilion |
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Belgian Pavilion |
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